A recent photo has surfaced which showcases the new merch that Tool now have available at their shows. While the merch looks pretty good, the prices just are not looking good at all to many fans of the band. Die hard fans are even having a very hard time digesting the sudden uptick in prices for t-shirts and small memorabilia items.
In recent photos surfaced on Reddit, we see a bunch of t-shirt designs for Tool’s current shows. The prices are pretty wild. In the photo, you can see the sizes and prices listed for the shirts as well on tags. The prices for the shirts seem to vary a bit. For short sleeved shirts, you’re looking at anywhere from $45-50. Long sleeved shirts are running in the realm of $60.
Fans were not only blown away by the sudden jump in merch prices, but they also had something to say about the larger sizes being more expensive. It looks like anything from S-L ranges in the $45 price point. If you need to go any bigger though? That’ll be an extra $5.
Now, let’s boil this all down really quickly. Surely, if Tool were to be making these prices themselves and wringing their hands in hopes to drain their fans of hard earned money; this would be horrible, but this just doesn’t seem to be the case…or at least, it doesn’t seem that Tool are directly to blame.
Right now, in the world of music, bands are pretty broke. When Covid first happened, it really ruined the music industry and now it looks like we may be gearing up for more shows moved to different dates as the Grammy Awards were just rescheduled. This may lead to a domino effect with live shows as well.
In order to combat this, many labels, managers, etc, are making their bands up their prices for tickets and merch so that everyone breaks even if the music world does have to shut down again. Below, you can check out the prices from Reddit.
Some Redditors had the following to say: “Touring and merchandise is how musicians make money now. Tool obviously sells CD’s but not millions like they did 13 plus years ago.” “It’s been awhile since I’ve been to a concert but my f*ck, these prices are ridiculous. I’ll save my money for dr*gs.”
Others said: “These shirts are ludicrously expensive.” as a fan then replied to that comment: “And they sold all of them.”
