Music merchandise is a significant part of the live-music economy, from festival T-shirts and artist hoodies to vinyl, posters, and digital fan goods. The figures below cover Australian market estimates, atVenu transaction data, Weverse Shop commerce, and a 2030 forecast, so each measurement period and scope matters.
Contents
- Market size and artist income
- Festival spending and pricing
- Concert merchandise conversion
- Product mix and item prices
- U.S. city differences
- Digital fandom and outlook
Market size and artist income
Creative Australia estimated Australia’s total music merchandise sales at A$185 million in 2024. About 75% of those sales were estimated to happen at live music events, showing how closely merchandise is tied to attending a show or festival. Australian artists’ gross merchandise sales were estimated at A$65 million in the same year. These are Australian market estimates, not a worldwide total. (The Bass Line: Charting the economic contribution of Australia’s music industry)
The artist-income picture depends on how the figure is measured. Merchandise represented about 3% of Australian artists’ income after venue or retailer cuts and costs in 2023–24. A separate 2023 survey of 1,300 Australian bands, artists, and music makers found that merchandise contributed 8.4% of annual income. The two percentages should not be treated as contradictory: they come from different measures and populations. The report also cites a global touring-artist merchandise revenue range of 10% to 35%, an undated industry range rather than a dated global census. (The Bass Line)
The same report cites U.S. live-event research in which 22% of attendees purchased merchandise. The average band T-shirt price in that cited research was US$36. Venue merchandise fees were reported to range from 10% to 40% of merchandise profits. Those figures help explain why gross sales do not equal the artist’s final income. The report also compares a cited average income of US$0.00318 from one digitally streamed song with a US$36 band T-shirt price; this is a comparison supplied by the report, not a universal payout rule for every stream or shirt. (The Bass Line)
Festival spending and pricing
Festival merchandise spending rose in atVenu’s reported festival-season data. Average spend reached US$75 per person in 2024, compared with about US$65 in 2023. The source reported the 2024 figure as 15% higher year over year. Average items purchased also increased from 1.3 per attendee in 2023 to 1.8 in 2024. (Festival Merchandise Trends In 2024)
Multi-genre festivals averaged US$72 per fan in merchandise spending in 2024. Festival size showed a wider spread:
| Festival size | Average merchandise spend per person, 2024 | Average T-shirt price, 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Small | US$56 | About US$30 |
| Medium-sized | US$72 | Not reported in the supplied comparison |
| Large | US$86 | US$40–US$45 |
These figures describe average spending per person, not the price of a single item. The same source reported average T-shirt pricing of about US$30 at small festivals and US$40 to US$45 at large festivals. The gap in average spend by festival size may therefore reflect both pricing and the amount purchased, but the supplied figures do not isolate those effects. (Festival Merchandise Trends In 2024)
Concert merchandise conversion
AtVenu’s artist-show data puts average artist merchandise revenue per concert attendee at US$8.79 in 2023, US$9.90 in 2024, and US$10.24 in 2025. The same dataset reported that an average 20% of concert fans bought merchandise in 2023, followed by 21% in both 2024 and 2025.
| Year | Revenue per concert attendee | Fans buying merchandise |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | US$8.79 | 20% |
| 2024 | US$9.90 | 21% |
| 2025 | US$10.24 | 21% |
The year-review dataset reported a 3% increase in average merchandise revenue per attendee in 2025 compared with 2024. It also found that shows below 3,000 capacity saw merchandise volume rise by as much as 7 percentage points versus 2023. A single 2024 show below 1,500 capacity averaged US$6,342 in nightly merchandise revenue. That is a single-show example, not a typical result for every small venue. (A Year In Review 2025 - Artist Merch Edition)
An updated atVenu analysis reported a different set of comparison figures: US$10.29 average merchandise revenue per attendee in 2025 and US$9.44 in 2024, a 9% year-over-year increase. The two atVenu publications use different analyses, so their figures should be kept as reported rather than blended into one series. The updated analysis also reported that venues with 10,000 to 20,000 capacity averaged 2% to 6% fewer concert attendees in 2025 than in 2024. (An Updated Look At Artist Merch Trends In 2025)
For context, the year-review comparison used an estimated US$625 average yearly streaming revenue per artist, based on 2020 Spotify-related inputs. That is explicitly an estimate from the comparison, not a current streaming benchmark. In the same 2025 year-review dataset, the top three merchandise items accounted for 63% of total gross merchandise sales. (A Year In Review 2025 - Artist Merch Edition)
Product mix and item prices
T-shirts dominated the 2025 item mix in the year-review data: they represented 56% of all items sold and averaged US$37 before tax. Pullover hoodies accounted for 6.5% of items and averaged US$70. Hats represented 5.5% and averaged US$33. T-shirts also made up more than 50% of items sold in the updated artist-merchandise analysis covering 2024 trends reported in 2025. (A Year In Review 2025 - Artist Merch Edition; An Updated Look At Artist Merch Trends In 2025)
The long tail of products had smaller shares but varied prices:
| Product | Share of items sold, 2025 | Average price before tax |
|---|---|---|
| Pullover hoodies | 6.5% | US$70 |
| Hats | 5.5% | US$33 |
| Koozies | 3.5% | US$6 |
| Posters | 3.4% | US$45 |
| Sweatshirts | 2.5% | US$6 |
| Bags | 2.3% | US$28 |
| Long-sleeve shirts | 2.2% | US$48 |
| Vinyl | 2.1% | US$36 |
| Stickers | 1.6% | US$6 |
The product data shows why item share and revenue share are different concepts. A low-share, high-price item such as a US$70 pullover hoodie can contribute differently from a US$6 sticker or koozie, while the source’s 63% figure concerns the top three items’ share of gross merchandise sales. (A Year In Review 2025 - Artist Merch Edition)
U.S. city differences
AtVenu’s 2025 top-market figures also varied by U.S. city. Los Angeles led the reported markets at US$16.25 in average merchandise revenue per attendee. Cleveland ranked second at US$14.94. Orlando ranked fifteenth at US$12.59. These are city-level averages in atVenu’s market ranking, not estimates for all concert venues or all residents of those cities. (A Year In Review 2025 - Artist Merch Edition)
The spread between the reported first and fifteenth positions is US$3.66 per attendee, but that difference is a comparison of the supplied endpoints rather than a causal explanation. The source does not establish that geography alone caused the variation. Artist lineups, venue mix, ticket prices, audience composition, and show size are not separated in the figures provided.
Digital fandom and outlook
Live-event merchandise is only one part of music commerce. Weverse Shop sold 20.6 million merchandise items in 2024, up 13% from the previous year. Weverse reported physical merchandise sales up 10% year over year and digital merchandise sales up 24% year over year. Digital merchandise accounted for 3.4 million items sold in 2024. These measurements describe Weverse Shop commerce, not the entire global fan-merchandise market. (WEVERSE ISSUES GLOBAL FANDOM TREND REPORT, OFFERING NEW INSIGHTS ON SUPERFAN BUSINESS)
The digital comparison is notable because its growth rate exceeded the physical merchandise rate in the reported Weverse figures: 24% for digital versus 10% for physical in 2024. Item volume also grew overall by 13%, reaching 20.6 million. The reported totals should not be added to atVenu’s concert figures, because the companies measure different commerce channels and populations.
Finally, a Funko investor presentation cited a projected US$16 billion global music-merchandise business by 2030. That number is a forecast cited in an investor presentation, not an observed 2030 result. The same presentation cited 17% growth in vinyl sales in 2024 versus 4% growth in streaming. (Funko Investor Presentation)