Whether you’re getting ready for your next album release and upcoming tour, or you want to create an immersive experience for your fans, creating music and merch bundles is a great way to make money as a musician and reward your followers.
Bundles are an exciting and important way to sell your music and clear out merchandise while reinforcing the artist-to-fan connection. Setting up and promoting your bundles can revitalize your store and help you move more digital music as well as merch items.
How to make a product bundle
One of the best things about product bundles is that you can sell them directly from your music website. That means all sales are commission-free. So you can create product bundles based on what will work for you and your music, using what’s already in your store.
Looking to sell bundles from your music website? Try any or all of these options:
1. Offer creative merch bundles
2. Create an experience bundle
3. Try limited edition bundles
4. Make music bundles
5. Move merch with deadstock bundles
6. Set up a retro bundle
1. Offer creative merch bundles
Exercise your creativity by pairing unconventional products with tried-and-true items like a classic band T-shirt. Some great ideas to incorporate into your merch include song lyrics, silhouettes of your band members, your unique band logo, and album artwork. We have
You can also up the ante with useful items like bottle openers, key tags, blankets, tote bags, and playing cards. Try mixing and matching classic items with featured items, and of course, your music. If you need ideas, try these 25 creative band merch ideas to pair into a bundle.
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2. Create an experience bundle
Interaction between artist and fan doesn’t need to be limited to live shows and social media. If you’re thoughtful and inventive with what you offer, product bundles can improve your connection with fans.
Curating an experience with your bundles is a nice way to strengthen your bond with the people who love your music. Imagine how and where your fans might be listening to your work, and build a product bundle around that experience.
If your latest album is best suited for cozy days, create a bundle that features a coffee mug, a warm sweater or blanket, and a digital version of your record.
Or if you’re an active type with upbeat songs, incorporate a tank top along with your album, perfect for running or hiking.
3. Try limited edition bundles
If you want to promote a new single or tour, try creating a limited edition bundle in anticipation of the event. You can combine the music or tickets with a merchandise staple (like a band T-shirt), and add one special item to sweeten the deal for your fans. This could be a personalized photo, and hand-printed card, or a limited run of signed album artwork to incentivize fans to get excited about your new release or upcoming show.
If you want to experiment with new merch ideas, but aren’t sure how your fans will respond to creative items, try assembling a limited edition bundle that combines your experimental product with a classic merch item. You can set a specific in-stock number for this bundle in your music store and see how quickly that inventory gets sold out — that timing can indicate whether your experimental item should become a staple moving forward.
4. Make music bundles
Getting your music heard is a huge part of what drives artists to make sales. There are a few things to consider when it comes to setting up music bundles.
If you are looking to chart with a new release, be aware that there are some rules in place at Billboard. Artists may only sell two different bundle variations, which must come with a physical copy of the album and a merch item. The merchandise and the album copies must also be available for purchase independent of one another (so add them to your merch store as well on their own)
However if you’re just looking to move your music, making different music bundles is a great way to go. If you have a catalog of releases that are outside of the charting window, consider bundling them together to motivate fans to purchase your full range of work. You can even set up one bundle that includes all of your back catalog — an especially appealing product for your lifelong fans.
Another ingenious way to sell music bundles is to compile the demos or stems of your releases along the way. Release these as bundles for your diehard fans to dig into. Often, artists will also create acoustic versions of their albums that can be bundled as ‘B-Sides’ offerings, with printed items featuring alternate album artwork. This type of bundle can also be a limited edition, for your ultimate fans.
5. Move merch with deadstock bundles
As a touring musician, you might have timestamped merch left over from previous tours, like “USA Tour 2018.” It’s difficult to offload these items once the date has passed, but selling band merch products online makes it easy to combine these items with a limited edition print of your latest album artwork, or signed band photos.
You can price this type of bundle just above the regular price of the artwork so you can break even on the merch you had printed and move the products quickly — win-win for you and your fans!
6. Set up a retro bundle
You might remember the days when you’d buy a physical copy of an album and it would include a lyric booklet with interesting artwork, song lyrics, never-before-seen photos, or hand-written annotations from the artist.
Now that fans can purchase music online and carry it wherever they go, fewer people sit by a stereo poring over song lyrics and album artwork as they listen along. If you’re an artist who wants to emphasize your lyrical output, create a bundle for fellow wordsmiths.
You can write out your lyrics manually and scan them, or make something using graphic layout software if you want to get fancy. You can then print your lyric booklets through your local printer, or compile them digitally. Start with the lyric booklet for your item, then bundle it with your digital album to please all the fans who love your writing. This can be especially cool if you have an album of unreleased demos – fans love to explore songs that didn’t make the final album cut.
To make this bundle even more attractive, add a tote bag to the offer. Encourage fans to head to their local park, carrying the booklet in their new tote, to watch clouds and refer to the lyric sheets or artwork while they’re listening along. (Of course, you can set the scene to match the specific vibe of your music.)
Marketing your bundles
Now that you’ve made product bundles your fans will love, think about innovative ways to let your fans know they’re available. Marketing your band merch bundles can be as easy as posting a link to your online music store through your social media channels. You can also promote your single more broadly by:
– setting up a Landing page
– creating and sharing a Smart Link
– investing in digital ad campaigns and tracking sales funnels
– using your mailing list by sending an exclusive offer
– and many more ways to market your music online
Marketing your product bundles is a great way to sell more music. By creating a unique package that combines your music release with other merch products, you can creatively drum up interest from your fans, driving momentum toward your website and boosting your music sales. This can result not only in more money for you, but in deeper fan engagement as well, reinforcing your music career overall.
