Distant Sell Merch Outside Budapest Venue to Protest Merch Cuts
During the final stop on their short European run with Suicide Silence, Dutch deathcore dissonants Distant were forced to sell merch outside the venue on the last night of their tour due to merch cuts.
The incident took place while the band was in Budapest, Hungary. While the practice at this point is nothing new at all, Nouri Yetgin took to social media to explain the situation
“Unfortunately, not enough people know that you have to pay money to an agency for the merch that is sold during a tour or shows. And take into mind: WE BOUGHT THE MERCH. This applies in America and Europe.
“The bigger your band becomes, the bigger the shows. So you would think damn we should be able to make a living from this right?? Well … unfortunately, there is an agency that manages a monopoly position and then says: We sell your merch, and we charge a commission for it, and with some costs added you pay 40/50% of a sale to them. That’s why the merch items are so expensive at all the big shows. We then have to send an invoice to that agency and wait another month until the invoice is perhaps paid after a month. If you don’t do this, you won’t be allowed to sell your own merch. you decide to sell your merch yourself. Then there is a chance that you will be blacklisted or have other consequences.
“We don’t make a living with the guarantees we play for, but with the merch we sell. The merch we bought ourselves with our own money by working hard…
“Unfortunately I cannot accept it that we need to charge the fans $40 for a t-shirt or $60, $70 for a hoodie. It’s wrong, and the production costs aren’t that high either.
“I hope this can change in the future.
“So one of the last shows, we sold our merch on the parking lot.
“FUCK MERCH CUTS.”
Merch cuts have been a troubling trend in recent years, as club owners seemingly attempt to extract as much money out of touring bands as possible. As a result, merch often ends up costing way more than it should, while bands get the short end of the stick.
Recently, we’ve seen bands like Russian Circles and The Callous Daoboys take action against the practice, with Distant now joining the chorus of pissed off bands. They won’t be the last, either.
It’s not reported on yet if there is a response from the venue, but we’re sure plenty of bands applaud Distant for speaking up.
