The Callous Daoboys rightfully said "fuck that" to a 47% merch cut at the Alcatraz venue in Milan, Italy over the weekend. Instead of simply not selling any merch to fans that night (which would've been terrible), The Callous Daoboys set up an impromptu merch booth in their trailer and sold from there instead. Because seriously, 47% is robbery.
"We are unable to sell merch tonight in Milan due to the venue, Alcatraz, taking a 47% merch cut," wrote The Callous Daoboys. "We are very sorry, but we would lose money by trying to sell. We will have our merch up online after our tour with Tesseract and Unprocessed concludes. Love you."
Monuments ran into a very similar problem in 2023 in Milan, though the way the math worked was that the 47% was actually 25% merch cut and a 22% Value-Added Tax (VAT) – so 47% total, but not a 47% merch cut. It's not clear if that's what happened here either, but I'm guessing it might be considering The Callous Daoboys' tweet about VAT. Either way, losing nearly half your income is a real kick in the ass.
And if you're wondering what the hell a merch cut is, it's exactly what it sounds like – the venue takes a percentage of your nightly income from merchandising. Fear Factory guitar Dino Cazares has called the practice "pay to play," while Cyhra's Jake E. had some pretty negative stories about the cuts. Though maybe Dream Theater's Jordan Rudess put it best – "it sucks."
