INDUSTRY: Merchandise

For my website I have to come up with ideas for my merchandise so, therefore I decided to look through the websites of different artists such as blackbear, Halsey, Dua Lipa, Metallica, Lorde, Katy Perry and of course the existing Astrid S to see what kind of merchandise they sell on their website. 

Nowadays, bands sell merchandise to gain extra income. They don't earn as much from concert tickets or CD sales anymore since it is easier for people to stream or pirate music due to digitisation and convergence (the blurring of once distinct boundaries).  

On Astrid S's official website, there is only some merchandise available to buy. These include hoodies, T-shirts, posters and bags. As you can see here:

Looking at Dua Lipa's store on her website I found things like chokers, T-shirts, silk dressing gowns, a lipstick case, a pocket mirror, hoodies, sweatshirts and ofcourse the latest album 'Dua Lipa'. 

Metallica had quite different merchandise from these two examples. Some of their merchandise included action figures, skateboard boards, backpacks, coolers, stickers, patches, leather cuffs, earrings, thermals, rings, necklaces, flags, phone cases etc. They even had clothing for toddlers and babies. They had the biggest variety of merchandise I have seen out of all the examples I looked at. On top of that they had all the usual items too such as the band's albums in vinyl and digital form, T-shirts, hoodies, jackets, sweatshirts etc. 

INDUSTRY: Monetising Brands

Due to digitisation, this has meant that artists and record labels have thought it beneficial to monetize other areas and I found a good artist example to note for how wide this move into branded merchandising is, Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden have set up a their own beer line called 'Trooper' (named after their 1983 single). They even set up a whole website dedicated to their beer line. This is an example of smart branding.

See ironmaidenbeer.com

Another example which does this same sort of thing is Marilyn Manson. He released his own signature brand of 'Absinthe Masinthe' in 2007.

See alandia.de/marilyn-manson-absinthe

In the supermarket 'Auchan', in Luxembourg, you can buy 'Slayer' beer, 'Motorhead' beer plus some other branded wine/spirits. I have discovered that this is now a common strategy, especially in the heavy metal genre. You can even simply google 'heavy metal beer' and lots of examples come up.