Most artists will reach a point in their career where they desire to create a line of merch, sometimes for marketing purposes and other times to generate awareness.
No matter the reason it's crucial that you understand that there are right and wrong ways to go about this process.
As an artist one of the most popular but also probably the LEAST effective ways of creating this merch is slapping your album cover or song lyrics onto your apparel.
What you have to realize upon creating your merch apparel line is that you are not just your music, YOU ARE A BRAND and that brand can be more than just repurposed art on a T-Shirt.
Essentially what you should be doing is creating a BRAND STORY. You want to create complimentary pieces that all speak back to that same brand story.
How do you create that brand story?
I won’t go into great detail as Mike Leisure does an incredible job of explaining how to in this video,but a key piece of creating a compelling brand story is taking a step back from ourselves.
Artists tend to be so invested in what they’re doing that it's natural to want to create something with your name on it or your album cover because it showcases what you’re doing.
However, people can see that same success with an epic apparel line that doesn’t necessarily have your name written all over it.
Creating the brand story is just the beginning.
After creating that story, there are other aspects that must be considered.
What are they?
Design
File Type
Manufacturers & Sampling
Where to find people to collaborate with
Budget & Quality
By now you're probably thinking "woah seems pretty intense."
Lucky for you this video breaks each piece down so you can get your merch apparel brand started now.
You can create a lasting merch apparel brand using these tips!
