Music merch has never made more money, and fans have rarely felt more squeezed by it.
A March 2026 survey from MIDiA Research captures both sides of that tension. Revenue from merch and live is now the fastest-growing part of the recorded music business. Yet a large share of fans say merch is becoming unaffordable, and many feel their loyalty is being monetized rather than rewarded. At the same time, younger fans are asking for something different: products that feel tailored, subtle, and specific to the artist they love. Together, these findings point to a shift from extracting value from fans to building it with them.
What the data says
MIDiA surveyed 1,000 US fans who had bought merch, physical music, or concert tickets in the past year. Three findings stand out.
Merch is the growth engine. Expanded rights, which include labels' share of merch and live revenue, grew 21.5% in 2025, faster than any other segment of recorded music.
Fans feel the pressure. Just under half of respondents agree that merch is becoming unaffordable, and 39% say they sometimes feel their fandom is being exploited.
Fandom is fragmenting. Just under half say they mainly buy merch from large, well-known artists, and that share falls with each younger age group. Merch is no longer only a superstar business.
MIDiA's own conclusion is direct: the opportunity is not to extract more value from fans, but to build value with them, in ways that reinforce trust rather than erode it.
The shift to bespoke
The band T-shirt is no longer enough for younger fans. MIDiA found that 16 to 24-year-olds are less likely than average to favor T-shirts and more likely to want hoodies, posters, keychains, and jewelry. Having grown up with feeds tailored to their tastes, they expect merch to feel similarly personal.
They also prefer subtle, "if you know, you know" signals over obvious logos. The most interesting examples of the past year reflect this: Earl Sweatshirt's incense, Sabrina Carpenter's pajama set, and Bon Iver's home fragrance. Each one fits the artist's world closely enough that fans recognize it, without needing a name printed across it.
This kind of merch takes more effort to create. But it signals something important: fans want objects that express their connection to an artist, not just advertise it.
Why it matters
Taken together, the data describes a model reaching its limits. Most merch today is built on extraction: more products, more drops, more editions, sold to the same loyal audience. It works in the short term, which is why revenue is growing. But when nearly four in ten fans feel exploited, the cost shows up in trust, and trust is what fandom runs on.
The bespoke trend points to the alternative. Fans are not asking for less. They are asking for products that feel made for them and their community, objects that carry meaning rather than just branding. That is a different kind of value, and it is created with fans rather than taken from them.
The fragmentation finding matters too. As fandom spreads across more artists and smaller communities, the old approach of producing large runs of standard items becomes harder to justify. Tailored products need a model that works at any scale.
Where Kaai fits
Co-creation is the most direct way to build value with fans. Instead of guessing what a fanbase wants and producing it in bulk, artists and brands open their world to their community: the symbols, references, colors, and details that fans already recognize. Each fan combines them into a piece that reflects what that world means to them. We call this authored uniqueness.
Kaai provides the infrastructure for it. The artist or brand defines the creative world, fans design within it, and each piece is made on demand once it is sold. The result answers each of MIDiA's findings:
Trust: fans pay for something they helped create, not another edition designed to be collected.
Bespoke: every piece is tailored by definition, and carries the subtle, insider codes younger fans value.
Scale: with no inventory to hold, the model works for a global superstar and for an artist with a small, devoted community.
The takeaway
The merch boom has proven how much fans are willing to spend on the artists they love. The next phase will be decided by how that spending feels. Artists and brands that invite fans to create, rather than simply to buy, will earn both the revenue and the trust.