This post originally appeared on Brenden Mulligan’s blog on May 11, 2010. Brenden is the founder of ArtistData and can be found on twitter @bmull. He is in no way associated with the company Square.
Musicians have a lot to deal with while on the road. One of those things is the organization and sale of CDs, T-Shirts, and other merch. These days, it’s the ticket and merch sales that pay for the gas, the new drumsticks and guitar strings, the food and drinks, and every other expense on tour. So musicians have to be smart about making as much money on the road as possible.
Today, an exciting startup exited private beta that I believe every musician who tours should sign up for immediately. It’s called Square, and I’ve been publicly excited about it for a while now. At the helm is the guy who invented Twitter, which turned out to be a pretty good idea. The goal of the company is to make accepting credit cards dead simple.
Let me break it down. Download the app, create an account, order a free card reader, start accepting payments. Yep. That simple. And the rates are incredibly fair with no contract or monthly fee. That means if you don’t like it, you can just stop using it. There’s no reason not to try it.
So back to the musicians: By allowing your fans to pay with credit cards, you’ll sell more merch. Yes, you’ll have to pay a fee that isn’t present when only accepting cash, but you’ll sell more merch. So let’s update the process I posted before. Download the app, create an account, order a free card reader, start accepting payments, sell more merch than before.
The YouTube video is below. Watch it and then go download the app. Seriously.
Unfortunately, Square is only currently available in the US.