"Ah yes, it's time for the monthly debate of 'Well golly, I can't believe my slick corporate booking agent (that we hired) works hand-in-glove with corporate promoters.' My fellow merch people: tell them to GET FUCKED.
Meanwhile, Red Scare Industries' Tobias Jeg shared on X (formerly Twitter) a recent incident between himself and reps from AEG over how merch was handled for a recent show. In the shared email, the AEG representative called out Jeg over a merch cut issue. We as a band and crew just wanted to let you know what's up. But we'll never stop trying to keep the prices low for everyone out there, and we're gonna do whatever we can do to avoid it in the future. Rosenstock concluded, "I'd love to say 'and as a result of all that, we'll no longer be playing venues that take merch cuts.' But unfortunately, during the pandemic AEG & LiveNation bought so many of the types of venues that we play, that dodging these super high cuts is nearly impossible. READ MORE: Why Do Venues Take Merch Cuts From Bands? Even if you are older now I think many of us know what it feels like to think "well, that show costs $30, so I can't afford to go.' It's fucked up that someone to whomst $1,000 is nothin' is taking that money from you for real." It's either a musician - a field in which if you make a poverty wage that's considered *making it* - or fans who take on the burden. It's never these people left holding the bag.
Seems like the fuckin' rule now, if you work in a creative field you're supposed to feel lucky and happy enough to be there to get raked over the coals by millionaires and billionaires who will give you as small as slice of the pie as they can to perpetually show growth in profits. The musician adds, "So much of the time all that money goes to big corporations like AEG & LiveNation. He continues, "We like each other and we're working together and helping each other! It makes no sense that at the end of these killer shows where we’re all having a nice time, someone who was our friend all night low key robs us and goes 'have a safe trip to the next gig buddies!!' That's fucking weird!!!" **For the record, we're 100% down to give a merch cut any night we get a cut of the bar.** But the thing that makes the most sense is that we don't take each other's money!" Anticipating the response from the other side, Rosenstock says, "The argument for the cut is 'well, fucko, we give you a place to sell your merchandise.' By that logic, we should also be getting a cut of the bar for bringing hundreds to thousands of people and their cash to the venue that night.
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