Making a living from music is hard, and, for most artists, selling merchandise at live shows is a hugely important source of revenue.  

Most fans will buy specifically from the merch table, because they want to support their favourite artist directly.

However, in many cases, because of excessive commission fees, the venue will make more money from merchandise sales than the artist themselves! In some instances, these fees amount to 25% of gross revenue plus VAT.

This would be bad enough in the best of times, but after the financial pressures of lockdown, and now a full-blown cost of living crisis, it is simply unsustainable.

In response to this situation, the Featured Artists Coalition launched the 100% Venues campaign in January 2022 - creating a public database of UK venues who charge 0% commission on merch sales. To date, we have collected hundreds who reach this ‘gold standard’, from grassroots venues through to 1,000+ capacity rooms including KOKO, EARTH, Village Underground, the Electric Ballroom, Troxy and the Barbican in London, The Sage in Gateshead, Cardiff’s Tramshed, SWX in Bristol and Liverpool’s Olympia. 

Today, we are reemphasising our call for change, asking fans, artists, venues, merchandisers, promoters, trade organisations and other industry professionals to speak up in favour of the 100% Venues campaign.

We have also published 4 principles, that we believe every UK venue should be able to support:

• Support acts must never be subject to commission charges on merchandise sales
• Artists should be offered the option to staff and operate merchandise operations at their own shows
• There must be no surprises for artists regarding commission rates when they get to the venue - rates must be agreed up front
• Every show must be open to negotiation on merchandise commissions

If you believe in the aims of the 100% Venues campaign, please help us send a message about these outdated practices, and sign the petition.

Find out more. 

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