Billboard magazine is reporting that The Flaming Lips will open a “Pop-Up” retail store in Hollywood to sell merch and raise the profile of their latest record, “Embroyonic.” This is an interesting strategy that The Party’s been watching for some time – we think there are all kinds of venues for music, as a lifestyle product, and pure retail makes a lot of sense.
At last month’s Midpoint Music Festival, The All Night Party did an experiment at our showcase, which we called “The SceneStore”. The SceneStore featured music and merchandise from dozens of the best regional artists, not just ANP acts or MPMF performers. We let the artists pick prices and products, and did our best to display everything as attractively as possible. Thanks to Skyline Exhibits and Opera, two local tradeshow display experts, we had beautiful lighted displays to feature titles and apparel. Thanks to our bands, we had a club filled with fans to fuel the experiment. By the end of the night, we’d learned a lot from the experiment…
- Bands/labels with many items at various price points sold more than bands with a single CD, tee or any individual item across the board.
- The gap between many/single item artists was enormous: bands with single items rarely sold anything, while those with many sold more than one.
- One act, outside the genre of the bands playing our showcase, outsold bands on the stage (likely thanks to a selection of 5 seperate items at different price points).
- One band with 3 items at the same price point ($10) sold nothing at all, and was the only exception to this rule.
- One performing band re-priced their merch with items at $3, $5, $10, $15 (the previously had everything at $10, with no low-priced items at all). They earned more from merch sales than their festival stipend by a significant amount!
We can do a lot with this information. It’s given bands we work with a real edge, and a nice little raise at shows – decent pay for hard work is critically important to growing our scene. And it’s given us some insight into how artists can use “free” and inexpensive items to drive sales of other goods. We learned how to “upsell” $15 tee shirts, by tossing in downloads or other inexpensive items as a bonus. We discovered that enthusiastic (but broke) fans will remain enthused with freebies like buttons, bumper stickers or even compilation CDs.
None of this is rocket science or even especially surprising. It’s just a matter of getting down to business. Of course we also realize many artists just aren’t into the business side, but then, that’s what we’re here for.
PS: Aside from validating our theories, it generated a lot of attention, so we’re planning something bigger/better for MPMF.10, and we’ll be working with the festival to create something like The Flaming Lips’ pop-up store next year! The plan is to create a retail space tied to music and the festival, that puts artists in front of fans in a new, more personal way. Stay tuned (and bands, be ready!).
