Trivium bassist Paolo Gregoletto recently pointed out a sad reality of the music business in 2014. Speaking through the below tweet in which he was expressing his love for Pennywise‘s “Straight Ahead” album, he commented:
“…Bands used to rail against greed and commercialism, now we all have clothing lines …”
Gregoletto himself is unsurprisingly no stranger to merchandising himself, with this shirt of his cat ‘Mr. Brown’ having managed to sell out its initial run. With less & less money involved in the music industry, the advent of 360 deals and cringeworthy royalty checks, Gregoletto is not alone in his woes.
Last month I Declare War frontman Jamie Hanks joked “I own a clothing company called I declare war” after their Chris Farley shirt stirred up some controversy. In some cases owning a merch line appears to be more lucrative than the band itself as proceeds from Attila frontman Chris Fronzak‘s Stay Sick line likely helped pay for his Maserati and Porsche (see below.)
Meanwhile, Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oliver Sykes‘ Drop Dead clothing line appears to pull in a healthy profit and has landed licensing deals with characters from ‘The Simpsons‘ and various video game brands.
Basically, if you’re starting a band in 2014 you may also want to devote some time to graphic design while you’re at it.
Daddy’s home ???? pic.twitter.com/S9QKLTJjEh
— LORD ZILLA THE FIRST (@FRONZ1LLA) August 7, 2014
Save a wave, surf a Maserati ?? pic.twitter.com/iuhOhjdGst — LORD ZILLA THE FIRST (@FRONZ1LLA) August 13, 2014
