Sadly we are at the beginning of what seems to be a downfall in the economy, the dollar is low everywhere and people are losing their jobs left and right; nobody seems to have much disposable income to throw around these days, so does that mean bands will stop touring, concerts will halt production and nobody will go see shows anymore? No. So where does that leave us in the world of merchandising?
Despite a year of record lows for the rest of the world, the concert industry seems to be doing better than ever, as indicated by this article by the associated press. I strongly believe that people use music as an escape from their everyday lives and put so much value on their favourite bands/artists/tunes that what little money they have, they'd most often rather use to go see a concert than on some other frivolous items. And what people are failing to understand is that this isn't heading into a 30's era depression with kids wearing cloth diapers and people losing the clothes off their backs. People will obviously have less money to work with and need to budget appropriately, but their wont lose all of their worldly posessions or have to give up all of their luxuries.
Our job in the industry is to fulfill the needs of our customers, in this case, the concert audience, while still giving them options for supporting acts on the road. Cheaper tickets to shows, more affordable items to buy at the merch table, dropping prices back down to reasonable rates. (You can still make a fair profit on a $15 dollar t-shirt, there is no reason for it to be $35 and chances are you'll sell a lot more!)
I think the concert and merchandising industry will manage to make it through the recession, so long as we put our money where our mouths are and drop prices to rates that are affordable. This doesn't mean losing profit, it just means we need to re-assess the way we make/sell merch.
