More and more artist merchandise has been released for the holiday season—limited edition collections available for a limited time—and in multiple installments. More and more artists, such as Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, and Olivia Rodrigo, have taken the former’s example of a long-running history of releasing holiday merch for the winter season.
From Taylor Swift’s Cardigan Collection releases to holiday exclusive drops, there is not only pressure to buy for the holidays, but also because of the limited amount of time this merchandise is available. This is not to say that artists’ profit from any of their merch isn’t warranted; however, the environmental impact of music merchandise is equally important to consider on a broader scale.
What is the impact of buying multiple times and shipping multiple packages because they’ve been bought separately? On the one hand, it is important to have a limited stock to avoid overstock merchandise and divert landfill waste. On the other hand, the push to buy multiple times within a short period of time produces greater carbon emissions and generates negative sustainable purchasing habits globally. The production and selling of merchandise adds to the fast fashion industry, which makes up 10% of the total carbon emissions globally. Using alternative shipping methods, such as bulk ground and regional hubs, can at least counter some of the environmental impacts that limited merch entails.
The underlying issue is the way limited drops promote exclusivity when fans feel like they need multiple merch items because it’s limited, and therefore promote overconsumption. It’s important to recognize the way buying merch perpetuates a remarkably exploitative industry. Artists, especially smaller ones, still need to make money and can’t always afford the most sustainable option, from recycled materials to greener packaging methods and need fan support from merchandise sales to oftentimes make a profit from their shows.
It is important to support your favourite artists, but consider the factors before buying. To start, by making merchandise buying available for a longer period of time—where they can still promote limited drops in multiple posts, but make it live all at once—we may be able to begin more sustainable fandom interactions instead of taking advantage of fan willingness to impulse buy and overconsume.