Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
F**k You I won’t do what you tell me: Distant sell merch outside venue in Budapest due to merch cut disagreement
Dutch deathcore band Distant recently completed a short tour across Europe with Suicide Silence, and at the last stop of the tour in Budapest, Hungary, the lads were forced to sell merch outside the venue due to merch cut issues.
The band took to Instagram to share the following: “The last show of our small run with @SuicideSilence was one for in the books. Thank you for everyone coming out to the show and for getting merch at our outdoor sale 👀🖤”
Guitarist Nouri Yetgin added:
“Unfortunately, not enough people know that you have to pay money to an agency for the merch that is sold during a tour or shows. And take into mind. WE BOUGHT THE MERCH. This applies in America and Europe.
The bigger your band becomes, the bigger the shows. So you would think damn we should be able to make a living from this right?? Well… unfortunately, there is an agency that manages a monopoly position and then says: we sell your merch and we charge a commission for it and with some costs added you pay 40/50% of a sale to them. That’s why the merch items are so expensive at all the big shows. We then have to send an invoice to that agency and wait another month until the invoice is perhaps paid after a month. If you don’t do this, you won’t be allowed to sell your own merch. you decide to sell your merch yourself. Then there is a chance that you will be blacklisted or have other consequences.
We don’t make a living with the guarantees we play for. But with the merch we sell. The merch we bought ourselves with our own money by working hard…
Unfortunately, I cannot accept it that we need to charge the fans 40,- for a t shirt or 60/70,- for a hoodie. It’s wrong and the production costs aren’t that high either.
I hope this can change in the future.
So one of the last shows we sold our merch on the parking lot.
FUCK MERCH CUTS.”