thread Re: Independent rock band and square for merch in Payments Troubleshooting

Independent rock band and square for merch

Moonshifter — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 10:23:23 GMT

Hi folks. Im in an independent rock band and am looking at using Square for our merchandise table at gigs. We only sell T-Shirts and CDs and have a low turn-over (unfortunately) of around $15-$200 per show (usually on the lower end).

Often it is spur of the moment purchases from someone seeing us for the first time and wanting a CD or shirt and being able to offer card payments as a point of difference at gigs, instead of expecting new fans to have cash, may help with securing a sale.

We are not at the level of needing an ABN yet, nor have any sort of documentation on the "business" as we're just 5 dudes playing and making music.

Does anyone see any issues using Square in this way?

Cheers

Mike

Re: Independent rock band and square for merch

Seamus — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 01:56:13 GMT

Hey @Moonshifter,

Thanks for getting in touch!

If you sign up as an Individual/Sole Trader and leave the ABN field blank, you'll be good to go 🤘

This essentially registers you as a "hobby business", which covers things like your situation, or artists selling occasional prints at exhibitions, or grandma selling her knitted tea cosies at the weekend markets.

Note that if you end up taking the band far enough to warrant an ABN in the future, you'll need to create a brand new Square account to tie it to an ABN.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions!

Re: Independent rock band and square for merch

Moonshifter — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 03:17:40 GMT

awesome, thanks Sheamus!