State Champ Radio merch
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Taylor Swift‘s website posted a statement Monday (April 3) about how fans can best take care of their Eras Tour merch after some fans complained online of the products fading after one wash.
“Due to the particular ink curing process used on certain Tour Collection products, after washing your merchandise you may see a faint fade on the product print,” reads a statement on the singer’s official website. “This slight fade is related to the product’s distressed, vintage look. Please also note it is important to follow product care instructions as listed on the product label when washing and drying your items, to best protect and maintain the product’s look and feel.”
The team then directed customers to contact the Universal Music store if they noticed “any dramatic loss of pigment or ink bleeding” on their purchases and offered replacement product if necessary, courtesy of the site’s official exchange policy.
Several Swifties have taken to social media and Reddit in particular to complain about their Eras Tour merch fading severely after being washed to the point that Taylor’s face was, in some cases, beyond recognition. “i just sent an email to taylor’s merch team about the whole thing,” one frustrated user wrote on Reddit. “i mentioned the poor quality, disappointment that all the excitement and waiting for merch is now ruined by the fading quality after one simple wash, etc.”
Meanwhile, Swift’s Eras Tour continued over the weekend with a trio of sold-out shows at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. During the three shows, the singer performed secret songs including “Sad Beautiful Tragic,” “Ours,” “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” “Clean,” “Jump Then Fall” and “The Lucky One.”
On March 4, hundreds of metalheads stormed into Pierce the Veil’s pop-up store in Glendale, Calif., scooping up T-shirts, hoodies and other merchandise. In the process, they helped boost sales for an ostensibly dying product: compact discs. “Kids would look at the display and pick every single one of our records on CD,” says Michele Abreim, the band’s manager. “It definitely felt like CDs were a merch item, not just a means to listen to music.”
A relic of the record industry’s pre-Napster boom period thanks to megastars like *NSYNC, Britney Spears and Eminem, U.S. CD sales accounted for $13.2 billion in 2000, their peak year, according to the RIAA. But though the format has been in steady decline throughout the streaming era, retail, manufacturing and management sources say the digital discs have gained in popularity as keepsakes. More portable than vinyl albums and less affected by manufacturing delays due to supply chain issues, CDs are once again becoming merch table mainstays, and in the first 10 weeks of 2023, sales are up slightly over the same period last year, according to Luminate — 6.8 million in 2022 to 6.9 million, a 2.5% increase.
This growth could be a sign of a growing coolness factor, similar to the unexpected, and sustained, vinyl revival that began in the early 2000s, which is fueled by limited-edition releases pressed on colored vinyl and other bells and whistles. Taylor Swift took a page from that playbook when she put out Midnights CDs in different collectible colors last year, and BLACKPINK is among the many K-pop acts to sell elaborate CD box sets.
“There are ways to do CDs that are incredibly impactful,” says Carl Mello, brand engagement director for Newbury Comics. “You can get more revenue out of it, so it’s not like a ‘Will this do $7.99?’ thing. You’re selling a $30 thing that a customer will be really happy with.”
Bill Wilson, senior vp of operations and innovation for MNRK Music Group, which oversees 50 independent labels, says specialized CD-buying audiences are keeping the format afloat. “There are still pockets and subgenres of music [fans] — like metal — who like holding and cuddling CDs — and they’re not vinyl collectors,” he says.
For those who can’t afford box sets or to spend upwards of $20 for a standard-issue vinyl album, “the CD is a much more budget-friendly item,” says Tony van Veen, CEO of New Jersey-based vinyl/CD manufacturer Disc Makers, who crunched the latest RIAA sales data and found that vinyl album prices rose last year by 13.5%, to $29.65, while CD prices went up 15.3%, to $14.45. “Music fans are deciding with their wallets.” He adds that his company’s CD sales stabilized in 2022 after years of decline.
CDs are generally far cheaper than vinyl albums — especially classic-rock catalog releases, which labels occasionally put on sale in the format. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits goes for $13.99 on Amazon, compared with $28.31 for vinyl; a Foo Fighters Greatest Hits CD sells for $11.49, slightly more than half the $21.91 vinyl price.
Although pandemic-related manufacturing delays for vinyl are easing, they have prompted touring acts to stock their merch tables with CDs. “I had a conversation with somebody yesterday, and they’re about to go on tour,” says Ric Sherman, owner of The Production Department, a consulting company that works with artists, labels and record plants. “Trying to get vinyl on time was impossible, and they defaulted to CDs immediately.”
The profit margin for vinyl albums is slightly higher than CDs — a $15 CD would yield roughly $13.50 in profit; a $30 vinyl album, $15 — but Sherman adds: “Vinyl’s expensive to manufacture.” According to van Veen, 100 CDs cost $150 to manufacture, compared with $1,500 for 100 vinyl albums.
“If artists are touring, it’s easier to cart those around than vinyl,” says Mello. “There are utilities to it, for sure.”
