For many bands/artists, “merchandising” is a significant source of income. What is “merchandising” I hear you ask. Merchandising simply means the selling of products other than your music. T-Shirts, posters, stickers, caps etc. We’ve all been to a concert where the T-shirt line was longer than the line to get into the gig so how how do we cash in on this?

Traditionally merchandising has been an expensive thing to set up so many bands simply don’t bother. It can cost a lot of money to have a stack of T-Shirts or caps printed in various sizes, colours etc and you are probably going to need to sell a lot to even break square, let alone making a profit. Once again, modern technology and the internet has come to our rescue.

In this article we are going to look at “Print on demand” services, specifically Cafe Press. There are many companies offering this service now but Cafe Press is the best known example. Print on demand means exactly that. When a customer wants a shirt with your bands logo on it, they can simply order and pay for it online through Cafe Press who will then print and ship the shirt to your customer. This alleviates having to keep a large and expensive stock on hand. It also means that you can offer a much wider variety of merchandise at no additional cost to you. All you need to do is supply the artwork and Cafe Press do the rest.

They offer a huge variety of products ranging from traditional T-shirts and posters to cups, CD’s, hats, stickers, mouse mats, even baby clothes! You can then set up a simple shop via links on your website to allow your fans to order whatever they want with your artwork on it. How cool is that?

From their website:
What CafePress.com does

1. Gives you a FREE online shop to promote your products
2. Produces each item when ordered using our unique print-on-demand technology
3. Handles all payment transactions including major credit cards
4. Ships your products worldwide
5. Manages all returns/exchanges
6. Offers customer service via toll-free phone and email
7. Sends you a monthly check for your earnings on sales!

The internet is rapidly providing more and more services to independent bands and artists that once would have only been possible to big name acts with large recording contracts. Now anyone can do it. Get over to Cafe Press and get started selling your own merchandise today!

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