How to transform your music merch drop experience for artists AND fans

Existing at the intersection of music, fashion and beyond, few things get fans more passionate than merch drops from their favorite artists. But it’s rare for artists and labels to nail these launches. 

Yes, limited edition product lines for popular artists are almost sure to sell out, but merch drops can and should do so much more: show love to fans, deepen connections within follower communities, and enhance the overall experience of fandom.

To accomplish that, artists and labels can turn to EQL, an end-to-end platform built specifically for selling high-heat, limited-edition products. EQL was designed primarily to make these drops fair and less frustrating for fans, but also offers a host of features designed to maximize the impact of a product launch. Let’s take a look at a few of EQL’s top features and how artists and labels can use them to elevate the merch drop experience.

Bot-Beating Raffle System: Put the fans first

The vast majority of high-heat product launches, like limited edition music merch drops, are deeply frustrating for fans. They’re stressful, confusing to navigate, and often plagued by bad actors who ruin the experience for true fans. EQL was designed to simplify the process of participating in high-heat launches, promote fairness, and open up new opportunities for selling limited-edition items.

Reduce stress on fans

When there is a high enough level of demand for a product that sellout is guaranteed, brands typically turn to a first-come-first-serve (FCFS) model. This approach is familiar to fans — it’s how most concert tickets are sold — but that doesn’t mean it’s enjoyable for anyone. Participating in an FCFS launch requires fans to clear their schedules and log on at a precise time to shoot their shot at merch before it’s sold out. It feels rushed and chaotic, and inventory still typically sells out before most fans have managed to get it in their cart.

Alternately, EQL operates on a raffle system that gives fans a set window of time during which they can log on and submit their entry. Entries are then validated on the back end (more on that next) and winners are chosen from the pool of candidates who played fairly. No mad dash to enter, no waiting around in a queue. Fans can enter at their convenience and then wait to be notified if they got the W.

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Keep it fair

When a product launch has enough heat, as a limited edition music merch drop is likely to, it captures a lot of attention — and not just from fans. High demand and low product quantities mean opportunity for a lucrative secondary market, and many would-be resellers will try and get their hands on product for the sake of turning a profit. Often, they’ll resort to shady measures, like using bots to buy up as much inventory as possible before real humans can even complete the checkout process.

Watching coveted items get snatched up by bots is a bummer for fans, and it sends the message that artists and labels don’t care about their experience. It also encourages more sketchy behavior when fans start to perceive that that’s the only way to successfully purchase merch. And that just keeps perpetuating toxicity in fandoms.

Take control of the experience

Being a fan is supposed to be fun, but the reality is that it comes with a lot of frustration. Much of this is outside of the artist’s control — especially when it comes to ticket sales, which tend to be controlled by a handful of companies who don’t seem to prioritize fairness or the fan experience. But when it comes to merch, artists have other options, and they can take advantage of them to show some love back to their most dedicated fans.

In addition to online merch sales that run smoothly and prioritize fairness, artists can use EQL’s features to create memorable moments with every merch sale. For example, merch drops can be set up using geolocation tools to limit entrants to those present in a specific geographic area, like a concert venue, allowing artists to extend special merch offers only to concert attendees. Even better, they can enter online, meaning they won’t have to spend half the show waiting in line at the merch tent for a limited edition print. It’s the best of tech-driven convenience married with you-had-to-be-there buzz.

Invite-Only: Deepen fan engagement

Making merch sales exclusive has long been a challenge for artists and labels. When done successfully, adding exclusivity makes merch feel more special and desirable to fans, and helps them feel seen and appreciated for their support — but it’s tricky to pull it off. Enter EQL’s Invite-Only Launch feature:

Reward top fans

Using Invite-Only, artists can pull fan engagement data, like top listeners on streaming services, fan club members, or concert attendees, and create exclusive access lists for merch drops that are only extended to that subset of an artist’s followers. This deepens the feeling of connection between fans and the artists they follow, and makes merch drops exponentially more exciting. Plus, it sends the message that to increase chances of getting their hands on coveted merch items, fans are better off engaging more with an artist rather than turning to unfair practices like botting.

Smooth and simple

Other methods of creating exclusive, invite-only sales usually rely on manual effort from the brands or a clunky, awkward user experience like unsecured, hidden ecomm pages. The experience may be confusing for fans to navigate, which takes away from the specialness of the experience. On the other hand, Invite-Only launches on EQL are simple to set up and seamless for fans.

Leak-proof exclusivity

Simply sharing out a supposedly “exclusive” link is basically begging for leaks to happen, and most other solutions don’t have mechanisms in place to prevent it. This results in exclusivity feeling like a sham, and cheapening the experience for the true die-hards. 

However, EQL’s feature applies the same rigorous verification process that is used on every launch to ensure that winners are real people, not bots — which also provides reliable data to ensure that fans are who they say they are, and blocks anyone who’s not on the list. Invite-Only launches are truly exclusive, delivering a special, premium-feeling experience that’s leakproof.

Robust Launch Data: Learn for the future

Another challenge artists and labels face is simply how to plan for merch drops. What will fans respond to? What risks are worth taking? How much demand will there be for each product option, like various sizes and colorways? Here too, EQL can help. By delivering extensive data following every launch, EQL assists brands in learning from past merch drops in order to improve future efforts.

Predict demand

How many of your fans are a size 10? Do an artist’s followers prefer purple or green? Launch data has the answers. Because EQL collects data from every entrant (not just the ones who successfully purchased), artists and labels are able to see exactly how much demand there was for every variation of a product. Typical ecommerce solutions will only show how many items sold, but EQL tells a more complete story and offers a look at how many units were sought after — and how many more you might consider producing next time.

See what resonates with fans

We all know that the most memorable merch drops are the ones that go beyond a simple logo tee. But creating more unique products comes with a risk. No artist wants a merch drop flop, but with EQL, labels can gain more insight into what their fans will respond to. Thanks to the depth of EQL’s data, artists can get a sense of what else their fans like, guiding decisions around future collabs and enabling bolder, more creative moves backed by more certainty.

Learn more about EQL for music merch

We’ve talked about some of our top features in this blog post and how they can help artists and labels elevate their music merch drops. But we’ve just scratched the surface of what’s possible with EQL. Particularly with features like Invite-Only and location-specific launches, artists can completely redefine the merch drop experience, creating surprising and delightful moments for fans. 

Curious to learn more about what that could look like for you? We’re here to chat about it. Get in touch with our team today about implementing EQL on your next music merch launch.Music merch gets fans stoked, but drops often fail to live up to their potential. See how EQL can deepen fan connections and make merch more meaningful and fun.