Create & Sell Music Merch to Monetize Your Music Career

Every independent musician is looking for way’s to keep doing what they love and live off of their music. That’s the dream every artist is chasing. To do this though, you’ll need to monetize your music career properly. One of the best ways independent artists make money today is through music merch. On average, about 35% of musicians income comes from their merch sales. The most popular and easiest way to create merch is by using Printify. You’ll be able to create your designs on a huge variety of products and sell it through one place.

You don’t need to simply create band shirts with your image or logo on it though. You’re an artist, use that creativity and artistic mindset to create your designs. Think outside of the box, think about what you’re fans would like to wear. If you’re an indie rock artist, it could be as easy as a shirt that says “Indie Rock” with a guitar. Or, take a strong line of your lyrics, and print that out on a shirt with an image you designed.

What is Printify and Why Do Musicians Use it?

Printify is a print-on-demand service that allows musicians to create music merch on a wide variety of merchandise. Not only will you be able to design and create the merch on their site, but you’ll be able to create a store to sell it too. Also, it’s all free, so it fits within any independent artists budget. They only print the item when you create the sale, aka they print, when demanded. Then they will take a cut of the profit, you’ll receive the rest. You set the prices, so the amount of profit you’ll earn is up to you.

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How to Use Printify to Create Music Merch?

It’s very easy for anybody to create music merch and a store with Printify. Create your login like with any site, then you can upload a logo or design you have to any product you like. Or, use Printify to create the design you would like to use. Once created, select the color options you want for your product, and launch it! You’ll be able to create the store on their site to sell from, or if you have a website, it can connect seamlessly through Shopify, WooCommerce and more.

1. Sign up on Printify for free, creating your login / password
2. Create your first product! Choose from a wide array of options from clothing to cups and start designing.
3. Publish your first product and create your online pop up store.
4. Sell directly through Printify, and/or connect the products to your personal music website. They print-on-demand, so they print the product you designed when you make a sale.
5. Set your profit margin, depends on the price of the product you selected and how aggressive you want to be for sales. But a 40% profit margin is recommended.

Wide Variety of Products to Design »

If you’re not much of a designer, you can hire a gig worker on sites like Fiverr to create a few designs for you. One thing to keep in mind, is to keep your music merch within your own specific brand. Most musicians have created a brand or look with their graphics, that will include a certain color pallet and theme. Follow along with these themes and colors when designing your merch. The items you’re creating and selling, aren’t just to earn more money. They are to build on your brand and build a stronger fan base as well.

How to Start Promoting Your New Music Merch?

Now that you’ve created your music merch, it’s time to start promoting. You’ve already been using your social pages to push your music to your fans. Now, simply promote your music merch to them. Also, create emails to your contact list promoting your new merchandise for your fans to get a hold of. A good idea to run a contest where fans can receive free stuff to help promote your new merch as well!

• Promote new music merch to your social media pages.
• Use SocialBee to improve your social media marketing efficiency.
• Create emails promoting your merchandise to your contact list.
• Use Brevo to optimize your email marketing.
• Run a contest allowing your fans to win free swag to help promote your new designs!
• If you have a website, integrate Shopify or WooCommerce on your site to seamlessly plugin your Printify products for sale on your site.
• Can print off some merch to sell in person at your shows, or include a QR code in a banner for fans to scan and buy your merch online quick. Depends on your budget.
• Collaborate with other artists or fashion sites to promote your items.
• Create ads on social media and search engines to push your designs.

When you launch new music, create a new shirt design or other product to promote along with your music campaign. Bundle your merchandise with your music, offering VIP packages for top fans. Also, create pre-order incentives to fans so they get your exclusive new merch that goes along with the music release. All part of your branding, brand everything together.

Create Your Own Fashion Line

Depending on how far you want to go with this, you can create your own fashion line! A fashion line doesn’t have to be like Prada or Adidas, it can just be a set of clothing or items that fit your vibe and sense of style. Create clothes and products that you would wear and use in your daily life. Post images and videos of you rocking these threads, along with a link for your fans to purchase them. The sky is the limit with this, your music opens the door to many possibilities. Be creative and have fun with it, see where it takes you!

Create Your Own Music Merch »

How to Create Your Music Merch Designs?

Yes, you’re a creative artist, but designing products isn’t what you first set out to do. Plus, even when writing music, all musicians come across writers block. At that point, you may be wondering how to create your music merch designs. You can spend a little to pay gig workers for designs, use design apps or even ChatGPT to find inspiration.

• Use graphic design apps like Canva to create designs. They even have ready made shirt graphics that you can edit to your liking.
• Printify also offers design tools, play around with them and see what you come up with.
• Look around at other artists music merch or any clothing store, see what you like, ya might find some inspiration there.
• Hire a professional graphic designer on sites like Fiverr to create designs that fit your brand seamlessly.
• ChatGPT can be great for brainstorming, search something like “Give me 10 design ideas for my music merchandise”, see what the AI says and it could spark something for you.

There are a variety of ways to create your designs, start small. Just create a few items, then organically build off of that. Don’t force it, make sure whatever you do publish is something you would proudly wear personally. Over time, you’ll build a quality catelog of items that sell themselves.

What Else To Know…

Your music merch will serve multiple purposes. It’s a way for you to further monetize your music project of course. But also, a way to further brand yourself and your music with your fans. Your band merch will be free advertising for you too once more people buy it. Have fun with it, be creative. Experiment with various designs and products. Don’t just create band shirts, Printify has a variety of options. Try out cups, bags, hats, see what works. Then analyze your results, which you can do within Printify. See what works best and lean in to that.

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