Swag Archives - Alan Cross' A Journal of Musical Things

Which artists make the most from online merch sales? (WARNING: Big numbers ahead!)

Back in the day, buying a T-shirt or some piece of band swag at a concert was often an afterthought.

Merch–that is, the t-shirts, posters, and other stuff you can buy at a concert–has become a vital revenue stream for

With declining music sales and with no hope in hell of streaming replacing those lost revenues, artists are looking at

LyricFind–a Toronto-based company that makes lyrics legally available for a variety of digital and online uses–has just expanded into a

Queens of the Stone Age released the Villians album on Friday to (so far) much acclaim. Josh also has an

Over the four decades Dell Furano has been selling concert merch, he’s seen the industry evolve into a $12 billion

Finding musicians who are willing to declare their allegiance to Donald Trump are pretty rare, but there are at least

With the 40th anniversary of the epic 2112 album in full effect, there’s some swag dribbling out. For example, this

Iron Maiden has tried really, really hard to come up with a truly ugly Christmas sweater (“jumper,” for our UK

Daft Punk, everybody’s favourite French robots, have announced their new summer merch line. As with previous years, the announcement comes

With the Junos coming up in a couple of weeks, organizers have unveiled a new line of swag that rivals

Chasing a Dream – Kevin Porter in Conversation with TBP Podcast EP 036 October 11, 2021
Many of us – at one time or another – dream of being professional athletes. Most of us realize in high school that we won’t be making it to the big leagues – unfortunately. The lucky among us flirt with the minor leagues in hopes of that big break. But what happens when that big […]
Andrew Dick
Being your Authentic Self – Richard Crouse in conversation with TBP Podcast EP 035 July 2, 2021
You would be given a free pass if you forgot that before the rise of the social media influencer there were already pundits and personalities on TV, radio and print. There’s just been that much exponential change in the media business over the last 15 years. Yet today, those who were formerly the audience are […]
Mark Silver
The Business of Radio – Elliott Hurst in conversation with TBP Podcast EP 034 June 21, 2021
The commercialization of streaming audio is not a new phenomenon. Going back 100 years, it was simply known by another name, broadcasting. With the launch, rise and now transition to digital and apps, the business models of audio-preneurs have generally been the same, mostly because of the challenge of measurement, a problem audio’s cousin television […]
Mark Silver