Some music fans are happy to simply enjoy the music of their favourite artists. But for others, the artist or band becomes an extension of themselves, and they’ll jump at any opportunity to showcase their love of the music by buying branded merchandise. For the most part, this involves buying a t-shirt.
But there are also more unusual merchandise items that allow fans to showcase their love of an artist in more creative ways. You could buy a branded dog collar for your pooch, or even buy a brick from an artist’s previous home.
And if you wanted to enjoy rock ‘n’ roll legends in digital form, you could use a slots deal to play the branded online slots games for Guns N’ Roses, Motörhead, or Elvis Presley. In other words: there’s no shortage of ways to express your love for your favourite artists.
Here, we’ll run through some of the more unusual branded band merchandise that goes far beyond the usual t-shirt offerings.
A Dog Collar
If you have a pet, then they’ve probably heard much of the music that you love. And because their hearing is better than ours, they’ve probably even heard it on a deeper level. Alas, there aren’t too many bands that make merchandise for dogs (poor things). But there is one. If you were a fan of short-lived but influential band Mother Love Bone, then why not get your dog their branded dog collar? Oddly, this was one of the only pieces of merchandise the band created before their untimely end.
Playable Games
Music and video games go together well. But usually, that’s just in the context of the game’s soundtrack. Every now and again, however, we have a playable game that uses the artists as the primary theme. This is the case with the slot games featuring Elvis, Motörhead, and Guns N’ Roses, as we mentioned earlier. There are also a bunch of video games based on artists, with 50 Cent, BTS, Mötley Crüe, Metallica, Iron Maiden, and The Beatles all having full gaming titles based on their music.
A Brick
If you’ve ever listened to Eminem’s music, then you’ll know just how important his early life is to his work. In fact, it often feels like it’s the only thing he ever raps about. So, it made sense that, when the city of Detroit planned to demolish his previous home, Marshall Mathers would claim the bricks. What made slightly less sense was that he would sell those bricks to his fans. In the 2016 special edition release of The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem included a bunch of fun merchandise, including a brick from the house that inspired so much of his music for $350. It sounds ridiculous, but we think it’s pretty cool.
An Axe
An axe is a pretty unusual thing for any artist to release. You could maybe understand it if the band was a rough and ready country outfit, but even then, you’d be pushing the envelope. It makes even less sense when someone as clean-cut as Justin Timberlake releases his own axe. Does he know who his target demographic is? In any case, he thought it’d be a good piece of tie-in merchandise for his single “Livin’ Off The Land.” And given that the axe sold out in record time, we have to say that he was correct.
Headphones…For Your Cat
We mentioned earlier the Mother Love Bone dog collar for your pet dog. If you have a cat, then you’ll also have something to get for them for Christmas too, thanks to electronic producer Deadmau5. The producer teamed up with leading audio engineer company Sol Republic to create the world’s very first headphones for cats, which means your feline friend can jam with you at your next silent disco party. All the money from sales went to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, too!
