Case study: pioneering print on demand band merch
On the initiative of our co-founder Merlin, the Swiss prog rockers Cellar Darling have recently launched a “13 shirts for 13 songs” extravaganza.
After releasing a very ambitious album in 2019, Cellar Darling were facing a dilemma most bands know all too well: wanting to provide a wide range of designs to their fans and aware of the ever-increasing importance of merch to make ends meet, they nevertheless had to carefully select just a few designs to offer, because of the prohibitive cost of production and storage space.
Their concept album’s 13 songs were each represented by unique artwork (created by Costin Chioreanu), so it should have been an absolute no-brainer that all of these should be offered. But such risky endeavours are limited to the top players in the industry, often relying heavily on support from labels or traditional merch retailers that will have to be repaid. Such a campaign would also require serious lead times and a headache-inducing amount of logistics.
Enter print on demand technology: after releasing a first POD shirt early in 2020, Cellar Darling are now able to offer their fans a choice of their favourite designs, often motivated by their attachment to a particular song on the album. To make things more interesting, the band are launching only one design at a time, available only for 13 days each. There will be no leftovers, no shirt will run out of sizes, and the possibilities are endless. The band did not need to invest a fortune to print these shirts and can focus on their art, rather than stock keeping and fulfilment.
Oh, and did we mention we created that website, too, complete with fully integrated online store?