Metal Anarchy

Jay Postones (TesseracT) has stirred up controversy after sharing his opinion on the practice of tipping merch sellers. The drummer believes the extra money should be shared with the band and their crew.

Postones said the following:

“On this US tour, we’ve discovered an imbalance that I wish to shed light on.

As a touring musician, we put a huge amount of energy into bringing our music to our fans. It’s our pleasure and it’s our passion – but believe me when I say it costs us everything to do this. Touring at our level breaks even. Everything goes toward production, crew, and travel costs.

When you purchase merch from a band at a US show and leave a tip – as is customary – you’re not tipping the band. This tip goes to the merch seller.

From speaking with fans, we know some of you thought you were tipping the band. Firstly – thank you. Secondly, we apologise that your tip hasn’t reached us – we didn’t have vision of this system/ culture until now.

From speaking to peers, we have discovered that some merch sellers are generating in excess of $30k in tips over the course of a 5-6-week tour – which is insane. No one else on a tour at our level makes anything close to this. The band members certainly do not. The other crew members are on agreed fees, nowhere close to this.

We understand that in the US service industry, tipping culture is normal. It brings low-paid jobs up to a, hopefully, liveable level. The job we’re hiring though is not a low-paid job.

While it goes against the grain, our suggestion is that all tips taken at the merch desk should be shared across the entourage – band, and crew. We’re all here, working hard all day to bring the show to you. It seems unfair for one person to own the monopoly on tips for the entire package.

While it’s too late to make this change mid tour, we have set up a digital tip jar that will be shared between the band and crew at the end of the tour. Scan the ‘tip the band’ QR code at our merch desk if you’d like your tip to reach all of us.

As always, thank you for your continued support. We can’t wait to see you out there ♥”

After receiving backlash, the band also issued a statement regarding Postones’ comments:

“Hi guys,

We would like to talk about Jay’s recent post to clarify the situation.

We have not, and will not be taking a cut of merch seller tips, and would never wish to.

As a band we do not expect tips at shows, however, we have had a number of generous fans donating tips at the merch desk believing that they are / or are in part reaching the band and touring party.

We had set up a small donation QR code for the touring party, but regrettably this has caused confusion and this has been removed.

Please know that tipping at the merch stand is a means to support the merch seller, as is customary.

Merch sellers are working hard, as are the band and crew, and whether they tour with us or join us locally, they are an extremely valued member of our team.

We are not a part of the US tipping culture and are in no position to challenge this, but we are a transparent bunch of people and will always shed a light on issues that arise.

We thank you for your continued support as always

TesseracT”