The music industry is being propped up by merch sales. But what about the environmental impact of all that stuff? And the experience of the people making it? We’re going to take a look a the business model that kept artists afloat during the pandemic and what the wider impact of that has been.
Survival of the ‘fit-est
In recent years, artists like Kanye West and Travis Scott have pioneered “hypebeast” tour merchandise. “Life of Pablo” shirts were a staple of the Kardashian-Jenner “off-duty” uniform, with fans and fashionistas everywhere vying to get their hands on the limited edition pieces. Due to their popularity among Hollywood’s biggest stars, they came with a premium price tag too, with hoodies retailing at around $145!
Now, music merch is an industry in its own right. 2018, global sales hit $3.5bn. In August ‘22, Scott sold a whopping $1 million (£900,000) of merchandise at his gigs.
Merch is taking over
It’s not only the music industry that has pivoted to merchandise sales – everyone from podcasts to public transport networks is cashing with a whole suite of products from tote bags to t-shirts to mugs and keyrings. In the era of “personal branding”, there are seemingly infinite opportunities to leverage catchphrases and slogans in the form of products to peddle. (We can probably thank Kris Jenner for that.)
This cannot be good for a planet already under the catastrophic strain of overconsumption. We buy so much “stuff”. This is typically low quality – produced without regard for the people who made it, the resources that went into it and how it will be disposed of.
T-shirts are not “saving” anything
About 2 BILLION t-shirts are sold every day.
This is not coming from a need for any more t-shirts. We all already have far too many in our wardrobes, many of them gathering dust.
Water
Everything we make, produce and sell starts out as raw materials extracted from the earth. In the case of t-shirts, most of them are made of – a very water-intense crop. It takes about 766 gallons of water to create a single t-shirt!
Water is one of the most precious resources on earth – it is life. We need clean water to drink, grow food and wash. 766 gallons times 2 billion a day just for t-shirts is mind-bogglingly wasteful. 700 million people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water.
Pesticides
The cotton industry uses 25% of the world’s pesticides and herbicides. According to the WWF, the cotton industry is responsible for degrading soil and contaminating water and has been linked to serious health risks for farmers and consumers alike.
Forced labour
As if the environmental harms weren’t enough, the cotton industry is also associated with exploitation and forced labour. Historically, enslaved African people carried the US cotton industry, and in recent years, it has been revealed that detained Uyghurs are being forced to produce cotton in China.
One-fifth of the world’s cotton is produced in a region in China where the Chinese government is carrying out an ethnic cleansing programme, targeting the Uyghur people. Forced labour forms an important part of the genocidal regime, which has been called out by the international community.
Once the cotton has been harvested, it moves into the garment factories. Here, workers are faced with unsafe working conditions, low pay, long hours, and harassment.
We need to do better for artists, and for the planet
We have become used to free content, and developed a real sense of entitlement to it. It’s clear that this is costing us in long run.
Cast your mind back to the height of the pandemic, when strict lockdowns had us confined to our homes for weeks and months on end. It was art that kept many of us afloat – we escaped reality with books, TV shows and music. We took online dance classes, cooking lessons. We made puzzles, we painted, we crocheted. And yet, we have become so used to consuming so much created content for free that we are devaluing art for art’s sake. Singers, writers and podcasters alike should not have to resort to t-shirt sales just to make a living. Not when we are tuning in in our billions every day, with insatiable appetites for more.
What are the alternatives?
Thankfully, live gigs are back and once again, we can support performers like bands and comedian by being there in the flesh. But, there are many more content creators outside of performance arts that need to make ends meet.
Artists of the past had wealthy patrons, who funded them and allowed them to focus completely on honing their craft and experimenting.
A reliable income allows artists to fail, an integral part of the growth and evolution of art. However, if failing means no income, artists have to play it safe. This hinders creativity, and we all lose out on authentic artistic expression. Many creators know this, which is could be why they favour merchandise as an alternative. But, this can’t continue if we want to keep our art without a negative impact on workers and the environment.
Paid patronage looks a little different these days – with platforms like Patreon and Substack. The platforms allow fans to subscribe to memberships, of varying levels, to support favourites often for as little as the price of a cup of coffee per month. Use the search function to see if your favourite creatives are there and consider making a contribution, and if they’re not, why not suggest it as an option?
Photo by blocks on Unsplash / Description: A stack of music records on a shelf, with a pair of retro headphones propped against them.