What are the best ways to sell merchandise as a musician?

if you are a musician, like t shirts, used instrument parts are really in demand. Items like guitar strings, drumsticks and drumheads that have been used but still functional are big big sellers

How you sell your merch as an artist really depends on the amount of risk you want to take. As a developing or early career artist you may want to stick with solely a POD model for the majority of your online sales while having a smaller stock for shows. The more advanced/further along in your career you may want to handle more of the printing/distribution yourself. If you go the POD route make sure you're research on what companies you want to use, read reviews etc.

There's no doubt about it: cotton is the new CD. You should really start with t-shirts and then, if you have success doing it, you can start to think about something that might connect in a deeper way with your branding.

If you're just starting out as a musician budget is likely small to non-existent. Merch can go a long way to help bring in a bit of extra income so it's important not to break the bank here. I recommend purchase on demand to start, this way there's no upfront cost (aside from basic design and some limited store setup fees). It's critical to get the right design that represents you as an artist and will entice your fans to support you. Ideally find a marketing company that will handle the online store setup, take incoming orders and shipping for you. Often the store can be integrated into your existing website. Then you chose the material, set the price and let your fans do the rest.

Traditionally, you'd want to hire a few freelancer designers on Fiverr or something. But I have to say I've experienced really good results playing a few minutes with ChatGPT (Wall-E) on t-shirt designs.

They say never judge a book by it's cover. Unfortunately that's exactly what everyone will do. Find a designer that you can work with to develop a design that works on various types of merch (hats, shirts, water bottles etc) but also represents you. Something that's unique to you and your music so that fans will immediately identify you through the design. You can ask your fans for what kind of merch they'd want to buy and keep that in mind when in the design phase.

For your merch focus on quality and authenticity. Merch is an extension of your branding. Hire a designer (don't settle for bland and generic options, even if they are cheaper or even free), create concepts that visually represent your music and be creative with making-selling products! Take care of your visuals as much as you take care of your songs.

If you have a nice fabric and a good design, then you might want to push the pricing a little bit higher here. Remember: you're selling to your fans, it's not for everybody. If it looks cool and it makes them closer to you, they'll buy it.

Pricing is important. Too high and your fans won't want to buy it but too low and you won't make any money. One thing I always recommend is find a supplier, even if doing POD, that will be willing to sell you bulk orders at cost. This is important if you're an artist that performs a lot or has a lot of festival gigs. Having merch on hand at an event is great way to supplement your income, especially for those gigs where the income is based on the proceeds of the cover charge.

Promote your merchandise on social media, offer some free products, and ask for feedback to engage with your audience, which takes some investment but will help you grow.

Offline: bring them to every concert. I guess every indie artist know this by now. Online: bring them to your website. You want to have control over the process and establish a direct relation to them, one that is not through algorithm-based platforms.

Influencer marketing is a great method for gaining exposure for your brand. Approach influencers who are key to your market and provide them with a complimentary t-shirt. A crucial influencer could be another musician with a dedicated fanbase. Whenever the artist wears your merchandise on stage, it effectively promotes your products to a broader audience.

As I mentioned above. Talk to your fans. They're going to be the ones buying your merch so find out what kind of merch they want. Maybe give them some input into the design, run a contest that one of the people that voted for the winning design will get some free merch. Find some influencers who would be willing to showcase your merch to their followers in exchange for...well free merch to showcase. As a music fan myself I love being involved in the process and I know from artists that I work with that they love it too.

get creative. QR codes are great ways to get fans from your merch to your online properties. Find creative ways to incorporate QR codes into your merch so that prospective fans will be able to scan them on the spot. And most importantly, be unique. Do something that is unique to you. That will make your fans love it even more.