According to brooklynvegan.com metal band metal Russian Circles are touring  in Europe and before their show at L’Olympia in Paris last night, they band  announced that they will not be selling their merch at the venue.

Before the performance,  the  Russian Circles posted  a statement on their Instagram which revealed that L’Olympia has  “enlisted an outside company to sell artists’ merch” and the venue took a 25% of the commission and withholds a 20% VAT tax.

 

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A post shared by Russian Circles (@russiancircles)

“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.”

Russian Circles are one of several bands who decided not to sell their merch at certain venues due to fees and financial losses.  Anthrax had to cancel their entire leg of their tour because of the  rising costs of merch. Animal Collective, Santigold, and Metronomy took the same steps last year.

Earlier this month, the band Monuments protested the high costs of merch cuts by refusing to sell anything at their show in Athens, Greece. Shortly after, the band Igorrr made the same decision.

And before all that happened, the band  Architects showed how serious this issue was because they have  suggesting that bands go on strike over the merch cuts, which has been the most extreme measure proposed so far.