Kacey Musgraves’ Merch Sales Keep Her Band And Crew Employed During Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic led to many radical shifts when it came to how people interacted with one another and businesses tried to find ways to stay afloat in a struggling economy. However, with job security also less stable with the pandemic’s continued onslaught, one artist has found a way to make sure that her band and the rest of the crew she employs are staying employed.

In an interview with The New York Times, Kacey Musgraves, a six-time Grammy Award-winning country singer, revealed that pivoting to merchandise sales in 2020 after touring and live music shows came to a screeching halt has helped her not only with having a creative outlet during quarantine but also helped her do something unthinkable—keep every member of her staff, from her band members to her crew, employed.

“I think it’s important for people to know that when you are buying merch from an artist, you’re putting money directly into their pocket,” she said. “I’m really thankful that people have been so supportive of the merch for an album that came out in 2018.”

“If you’re able to spend any money on merch, it’s really going to help them stay afloat,” she added.

Among the merch Musgraves has been selling on her website during the pandemic has been standard fan fare (such as tees, sweats and posters) to other everyday items and home and self-care products, including the KM+ Boy Smells Slow Burn Candle ($37.99), Lonely Weekend Puzzle ($27.99), Shooting Star Bath Bomb ($10.39) and a currently sold-out Happy Sad Herb Grinder pre-order item ($39.99).

Musgraves has been particularly successful with her ventures, as evidenced by her band’s current employment status, but also because, she feels, she has been smart about how she sells items.

“I think people enjoy it because they can tell that it’s something that I really put my heart and brain into,” she said. “It wasn’t just me slapping my name on a random brand to cash in on something. I didn’t grow up with money, so money is not my driving factor when I make decisions. If it’s a success, that’s icing on the cake for me. But as an artist, you have to be careful not to consistently push things that are ingenuine or just a cash-grab, because it’s going to water down the whole reason people even know who you are anyway.”

The success of being able to keep her staff employed is also striking due to the way the economy in the United States has faltered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in December that unemployment was still hovering at 6.7 percent, a decrease from what happened at the beginning of the pandemic, which brought record-high unemployment claims, but still high compared to numbers at the beginning of 2020, which was 3.5 percent.