Bands are making less money than ever before through music sales, and While She Sleeps are highlighting that with a new shirt design.
The band are creating a new shirt explaining that one $20 shirt sale equals roughly 5000 streams on Spotify to encourage fans buying merch.
In the post, they say the shirt design is free for any band to use and is meant to highlight the realities of being an artist today.
"There may be thousands of people listening & coming to shows but that doesn't mean there are thousands in the bank. There's also a long line of people with a straw in the glass who are going to make sure they get a drink before it gets to the artist," the post reads.
The band continue by saying "touring and travelling is incredibly expensive. The bigger the band gets, the more you get paid, but the more it costs to keep the machine running. In truth, (and this is from 14 years of experience working as hard as possible to make it sustainable) there haven't been many times when we've sat back and been financially stable. One tour could make a profit, but the next might be tens of thousands in the negative & that's where a lot of artists get pushed to breaking point or miss the opportunities that come their way."
"The majority (76% in fact) of music in 2019 is streamed. Probably by you, definitely by us & there's nothing bad about that."
They're offering the new shirt on their site right now which is also available for bands to download and sell themselves.
You can see their post below.
The band are creating a new shirt explaining that one $20 shirt sale equals roughly 5000 streams on Spotify to encourage fans buying merch.
In the post, they say the shirt design is free for any band to use and is meant to highlight the realities of being an artist today.
"There may be thousands of people listening & coming to shows but that doesn't mean there are thousands in the bank. There's also a long line of people with a straw in the glass who are going to make sure they get a drink before it gets to the artist," the post reads.
The band continue by saying "touring and travelling is incredibly expensive. The bigger the band gets, the more you get paid, but the more it costs to keep the machine running. In truth, (and this is from 14 years of experience working as hard as possible to make it sustainable) there haven't been many times when we've sat back and been financially stable. One tour could make a profit, but the next might be tens of thousands in the negative & that's where a lot of artists get pushed to breaking point or miss the opportunities that come their way."
"The majority (76% in fact) of music in 2019 is streamed. Probably by you, definitely by us & there's nothing bad about that."
They're offering the new shirt on their site right now which is also available for bands to download and sell themselves.
You can see their post below.