Merch on Tour: Counts, Venue Fees and Merch Settlement Explained

Tour merch works like a small traveling shop: you carry stock from city to city, count it before doors and after the show, sell it at a table in the venue, and then settle up with the venue, which often takes a percentage of sales. The count tells you what sold, the settlement tells you what you keep, and good stock management makes sure you don't run out of medium black shirts halfway through the run. For many touring artists, merch is an important part of tour income, so it's worth running carefully.

Here's how it works night to night, and where it usually goes wrong.

Who sells the merch

Every merch setup needs someone accountable for the stock and the money. Usually it's one of these:

• A touring merch seller (often just "merch"), hired by the artist to travel with the tour. They manage stock, set up the table, run sales, do the counts and handle merch settlement.
• A band or crew member covering it on top of their other job. Common on smaller tours, and fine as long as someone has time to count properly before and after the show.
• A venue seller, provided by the venue. Some venues require you to use their seller; others offer it as an option. You still count in and out with them, and their sales feed into settlement.
• A merch company, on bigger tours, which may handle design, manufacturing, shipping and staffing under its own deal with the artist.

Whichever setup you have, decide who owns the merch money and the counts before the first show. Ambiguity there leads to arguments later.

Counting in and counting out

The count-in happens before doors. You count every item on the table and in the backstock that you're bringing into the venue, broken down by item, style and size. If a venue seller is involved, you count with them and both sign the sheet.

The count-out happens after the show, once the table closes. You count everything again. The difference is what sold:

count-in − count-out − comps − damaged = units sold

From the units sold and the prices, you work out what gross sales should be, then compare that to the actual cash and card takings. If they don't match, you find out why that night, not two weeks later.

A few counting rules that save trouble:

• Count by size, not just by item. "Logo tee, black" isn't specific enough. You need S, M, L, XL and so on, both for settlement and for restock planning.
• Record comps and damages separately. Shirts given to the opener, local crew or radio aren't sales, and the venue shouldn't charge a fee on them. Write them down with a reason.
• Keep backstock out of reach. Anything not counted in shouldn't be sold. If you bring more boxes in during the show, add them to the count with a note.
• Get signatures. When a venue is part of the deal, both sides sign the count-in and count-out.

Venue merch fees

Many venues charge a merch fee (sometimes called a hall fee or merch commission): a cut of merch sales made in the building. How it works varies a lot:

• It's usually a percentage of gross sales, and the rate depends on the venue, territory and deal.
• Some venues charge different rates for different kinds of goods, for example clothing versus recorded music.
• Some calculate the fee after sales tax is removed; others don't. Confirm which.
• If the venue provides a seller, the fee may include that service, or the seller may be charged separately.
• Some venues waive or reduce the fee for smaller shows or when the band sells its own merch.

The fee is a real cost, so it belongs in your planning, alongside the rest of the numbers in how to build a tour budget. It can sometimes be negotiated, usually through the agent when the offer is being agreed, not on the night.

Confirm the terms during the advance (the run of calls and emails with each venue before the show), including the fee, who sells, where the table goes, whether there's lighting and power at the table, and how card payments are handled. Put merch on your advancing checklist so it isn't left to the day.

Merch settlement, step by step

Merch settlement is the end-of-night accounting for merch between the touring party and the venue. It usually happens alongside the show settlement, which covers ticket income, expenses and the artist's fee. If you're new to that process, read how show settlement works first.

A typical merch settlement runs like this:

1. Agree the count-out with the venue seller or merch rep.
2. Calculate units sold per item and size, after comps and damages.
3. Work out gross sales from units sold and prices, and check against actual takings.
4. Deal with sales tax as required in that jurisdiction. Rules on collecting and paying sales tax or VAT vary by country, state and sometimes city, and can apply to touring sellers. Check with an accountant who knows touring.
5. Apply the venue fee according to the agreed terms.
6. Account for card fees if the venue processed card payments and passes those costs on.
7. Agree who owes whom. If the venue took the money, they pay the artist the net. If the band took the money, the band pays the venue its fee.
8. Sign a written settlement sheet and keep a copy.

Then log the night's numbers. Sales per show, per item and per size tell you which designs work, which cities buy, and what to reorder.

Stock, restocks and storage

Running out of your best-selling item is lost money. So is hauling around forty boxes of a design nobody wants. Stock management is the part of merch that pays off most over a run.

Some practical habits:

• Track inventory after every show. The count-out is your new stock level. Keep a running total per item and size.
• Watch the rate, not just the total. If a size is selling faster than the rest, you'll know when it'll run out.
• Plan restocks around the routing. Restock shipments need a delivery address and date where someone will be there to receive them, typically a venue or hotel a few days ahead. Confirm with that venue or hotel that they'll accept and hold the boxes.
• Think about space. Merch takes room on the bus, in the trailer or in the van. Factor it into your transport plans, especially on fly dates where every box is excess baggage or freight.
• Pack by item and size. Labeled boxes make counts faster and reduce mistakes.

If you're touring abroad, merch adds paperwork. Goods for sale generally go through normal customs import rather than a temporary-import document, and duties or taxes may apply. That's covered in touring internationally: visas, work permits and ATA carnets.

Cash, cards and security

Merch tables handle money in a busy, dark, crowded room. Keep it simple and safe:

• Take cards. Most fans expect to pay by card. Test the reader and the connection during setup, and have a backup plan if the signal is weak.
• Keep a float for cash and count it at the start of the night.
• Drop cash regularly. Don't let a large amount build up at the table. Move it to a secure place, ideally with a second person, and log each drop.
• Use one price list that's easy to read, and keep prices consistent with what you've announced.
• Separate merch money from other tour money. It makes reconciliation much easier.

Common merch mistakes

Most merch problems come from a few predictable places:

• Skipping the count-in because doors are about to open. Without it, settlement becomes guesswork.
• Not confirming venue terms in advance and finding out about the fee, or a required venue seller, on the night.
• Untracked comps. Shirts handed out without a note look like missing stock.
• No size-level tracking, which leads to running out of popular sizes and overstocking the rest.
• Restocks shipped to the wrong place, or to a venue that wasn't expecting them.
• Unclear ownership of the money between the band, the merch seller and the merch company.

It helps when merch details sit with the rest of the show information rather than in a separate notebook: the venue fee and seller arrangements from the advance, the restock delivery date, and the settlement time on the day sheet (the one-page schedule for each show day). Tools like Conductour keep the itinerary, advance notes and day sheets in one place, so the merch seller sees the same plan as everyone else.

A nightly merch routine

A simple routine works for most tours:

• Load-in: confirm table location, lighting and power; set up stock and display.
• Before doors: count-in, signed if a venue seller is involved; test card reader; count float.
• During the show: sell, restock the table from counted backstock, drop cash regularly.
• After the show: close the table, count-out, reconcile takings.
• Settlement: agree numbers with the venue, sign the sheet, collect or pay the net.
• Pack-out: pack by item and size, update inventory, flag low stock for reorder.

Do it the same way every night and merch becomes one of the most predictable parts of the day.