Despite the small sales uptick so far in 2023, the 20-year decline in CD sales shows no sign of dissipating: Sales dropped from 40.6 million units in 2021 to 35.9 million last year, an 11.6% decrease, compared with a 4.2% rise in 2022 vinyl sales, according to Luminate. (That said, vinyl’s sales growth has slowed considerably from the 51% increase it logged in 2021.) Major labels are also reluctant to bet on CDs to drive significant revenue in the future. Says a major-label source: “I haven’t heard of the idea that somebody’s so committed to buying a physical product that they’re just going to move over to the CD if they can’t get a vinyl product.”
Then again, 35.9 million in annual sales is not nothing, and CDs will probably be around for a long time. “They’re highly valued and sought-after,” Mello says.
Taylor Swift unveiled another merch collection Tuesday (Feb. 28) ahead of her Eras Tour.
The “Through the Eras” collection features 10 T-shirts, each themed to a separate album by the superstar — from her 2006 self-titled debut and 2010’s Speak Now to 2020’s dual Folklore and Evermore and 2022’s Midnights. Each shirt features graphics of Taylor from the particular album era on the front and the list of cities on the hotly anticipated tour route on the back. (For the record, both 2008’s Fearless and 2012’s Red get a (Taylor’s Version) remake in the drop.)
In addition to Swifties being able to choose a shirt that represents their favorite era, the line also includes a black long-sleeve, white hoodie and gray crewneck sweater showing the “Lavender Haze” singer through the years of her 17-year career. Plus, fans can purchase everything from blankets, sweatpants, phone cases, nail gems, mugs and tumblers to luggage tags, stickers, coasters, notebooks, bandanas, activity books, colored pencils and ponchos in case of rain.
As the March 17 start date for The Eras Tour draws closer, Swift achieved another pair of impressive milestones this week. First, she became only the second woman to ever place 10 albums on the Billboard 200 at the same time after Whitney Houston. And second, she tied the record for the most top 10s in the history of the Adult Pop Airplay chart as “Lavender Haze” landed at No. 9 on the chart dated March 4.
Ahead of The Eras Tour, Billboard also rounded up our picks for the 20 songs from Swift’s discography that deserve a spot on the setlist but likely won’t make the cut considering just how much ground she has to cover over the course of the show.
Get a look at Taylor’s “Through the Eras” collection and prepare to pick your favorites below.
Inspired by the testimony of the band Lawrence and the struggles it faced as an independent act during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary hearing on Ticketmaster, Ineffable Music Group CEO Thomas Cussins decided it was time to take action.
“After about an hour watching the hearing, I grabbed the phone and started calling the venues we owned and operated,” says Cussins. His message to on-the-ground managers at California venues including The Catalyst and the Atrium at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, the Ventura Music Hall in Ventura and Cornerstone in Berkeley: no more merch fees for bands.
Effective immediately, all 10 venues owned and/or operated by Ineffable Live — also including the Golden State Theatre in Monterey, Calif.; Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Felton Music Hall in Felton, Calif.; the Mystic Theatre in Petaluma, Calif.; Arcata Theatre Lounge in Arcata, Calif.; and the Chicken Box in Nantucket, Massachusetts — will no longer collect a 20% venue cut from touring artists selling their merchandise at Ineffable venues.
The decision will cost the company “several hundred thousand” per year in revenue, Cussins estimates. but “hopes to make it up via a healthier concert ecosystem,” he adds, noting that the merch fee that venues charge artists is often the one thing touring bands say they most want to see changed about the club and theater circuit.
When bands go on tour, their revenue streams are almost exclusively a share of ticket sale revenue and band merchandise sales. In addition, expenses for travel, production and health insurance have increased significantly, as have the costs associated with printing and shipping t-shirts and other merchandise.
On a good night, an independent touring band with a loyal fan base can sell $5,000 to $10,000 in merch at a 500-cap show. Eliminating the venue fee can save some groups $1,000 to $2,000 per night, Cussins says. That can make a big difference in a business where the margins in merchandise are vital to the economic feasibility of touring. The more diverse a band’s income streams are, Cussins says, the less reliant they’ll be on tour guarantees.
“We are on the ground and hearing from artists every day,” says Cussins. “We are seeing how much the costs of everything have gone up — from buses to hotels to flights. So even though the club business is a marginal business, any action we can take to help to insure a healthy, vibrant concert ecosystem is important. This industry only works if artists of all levels are able to afford to tour. When artists are able to tour sustainably and fans can afford to buy a t-shirt because the all-in ticket price is reasonable, everyone wins.”
Ineffable head talent buyer Casey Smith adds, “We’ve been able to make our live business work even with increased expenses by having a number of venues and being able to create routes for artists, offering them a number of shows in secondary and college markets between their big city plays. Since we’ve made it work for ourselves, we want it to work for the artists as well. This move is fully aligned with Ineffable’s independent spirit, and in hearing the needs of independent artists, we believe it’s important to put them first.”
Harry Styles is on the legal offensive to combat fake merch on the internet.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Chicago federal court, the pop star sued a number of online sellers for allegedly violating his intellectual property rights by selling counterfeit merchandise to unsuspecting Harry fans.
