Spotify's Band Shirt Day Shows the Power of a T-shirt

By Brendan Menapace

Spotify has cemented itself as one of, if not the sole, premier music streaming service in the world. It's incredibly easy to use, and over the last couple of years, it's made it easy to buy merchandise related to artists right in the app, too.

Spotify announced this week that it would hold the second-annual event called Band Shirt Day on September 15, in cooperation with MerchFriends, which is a nonprofit organization that helps build "a sustainable ecosystem for independent music merchandise."

In a press release, Spotify said that it's asking artists to offer special apparel or deals on their Spotify profile. So far, big-name artists and bands like Blondie, The Tragically Hip, and Dead Kennedys are already participating.

It sounds a little bit like Record Store Day, but it's a way that a digital platform can get involved with an event focused around physical merchandise.

"Since the earliest days of people creating DIY T-shirts from their favorite artists, merchandise has been a physical and personal representation of fandom," Heather Ellis, product marketing manager for Spotify for Artists, said in the release. "It's an expression of identity, community, and support for the music makers and creators who add color to our world. Band Shirt Day celebrates those creators and provides an opportunity for artists and fans to come together in support of the causes they care about most."

What this says is not only the value in a T-shirt as a means of communicating fandom and musical taste, but also how we as consumers access these T-shirts. What used to be reserved for merchandise tables at concerts is now available all across the internet, including at the point we interact with the music itself.