See how the two stack up on rentals, repairs, lessons, and the workflows a music shop depends on, so you can pick with confidence.
Last updated: September 2026
Plenty of POS systems can ring up a sale and count your stock. For a music shop, the real test is everything around the sale. The rental that bills every month. The repair ticket that follows a horn from dropoff to pickup. The lesson schedule and the Reverb listing.
Lightspeed is a capable retail platform stretched across dozens of industries. Music Shop 360 does one thing, and that’s music retail. That focus is the whole difference.
Barnett Music Exchange, Tulsa, OK
Lightspeed can take a deposit and pull an instrument from stock. But the monthly billing and school-rental paperwork fall to a separate add-on. Music Shop 360 handles the entire rental cycle in-house, from auto-pay to the customer portal to return tracking. There’s no second system to wire up.
Reverb listings, lesson scheduling, and instrument-focused marketing aren’t part of a general retail toolkit. Music Shop 360 ships with a direct Reverb integration and a My Music Staff link for lessons. Email and SMS marketing come built into the POS.
Both platforms track repairs, but only one was designed for a repair bench. Music Shop 360 adds job templates, image capture, several work orders per ticket, and texting straight from the job. Lightspeed offers a general-purpose service module instead.
Lightspeed is a cloud-based POS that serves specialty retailers of all kinds, from bike shops to boutiques.
It’s strong on the fundamentals, including serialized inventory, multilocation control, native e-commerce, and deep reporting.
The catch for music stores is that rentals, lessons, and Reverb depend on third-party integrations. Retail pricing opens at $89 per month billed annually. Card processing runs 2.6% plus 10 cents in person.
Music Shop 360 is a cloud-based POS made for one industry: independent music retail.
Rentals, work orders, e-commerce, lessons, and marketing share a single system. It includes multilocation support, with pricing that starts at $99 per month.
Try the Build and Price tool to size a system for your shop.
Music Shop 360
Lightspeed
Manage your store from anywhere — no local server or desktop dependency required.
Track individual instruments by serial number for accurate inventory, warranty records, and ownership history.
Monitor sales trends and store performance with built-in reporting tools.
Accept credit, debit, and mobile payments securely at the point of sale.
Manage inventory, sales, and reporting across multiple store locations from one system.
Sell instruments and accessories online with inventory that stays in sync automatically.
Track instrument repairs and service jobs from customer dropoff to pickup.
Create and manage rental contracts, recurring payments, and return tracking for students and schools.
Charge customers for recurring instrument rental fees on a set schedule, automatically.
List and manage your instrument inventory on Reverb without duplicate data entry.
Connect your lesson management platform to keep student scheduling and billing in sync with your store.
Schedule music lessons and classes, assign instructors, and manage student rosters from your POS.
Reach customers with targeted promotions, automated campaigns, and review requests — built into your POS.
Reward repeat customers with points and perks tied to their purchase history.
Accept used instruments as trade-ins and apply their value toward new purchases.
Automate time-consuming tasks with AI tools built directly into your POS.
Get tools designed around music retail, from rentals and repairs to lessons and used gear.
Music Shop 360
Lightspeed
Manage your store from anywhere — no local server or desktop dependency required.
Track individual instruments by serial number for accurate inventory, warranty records, and ownership history.
Monitor sales trends and store performance with built-in reporting tools.
Accept credit, debit, and mobile payments securely at the point of sale.
Manage inventory, sales, and reporting across multiple store locations from one system.
Sell instruments and accessories online with inventory that stays in sync automatically.
Track instrument repairs and service jobs from customer dropoff to pickup.
Create and manage rental contracts, recurring payments, and return tracking for students and schools.
Charge customers for recurring instrument rental fees on a set schedule, automatically.
List and manage your instrument inventory on Reverb without duplicate data entry.
Connect your lesson management platform to keep student scheduling and billing in sync with your store.
Schedule music lessons and classes, assign instructors, and manage student rosters from your POS.
Reach customers with targeted promotions, automated campaigns, and review requests — built into your POS.
Reward repeat customers with points and perks tied to their purchase history.
Accept used instruments as trade-ins and apply their value toward new purchases.
Automate time-consuming tasks with AI tools built directly into your POS.
Get tools designed around music retail, from rentals and repairs to lessons and used gear.
It depends on what you sell around the counter. If rentals, lessons, repairs, and Reverb are core to your shop, Music Shop 360 handles them natively. Lightspeed is a broader retail system that can cover some of the same ground through add-ons.
You can, but every add-on is another subscription, another login, and another vendor to call when something breaks. Music Shop 360 builds rentals, lessons, repairs, and Reverb into one system — one bill, one support team, one place to learn.
Partly. Lightspeed takes deposits and reserves rental stock. But recurring billing and school-rental contracts require a third-party add-on. Music Shop 360 includes recurring auto-pay and an online rental portal out of the box.
Lightspeed’s repair module covers basic work orders, which is fine for general retail. It lacks music-specific tools like job templates, split tickets, and multiple work orders per repair. Music Shop 360 was built around the repair bench.
Yes. You still get serialized inventory, multilocation support, detailed reporting, and native e-commerce. Music Shop 360 covers the same fundamentals, then adds the music-specific tools on top.
Yes. Music Shop 360 keeps in-store, e-commerce, and Reverb inventory in sync automatically. Sell an instrument anywhere and your stock updates everywhere. Lightspeed syncs in-store and online, but Reverb needs a separate process.
Lightspeed opens at $89 per month billed annually, but rentals, lessons, and loyalty are paid add-ons. Extra registers cost more too. Music Shop 360 starts at $99 per month with those tools included, so the gap narrows fast.
Moving your data is the part most owners worry about. With Music Shop 360, a dedicated migration team brings over inventory, customers, and history. An onboarding manager gets your shop live and your staff trained. Most stores keep selling right through the switch.
Schedule a demo to explore rentals, repairs, Reverb listings, and more with a Music Shop 360 expert.
