Photo Credit: Sean Matthews
Falling In Reverse’s Ronnie Radke has condemned the contentious practice of merch cuts. This practice, widely criticized as revenue from music sales declines and touring costs rise, has faced some opposition. Live Nation’s initiative to waive merch cuts in select venues offers a glimmer of hope for touring artists, but financial constraints limit its widespread adoption. Following a headlining performance at the ’93X Nutcracker’ event in Minneapolis, Radke expressed frustration with a venue attempting a 25% merch cut. Despite Live Nation’s co-promotion, the initiative didn’t apply, prompting Radke’s decision not to sell merch in protest. The incident adds to the ongoing debate about fair compensation for artists in the music industry.
Read Radke’s full statement below:
“.@93XRadio nut cracker was an amazing show with daughtry I’ll do it again next year if they want, amazing radio station and I’m grateful for the support Last night I refused to sell falling in reverse merch in the venue we were playing in because @ArmoryMn demanded I paid 25% of gross sales to them so I told @ArmoryMn to go fuck themselves and just didn’t sell merch because it didn’t sit right with me to have to up charge the fans 100 dollars a hoodie because the greedy venue thinks 25% of gross merch sales from a band is okay, for your information these venues taking a merch cut is criminal, there is no reason or excuse for venues to take bands merch % they do it because we let them get away with it, it’s literally stealing. There’s not a single reason these venues have that makes this okay. so to anyone out there ever wondering why merch is so expensive it’s because these venues are STEALING from the artist. Last night I told @armorymn to go fuck themselves on stage and if any of you bands play this venue I’d advise you do the same, the only way this bullshit is gonna change is if we as bands all stand together and fuck their bottom line up. Streaming takes our money, the venue takes our money the artist gets DESTROYED and disrespected by these greedy fucks. So one more time FUCK @ArmoryMn in Minneapolis but thank you to the fans the huge show and the radio station and I’m sorry we couldn’t sell our merch!”
.@93XRadio nut cracker was an amazing show with daughtry I’ll do it again next year if they want, amazing radio station and I’m grateful for the support
Last night I refused to sell falling in reverse merch in the venue we were playing in because @ArmoryMn demanded I paid 25%… pic.twitter.com/4vvCiGXGDM
— Ronnie (@RonnieRadke) December 9, 2023
