Band merch is one of the primary sources of income for musicians, just a few digits shy from live shows. We all love band merch not only because they’re awesome symbols of our youth but It’s one of the best ways fans can support their favorite artists, too. If you already bought the album of your favorite musicians, you wouldn’t buy another one, would you?
I mean, let’s say you have all Boney M albums, even their box set…
It doesn’t make sense that you’d buy another CD.
And concerts do not happen that often. And one show is enough to last for a lifetime, most of the time. So the more natural thing to do, if you are really crazy about a band or you want to support a new musician, is to buy their merch. Besides, not only because you want to support them, but because they give you an aura of “cool” which is always worth it.
You’d love to wear your favorite custom band’s t-shirt and put on their posters on your wall to brag that your good taste. Surely, we understand this as a consumer but if you’re an artist, sometimes you think that nah, no one would buy your merch but that’s also because you just have no time. You want to focus more on your music than merch items!
We hear ya. That’s why you probably need another person to do this. But we’re telling you…it’s not really too hard. If you do not have a merch person, you just need to find a good designer, a good enough art director (if you can afford one), and a merch company that can handle everything for you.
We here at Unified have been very busy making custom shirts and merch for musicians even during the COVID season because many people want to support their beloved artists. Our clients decided to make more merch instead of just asking for donations outright. That way, it’s a win-win.
There are many types of cool band merch that you can offer to your fans. Here are some of the custom band merch options we offer:
Table of Contents
CUSTOM BAND T-SHIRT
Need we say more? This is the most basic thing you can put on your merch table. It’s probably as essential as the CD! If you’re a band and you have no band shirts, it’s a total waste of chance to get big bucks.
Please don’t do this to yourself. If you are too busy, make this the bare minimum. Make at least 2-3 designs. If you’re too lazy to conceptualize anything, just slap on your logo or your album art. Then later, when you have more energy, go ahead and make some more. The good thing about the band t-shirt is that it’s the most bought merch according to According to the Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association.
CUSTOM BAND BUTTONS
Band buttons are a classic and they’re cheap to make. Just send us your artwork, choose the kind of buttons you want, and it will be ready in no time. Plus, if you want to bundle this with your other merch items or you want to put it in cool packaging, we can do all of that! You can have 5, 10, 20 designs and you won’t have to worry about cost or speed of production. It’s still a fave of many concert goers because it’s cheap and they can probably afford to buy as many as they want.
CUSTOM BAND PATCHES
Custom embroidered patches are one of the hottest band merch items that has made a comeback in the last couple of years. Lately, we see a rise in orders and inquiries for custom band patches. What’s cool is that it’s not just musicians who are asking us for custom band patches, lots of filmmakers want custom patches for their merch too. It’s now a hot item. Lots of cool kids put them on their jackets and even on their snickers. We offer custom embroidered patches, custom woven patches, custom printed patches, custom bullion patches, custom chenille patches, custom PVC patches, custom leather patches, custom sequin patches…any patch you can think of!
POSTERS
This doesn’t need any introduction. Just carry a few pieces during your gigs because there are still fans who’d want something of you to put on their wall.
There are so many options for posters. You can have the sturdier material (cardboard) or a thinner one (fold-out). Even if it won’t sell out so fast, it will definitely add more life to your merch table.
POSTCARDS
Just to add more options, the postcard is a nice addition to your merch items because you can literally have hundreds of designs printed and it won’t burn a hole on your pockets.
Many fans still want to share the experience with their friend by sending them cute postcards. I, for one, love to get something physical from someone who went to a concert they really like, and they thought of me. Make cool prints. It doesn’t require tedious graphic design.
USB MUSIC CARDS
HOT ITEM! HOT ITEM COMING THROUGH…
USB music cards are our bestseller when it comes to flash drives. What makes them super cool is that they’re slim and they have a good space for artwork. They’re handy but not too small that we lose them easily (if you’re like me who frequently loses their thumb drives) plus we can just put them in our wallets like a regular card. Check out these USB music cards we made.
We know you want to focus on your music. It requires your everything. Do not let merch get in the way of what truly matters. For all your promotional merchandise needs, we are here for you. You don’t have to worry about a thing. Just send us your artwork (or even have us design it for you) and we can even deliver everything to your venue!
We here at Unified are obsessed with beautiful CD/DVD/vinyl and merch. We’ve been making creative releases since 2008 and lovely packaging has become an obsession of ours. We even have a Pinterest page dedicated to all things media packaging. If you want to make a really badass album with cool merch items, get a quote or shoot us an email.
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James Hill is a veteran of the music industry. He first worked at Warner Reprise Records then later joined Interscope/ Geffen Records where he managed producers and songwriters and got his first platinum record for Keyshia Cole’s The Way It Is. He is now helping indie artists with branding and manufacturing through his company Unified Manufacturing, a CD/DVD/vinyl and merch company in LA.