Arguing that the counterfeiters use misleading tactics to make it “difficult for consumers to distinguish such stores from an authorized retailer,” attorneys for Styles want a judge to issue a sweeping court order that would, among other things, force big web platforms like Amazon and Etsy (who are not named as defendants) to immediately shut down the listings.
“Plaintiff is forced to file this action to combat defendants’ counterfeiting of its registered trademarks, as well as to protect unknowing consumers from purchasing counterfeit products over the Internet,” the star’s lawyers wrote.
In bringing the case, Styles is employing an anti-counterfeiting tactic that’s frequently used by big brands to fight fakes on the internet.
Such cases, filed against huge lists of URLs rather than actual people, allow brands to shut pirate sites down en masse, win court orders to freeze their assets, and continue to kill new sites if they pop up. The lawsuits also usually result in massive monetary judgments against the sellers, but those are typically hard to actually collect from elusive counterfeiters.
Notably, the counterfeiters that Styles is targeting in the lawsuit are not currently disclosed, because such lawsuits are designed to take them by surprise: “If defendants were to learn of these proceedings prematurely, the likely result would be the destruction of relevant documentary evidence and the hiding or transferring of assets to foreign jurisdictions,” the pop star’s lawyers told the judge.
Such lawsuits are more common among big retails brands — Nike, Ray-Ban, Toyota and Tommy Hilfiger have all filed nearly-identical cases in the past two months — but the music industry also regularly uses the same tactic. Nirvana sued nearly 200 sites for selling fake gear in January; a few months later, the late rapper XXXTentacion’s company filed a similar case.
In his lawsuit, Styles claimed the counterfeiters are mostly located in China, or in “other foreign jurisdictions with lax trademark enforcement system.” And he claimed they used sophisticated methods to target fans searching for Harry’s merch while avoiding detection, including “multiple fictitious aliases” and the use of meta tags.
“Tactics used by defendants to conceal their identities and the full scope of their operation make it virtually impossible for plaintiff to learn defendants’ true identities and the exact interworking of their counterfeit network,” the star’s attorneys wrote.
When Christmas comes around…again! Kelly Clarkson unveiled her latest round of holiday merch on Wednesday (Nov. 16), complete with a festive bundle perfect for all your booze-related needs.
“My signature engraved wine tumbler is back in stock, y’all… and now it’s bundled with my engraved wine opener!” she wrote on Twitter followed by a string of drink emojis including a popped champagne bottle and clinking flutes.
The singer’s new batch of Christmas goodies also includes a cranberry red t-shirt emblazoned with “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me” — the title of her duet with Ariana Grande, which the pair recorded for 2021’s When Christmas Comes Again… while working together on Season 21 of The Voice. (They also performed the horn-infused bop live during Clarkson’s NBC holiday special last Christmas season.)
Speaking of the original American Idol winner’s second Christmas album, the studio set just picked up a 2023 Grammy nod for best traditional pop vocal album earlier this week, bringing the pop star’s total to 16 career nominations and three wins.
On The Kelly Clarkson Show — which has officially been renewed through 2025 — the talk show host has recently run through an impressively diverse string of “Kellyoke” picks, including “Dream a Little Dream of Me” by Mama Cass with The Mamas & the Papas, Florence + the Machine’s Twilight: Eclipse cut “Heavy in Your Arms,” the original version of “Lady Marmalade” by LaBelle, Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Z.Z. Hill’s “Someone Else Is Steppin’ In” and more.
Get a look at Clarkson’s new wine-ready holiday merch and apparel below.
‘Tis the season to be a Swiftie! Though Taylor Swift already gifted everyone a brand-new album in October with Midnights, as well as several new editions of tracks from the record-breaking LP, she’s ready to present something else her devoted fans will fawn over: holiday-themed merch.
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The “Anti-Hero” singer’s management team took to Twitter on Friday (Nov. 11) to provide fans with a status update about the official Taylor Swift merch store. “The #TSHolidayShop is available now at http://store.taylorswift.com (AKA: a shop-able Lover House)!” Taylor Nation shared, along with a video preview of items in the new holiday collection. “Tell us what rooms you’re picking out gifts and #TSTheErasTour outfits from Eras past and present.”
And truly, no era has been left behind. The website’s “Lover House” provides navigation to fans looking for merchandise from each era, starting with her 2006 self-titled album through the recently released Midnights. Swifties looking for more Christmas-related merchandise will find no shortage on the site, with multiple ornaments for her eras and singles, respectively (“Lover,” “Exile” and “Love Story” are among the few), snow globes, a “Christmas Tree” (farm) skirt and more.
As for apparel, cold-weather items make up a bulk of the offerings in the TS Holiday Shop — fans have their options of the “All Too Well” red scarf, as well as hats, sweaters, hoodies, zip-up pullover and sweatpants to choose from. Sorry, but there are no wearable “Cardigan(s)” available for purchase in the shop.
See the post from Taylor Nation about Swift’s new holiday merch drop below.
