Merch cuts have been a hot topic in the music industry, and metalcore’s Falling in Reverse frontman Ronnie Radke made his stance on the issue known, blasting a venue in the middle of a show.
Radke was performing with his band at The Armory in Minneapolis as a part of the 93X Nutcracker radio festival alongside Daughtry and Sleep Theory over the weekend when he took a few minutes to address the lack of FIR merch. He told the crowd: “If you haven’t noticed, there’s none of our merch in the back.”
“It has nothing to do with the radio station, it has to do with this venue,” Radke continued. “This venue is trying to charge us 25% of our fees. … What that would mean is that we’d have to charge you guys way more to make any money. So what I did was [holds middle finger up], ‘Fuck them!’ We’re not paying fuckin’ shit! That’s fucked up. If you guys want our T-shirts, go online and pick them up. We’ll probably lose a little money … but I’m not selling my merch to lose 25% to this fuckin’ venue.”
Following the show, Radke took to X to explain himself further, noting that the show was “amazing” and he’ll play again next year, however, he “didn’t sell merch because it didn’t sit right with me to have to up charge the fans $100 a hoodie because the greedy venues thinks 25% of gross merch sales from a band is okay.”
“For your information these venues taking a merch cut is criminal, there is no reason or excuse for venues to take bands merch % they do it because we let them get away with it, it’s literally stealing,” Radke said. “There’s not a single reason these venues have that makes this okay. so to anyone out there ever wondering why merch is so expensive it’s because these venues are STEALING from the artist.”
He went even further to note that he’ll take the issue into his own hands.
“I will start my own festival where the bands get 100% of their merch mark my words,” Radke promised.
Radke isn’t alone; artists have been calling out venues for merch cuts. Entertainment giant Live Nation announced earlier this year that it would no longer take merch cuts at its owned and operated venues for 90 days through the end of 2023.
While the initiative — dubbed “On the Road Again” — was praised throughout the industry, the National Independent Venue Association called-out the program for being a cynical attempt to exert more control over the live entertainment industry by Live Nation and a short-term public relations play. NIVA said it is just another effort to squeeze out competition by the company that dominates the industry, while also threatening smaller, independent venues.
Singer-songwriter Laura Jane Grace, founder and lead vocalist of the punk band Against Me!, told Rolling Stone that the practice of merch cuts needs to “end outright, both at Live Nation and everywhere.” Contemporary punk artist Jeff Rosenstock also called for an end to merch cuts and pointed out the problem with one entity controlling the industry.
“I’d love to say ‘and as a result of all that, we’ll no longer be playing venues that take merch cuts,’” Rosenstock said after posting a picture of the merch cuts taken by each venue on his tour. “But unfortunately, during the pandemic AEG & Live Nation bought so many of the types of venues that we play, that dodging these super high cuts is nearly impossible.”
