Merlin

Direct Connection:

Thanks to our new Merlin Direct Connection feature, you can now set up an automated direct connection to your Merlin account and your sales will be automatically imported into IC from the Merlin FTP! To set up your Merlin Direct Connection, follow the instructions below.

• In IC, navigate to Account -> Account Settings
• Scroll down to the Direct Connections menu and click on the Merlin link
• From the Merlin Direct Connection landing page, click the "Add Connection" button to set up the connection between the Merlin FTP and your IC account. Once you have done so, you'll want to enter your Merlin FTP credentials in the settings menu in order to give our system access to your Merlin FTP reporting.
  • Please note, your Merlin FTP credentials are different than those used to login to Merlin's Wizard Portal. If you don't know your Merlin FTP credentials, please reach out to your Merlin representative to be provided with your FTP credentials.
• Finally, you'll want to add a "Start Month". This start month should reflect the first month for which you have not yet imported any data into Infinite Catalog. For example, if you have ingested any August 2025 reporting into the system at all, you'll want to set the Start Month to 2025-09 (September 2025) to ensure that our system does not duplicate Merlin data that has already been accounted for in IC, but rather starts in the following month for which no data has been accounted for.
• Our system will automatically ingest all Merlin reporting which is provided in that Start Month folder moving forward - so even if Merlin provides reporting several months from now, our system will automatically "catch" and ingest new files from each folder moving forward.

Once you have configured your Merlin Direct Connection, our system will automatically check for new reporting and ingest it into IC via the Data Imports page as it becomes available. Our Merlin Direct Connection makes it easy to account for your Merlin data via these automated processes - and if you have any questions or concerns as you set up your Merlin Direct Connection and begin accounting for your data through the Direct Connection, please feel free to reach out to our Support team at any time.

Otherwise, here's how to get the data:

• Log in to Merlin
• Navigate to Reports & Invoices, click the Filter button in the top right corner, and Filter only by Date Paid
  • For example - if you would like to retrieve January 2025 Merlin data, you'll need to wait until after that period ends (i.e. February 1st, 2025) and use the Date Paid values to isolate data for the January 2025 date range as shown below:

• Once you have isolated the data you would like to account for, download the individual statement files for each distributor using the button in the Action column for each row
  • If there are multiple Statement Files, you can Download All if preferred
• For each data source, our Merlin Importer Help Text will let you know which reporting in the File Manager our system ingests for royalty accounting purposes as shown below. For many Merlin data sources, this is the Monthly-Sales.csv file - however, the filename can vary between each data source (such as the Spotify track-for-streaming.txt report in the example below)

Importing into IC:

Before importing Merlin data, you'll want to be sure to select "Merlin" from the list of Data Sources in your Account Settings (Account -> Account Settings), which will enable all Merlin data source importers for your account. You'll also want to add any applicable Merlin fees in the Importer Settings of each Merlin importer you'll be using as detailed below.

• In IC, navigate to Royalties -> Data Imports
• Select the importer corresponding to the Merlin data source you would like to account for in the drop-down importer selection menu. Merlin importers are denoted by the data source first (i.e. Spotify) and Merlin in parenthesis - for example, Spotify (Merlin).
• Merlin importers require Paid Timestamps to be entered manually
  • For Paid Timestamp, use the month corresponding to the Date Paid and a day within that month (we typically use the 15th to ensure that the royalties land within that month, but you can also use the specific day of remittance)

Merlin Fees

Merlin's admin fees can be easily accounted for by adding the fee in the Importer Settings of each Merlin importer. To do so, follow the instructions detailed in this helpful Knowledge Base article.