Russian Circles are the next band to not sell merch at show over in Europe

Russian Circles, a trio known for their post-metal music, have joined the ranks of bands publicly opposing merch cuts. Through their social media, the band declared that they would not be vending any merchandise during their performance tonight at L'Olympia in Paris, France. The band cited a venue policy that requires their own designated merch seller and a 25% commission cut, in addition to the regional 20% VAT tax, as the reasons for their decision.

For our fans and friends who're coming to the Paris show tonight:

As you are probably aware, merch sales are vital to keeping artists financially afloat while on tour. Venues often take a percentage of merch revenue from artists, and their rates have gotten higher in recent years. At tonight's show in Paris, the venue has enlisted an outside company to sell artists' merch. This company takes a 25% commission and withholds a 20% VAT tax. Our options appear to be either raising our prices or losing money, so we've opted to not sell merch tonight. We apologize to our friends and fans in Paris who were hoping to grab a shirt or LP at the show, but we don't want to partake in this arrangement with this company. If you want our merch, it is always available at Evil Greed. Thank you.

Russian Circles add to a growing list of bands/performers that had opted to NOT sell merch while performing at certain venues in Europe in just the last few weeks. Just this past month we've seen both Monuments and Igorrr for gore selling merch due to high cuts, even Stray From The Path's drummer Craig Reynolds vented about the same issue they experienced recently.