AH Vault: Tisa Mylar Talks Venue Merchandise Percentages

I thought it would be fitting to follow up my last blog entry, “Merchandise Marketing Lesson from Katy Perry”, with an AH Vault entry that speaks about one of the many intricacies of merchandising: the fact that most venues charge artists a fee in exchange for the right to sell merchandise at the club.

On average, a venue will charge a fee of 25% of the revenue generated from sales of non-music merch that take place at the club (venues do not typically take a percentage of the revenue generated from CD sales that take place at the club). If you have not yet started selling your merch at shows, it is important that you familiarize yourself with this practice; you will need to take it into consideration when pricing your merch and you will need to factor it into your bottom line.

In this video, Tisa Mylar, manager at the historic Whisky A Go-Go on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip, speaks about common merchandising practices at the Whisky and why venues take a percentage of merchandise sales. She also covers other topics related to live shows including how to get booked at the Whisky, the likelihood of being seen by A&Rs and others in the industry when playing at the Whiskey, the practice of “pre-sale”, web-casts and DVDs of live performances, and how the income generated from the door compares to the income generated from the bar.