Start accepting credit cards at shows and double your
merch sales
Not everybody carries cash. So it's best to be prepared. Artists often see huge jumps in their CD and Merch sales when they begin accepting credit cards at shows. For only 30 dollars (plus S&H) you can start accepting credit cards at your concerts and events. Sell anything you want!
- For only $30 plus s&h, we send you everything you need to get started
- With no monthly bank fees, it won't cost you a cent when you're not using it
- No electricity, cables, or wires necessary, so you're free to roam
- We only keep 9% of sales (plus 3.8% to cover credit card fees) and pay you weekly!
Note: if you are not a CD Baby member, you will need to create an account in order to use the swiper.
How It Works:
- No hidden costs. No future costs.
The swiper only costs $30 and it's yours to keep. No hidden costs or monthly fees.
- We mail you ALL the stuff you need
- One very portable imprinter with instruction sheet (no electricity or phone line needed)
- All the supplies that you need for your first 25 transactions
- A table-top merchant tent with Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover logos.
- Pre-addressed envelopes for your credit card batches, which are computer-coded to come back to CD Baby for processing.
- Sell stuff at your shows
- Write the dollar amount on the sales slip along with the item description
- Using the swiper, get an imprint of the customer’s credit card. We need the complete credit card number and expiration date, along with the date of sale and the total amount in order to process the sale
- Ask the customer to sign the sales slip and write down their phone number in case you need to contact them
- Batch up each show’s sales slips into one of our pre-addressed envelopes. As a backup, keep one carbon copy for yourself!
- It doesn’t matter which copy you send us, as long as it is legible
- Write the venue/event name and date on your envelope so that we can include it in your sales report and have it on file in case a customer is confused about a charge
- We need to receive your slips within 7 days of the initial sale – The sooner you send us the slips, the sooner we get paid, the the more thankful your customers will be.
- What do the slips look like?
- Mail us the slips and get paid
- When we receive your credit card batch, we process your sales right away and add the money to your CD Baby account
- You get paid for your sales in our every-Monday-night payments
- If you are signed up for Direct Deposit, this payment will go right into your bank account
- We email you the details
- We email you the detailed batch information so that you can double-check it for errors
- The full details are permanently stored in your members accounting area
- Your sales report will include every transaction you have ever made with the swiper and will be categorized by date and venue for easy referencing
- The money is added to your CD Baby account, minus 12.8%
Assuming the card is accepted, the money is added to your CD Baby account, minus 12.8%. It is in one combined payment with all your other CD Baby activity (CD sales, digital downloads, etc) – that runs every Monday night.
- If a card is declined, don’t worry!
If a card is declined, don’t worry! We will notify you by email so that you can contact your customer to get new card information or arrange some other kind of alternate payment with them.
A signed, imprinted charge slip serves as a contract of sale between you and the customer, but we find that music fans are usually eager to settle any debt with the independent music community.
- Have questions about the credit card swiper program?
