Everything you need to know about running your merch table with Merch Cat.
Pricing & plans
Merch Cat is $14.99/month, or $149.99/year (which works out to $12.49/month). Your subscription includes real-time inventory tracking, analytics, venue reports and settlements, the Square-powered POS, and the connection to the Merch Cat Fan app.
Yes — you can request a promo code from the homepage. Promo codes are also how we onboard artists into Luminate reporting.
You can manage your subscription from your account. If you need help changing or cancelling your plan, contact support and we'll take care of it.
Point of sale & Square
Merch Cat's point of sale is powered by Square. Connect your Square account once, and you can take card, contactless, and cash payments. Every sale updates your inventory and reporting in real time.
Yes — you connect your existing Square account (or create one) through Merch Cat's secure Square connection. You only have to do this once.
Yes. Cash sales are supported through the POS and are tracked alongside your card sales.
On the road
An iOS device, a Merch Cat subscription, and a Square account for card payments. Upload your inventory, add your shows (manually or imported from Bandsintown), and you're ready to run your merch table.
The Merch Cat iOS app is built for the road. You run your shows and update inventory right from your iOS device, and your data syncs back to your account so your reports and settlements stay up to date.
Settlements & reporting
Yes. Merch Cat auto-generates settlement sheets (PDFs) and calculates venue cuts for each show, including splits between recorded music and soft goods. No end-of-night math.
Yes — the MerchMetrics dashboard shows sales, profit, and inventory breakdowns, plus your top-selling shows and items. View it in the app or on the web, and export or email your reports.
Luminate reporting
Luminate (MRC Data) is the data company behind the Billboard charts. When you sell physical music (CDs and vinyl) at your shows through Merch Cat, those eligible sales can be reported to Luminate so they count toward charting.
No. Merch Cat submits your eligible sales to Luminate; whether and how they chart is determined by Luminate/MRC Data, not by Merch Cat.
An active Luminate subscription on your Merch Cat account. If you don't see the Luminate options in the app, your subscription isn't active yet — contact support.
CD or vinyl (LP) items with a UPC. The UPC (the product barcode) is required to match your sale to a release. Each music item also needs a release date, title, and your artist name.
A show with complete venue details, including a postal code (US ZIPs with leading zeros, e.g. 02879, and Canadian codes like K1A 0B1 are supported).
T-shirts and other merch, cassettes, and digital are not reportable — only CDs and vinyl. Non-music items are simply skipped; that's expected.
That's correct and intended. Luminate caps reporting at 4 units of the same title per transaction to prevent a single sale from skewing the charts. This is a Luminate rule, not a Merch Cat limitation.
If a show has 125 or more reportable music units, Luminate requires you to attach verification media — a photo or video proving the sales — before you submit. Smaller shows don't need it.
Reporting is a weekly batch, not real-time. Approved shows are exported to Luminate every Friday at 11:00 AM ET. The reporting week closes at the Friday 10:30 AM ET cutoff. In short: submit before Friday 10:30 AM ET and your sales go out that same Friday; submit after, and they go the following Friday.
Your submission gets a status: Good Sales (accepted, queued for export), Flagged (held for a quick Merch Cat review — common for large shows or missing verification), or Rejected (not reported; you can fix and resubmit within the reporting week). You'll get an email when a submission is approved or rejected.
Luminate reporting is available now as an add-on subscription alongside your Merch Cat plan. See Luminate reporting for details, or request a promo code from the homepage. Reporting also requires physical music items (CD or vinyl) with a UPC.
Support & contact
Use the Contact Us form or the Feedback link in the homepage footer. For Luminate-specific setup, contact support to confirm your subscription is active.
Merch Cat is available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.
Use Reset Password from the homepage and we'll email you a reset link.