Prog Achives Merchandise

Just a question for the Admins, forgive me if it has been asked before. Has anyone ever thought about producing and selling Prog Archive Merchandise on the site? Such as shirts, hats, patches, badges etc.
I'm fairly new around here, and don't know very many people. There were obviously a few Prog Archive members at the recent Dream Theater concert I went to in Sydney, but there was no way for me to tell who they were. I think some people might be happy to advertise the fact that they are members here, and even get the chance to meet some other members this way.
What do you think?

A. Welcome to PA! Hope you enjoy your stay! (it's a lyric written in 13/8 for Flute, Bass, Guitar and Drums. Don't take the previous statement seriously) B. Are those Maton guitars in your avatar? C. Excellent idea!

Oh my - can this lead to items such as "the progarchives thong": That special Christmas gift for your loved one...?

It would be interesting to have PA t-shirts, especially if they included some of darksideof's brilliant work.

That's good.  I know I'd sport some gear.  

doctorphil wrote: I think some people might be happy to advertise the fact that they are members here, and even get the chance to meet some other members this way.

You really don't want to meet me... But hey, it's a good suggestion, it'll help me spot fresh nerd meat

Indeed. When not listening to music I'm the secretary of a small golf club. We receive endless advertising material offering to make corporate merchandise for us - you name it and someone will make it for you!
Problem is that unless you order a large quantity the unit price is high.

Yes, the guitars are 3 Matons.

snobb wrote: Another related question - don't believe it wasn't asked before, but I possibly just missed it. Was there any ideas about release of so,me PA music CD's , rarities re-release,limited editions,etc? There are huge amount of members and we have perfect market research (using voting, album rating,etc). I believe that it will be interesting for many members just to have some interesting rare musical releases,released by PA. I am in business development around 20 yrs, may be it is a reason why I am asking such kind of question. Technical part is not a problem, don't believe there are not specialists in that are between PA-people. ( My friends own small idependent label, so I know all their kitchen as well - not a big deal). If this idea will be interesting for site Team, I believe it is not a big problem just to prepare some blueprint for realisation.

This is a very good question; I've also thought about this. The main problem is that by trying to promote various bands (with PA compilations for example) means dealing with materials whose copyright is owned by various companies/persons etc.; it's very complicated, it can be done, but a team is necessary (plenty of lawyers and accountants especially). The costs in this kind of strategy are way too high for PA.

Re-releasing rarities and out of print albums would be a better strategy. In this case you deal with less copyright owners (probably just one for each album). The problem is here that someone still has to invest quite a lot before with the hope that the money will return; pre-orders would be a good idea (who wouldn't have preordered a reissue of Anglagard's Hybris a year ago, for example? BTW it's been re-released in the meantime). One other problem would be that most likely many such materials would need remastering, which I suppose is expensive.

Signing new bands is the most difficult strategy, because this implies investing a lot in the production of the material (which is not already recorded like in the case above) and marketing (because the band would not be already known, like in the case above). In our case we have a niche market so this makes things a bit easier, but provides lesser incomes.

I'm keen on a Dave Stewart tea set, but I'll take a t-shirt or two

I can see it now..."A ProgArchives exclusive, I'm pleased to announce the Wakeman Cape!"