EDITORIAL
example, artists with a lot of fans in Europe
might want a company that fulfills orders
from there, or an act with highly dedicated
fans might want to do high quality, more
expensive shirts.
The process is simple and just requires
loading up a design in the correct format
(most likely a png file, with a transparent
background so the T-shirt colour shows
through). Then a decision needs to be
made about the price/profit to be made
on each sale. With services like these,
you need to find the price point balance
that works for you - the financial return
on each sale is far lower than if you did
a run of t-shirts yourself, but there is no
set-up cost. Selling t-shirts is as easy as
sharing the shopfront for your act/label
via social media. If you decide to sell
via the Bandcamp platform, they have a
useful section on their website with tips
on generating the most merch sales at
bandcamp.com/guide.
The other plus of setting up an online store
of this kind is that the range of options
go far beyond T-shirts. There is usually
the possibility to create tote bags, cups,
socks, badges, and many other items. An
alternative for every fan!
PLAYING ONLINE SHOWS
The recent COVID-19 outbreak meant
that many acts had to cancel shows or
even whole tours, both here and overseas,
which left them badly out of pocket. As
an alternative, some instead arranged to
do live streams which fans could access by
buying a ticket, just as they would for a live
show.
This has led to websites like Bandsintown
listing live stream events and sending
notifications of them to followers of that
act, while ticket sellers like Under The
Radar (NZ), Eventbrite and Eventfinda
8 • NZ MUSIC COMMISSION MAY BOOK 2020
can now list online events. The NZ Music
Month Facebook page and website also
publish event listings for streamed gigs.
The process for organising a live stream
that you can earn money from has
become even easier recently with the Arts
Foundation website Boosted launching
their own all-in-one tool for doing live
streams - Boosted Live. This allows artists
to collect money from their supporters and
undertake a live stream performance all in
the same place, with the additional option
of forwarding income to a charity too.
There are many options becoming
available - one local artist who performed
live stream events during the lockdown
period was Nadia Reid, who sold tickets
via Eventbrite. She then gave the hundreds
of ticket holders access to a private Zoom
meeting where she performed and could
also interact with the viewers between
songs - so it truly felt like an intimate,
interactive performance.
Another alternative is simply to do a live
stream from another platform such as
Facebook and then ask viewers to donate
(via a site like Bandcamp) or purchase
your music online. This can also be an
interactive experience if you try to respond
to comments in real time. The performance
can also be archived for others to view at
a later time. If you make the effort to do a
show for free, then hopefully people who
enjoy it will be encouraged to support your
work.
MAKING MONEY VIA
YOUTUBE
YouTube gives you the option to monetise
your content, though there are limitations
since the ability to put ads on your music
videos requires an account to have a large
amount of viewers. You need at least 1000
subscribers and at least 4000 hours of
watch time within the past 12 months to
utilise this feature. If you do want to tap
into this market, then it can be worthwhile
to upload videos by different artists under
one account - either under a label name or
just as a collective. YouTube pays a lower
rate per play than most streaming services,
so it’s worth trying to maximise the number
of people you reach.
There are other routes to making YouTube
work for you financially. For example, some
of the print-on-demand merch websites
listed above (e.g., Teespring) allow you
to automatically have your items shown
for sale underneath your YouTube videos.
Rather than just giving a link, these mini-
ads show images of the items for sale and
provide an easy access point to purchase
them.
Once you reach a decent level of popularity
then there is also the possibility of product
placement within your music videos, which
can provide another income stream. A fair
few local acts have taken advantage of
this. Without naming names, it is possible
to see all range of products being shown
on local music videos for a fee - including
cellphones, pizzas, and ice cream. If it’s
done subtly enough, then it needn’t take
away from the video. In fact, if you watch
Kimbra’s video for ‘90s Music’ then the
flash car she lies upon might seem like a
welcome addition, even if perhaps it was
actually included at a fee that was enough
to cover the entire cost of shooting.
These days album sales no longer provide
the income that they did even a decade
ago, so acts need to use their imagination
to find new ways to fund their careers.
Music listeners may be drawn in by the
ease of listening via streaming services, but
they also want to support their favourite
acts. Make it easy for them and you’ll find
they can be more giving than you might
expect.