No Crowdsurfing: Merch Making A Difference

Musicians are increasingly relying on merchandise to fund the recording of their music and performing it live. While vinyl has received a well-documented revival in recent years, and T-shirts are perennial fan favourites, some bands and solo artists have let their imaginations run riot in order to bring us more memorable merch.

Some unusual items may become collectible rock memorabilia one day, but in the short-term buying merch directly from bands or solo artists is a vital source of income for them. Best of all, while you granny might not appreciate a Bob Vylan hoodie as a gift, or your 3-year-old nephew have the means to play a Death Of The High Street cassette of early demos, the clever merchandiser has products that appeal to everyone.

If a piece of merch is useful (you can never have too many mugs), or just looks nice, it doesn't matter if it bears the logo of an artist the recipient will never hear of. What matters is that the money from the sale of each item goes towards helping the artist make more music. This Christmas, therefore, rather than resorting to an Amazon gift card, why not consider buying someone you love a present that will make a difference, even if they've never heard of Pip Blom.

Most of the items of merch listed below, from beer to tarot cards, are available directly from the artists' Bandcamp pages, the preferred online shop for many independent musicians. On November 4th and December 2nd in 2022 the site's monthly 'Bandcamp Fridays' means 93% of your money from a sale goes to the artist or label after payment processing fees (rather than the average 82% the rest of the year).

The selection below is from people I've played in recent years on The Last Transmission, my weekly new music show on Exeter's Phonic FM. If you know of other artists also providing magnificent merch tweet me at @nocrowdsurfing and I'll add them to the list.