Musicians despise merch cuts to no end, and it’s easy to figure out why. Already stretched thin for resources and money, merch cuts are just another way that greedy, Gordon Gekko-emulating music venues are helping to ensure that musicians end up more broke than they already are. This one is particularly ridiculous, though.
A music venue in Milan, Italy by the name of Alcatraz (the venue name should’ve been a warning on its own) had the brass balls to charge Tesseract’s current headlining tour (where Unprocessed and The Callous Daoboys are also supporting) a staggering 47% merch cut. We can also guess that the bands aren’t being compensated with any percentage of the bar tab or anything else. Based on the immediate backlash against the venue, though, it’s pretty obvious they’re going to regret preying on hard-working musicians.
47% is fucking insane
— bee june 🏳️⚧️🍓🐝 (@honeydumbee) January 28, 2024
a classic 👎🙅♂️ https://t.co/7L5pK6TISt
— Andy Cizek (@andycizek) January 28, 2024
At this point, music venues that think it’s okay to take a merch cut really need to re-evaluate what they’re really doing all of this for. Is it to line the pockets of the musicians and artists they wish to take advantage of, because of their own lack of preparation and budgeting? Is it music venues deciding they think acting like a landlord is acceptable behavior? Either way, we do know one thing – music venues that operate on a predatory model like this do not give a SINGLE solitary fuck about musicians and artists – or the arts themselves.
