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Selling Independent MP3s Direct to Customer?
jetsetsc asks: "I am not a programmer but I am a musician. My band's recordings belong to the band, and we'd like to skip the middlemen — labels, iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, etc — and setup a way to sell MP3's cheaply, and directly to fans. I have searched quite a bit and found nothing that fits the bill. Snocap is sort of similar, but they are more about a central store with a MySpace tie in. We don't need a fancy search, or a complicated 'if you liked this try...' feature. I figure potential fans can find our webpage on their own, referred by Pandora, a music blog, internet radio, or even (gasp!) a print article. When they get there it'd be great if they could listen to samples, check off the songs they want, pay 39 cents (or however much) through PayPal, and get a secure non-transferable download just like iTunes. DRM not required. I can't believe in this day and age that a service or software package like this doesn't exist. Any ideas?"
and get a secure non-transferable download just like iTunes. DRM not required.
How would you go about making it "secure" and "non-transferable" without the DRM part? (Ignoring, for a moment, that DRM is neither secure nor does it necessarily make music non-transferable)
Since you don't need any of the music-specific features, look for a package that helps you sell software. It's the same problem you're trying to solve and there are many options. This one was near the top of my google search results, and looks to meet your needs. There appeared to be numerous similar apps.
.sig: file not found
here's my guess - he means they can download it but can't just email someone else the link. no controls on the file they actually get. so to download it from the band site, they must pay. what they do after that is up to them.
and when you frame it that way, this question can be answered by making it broader. what software allows you to charge someone to download a file? that's it. the music part is really irrelevant.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
"What's wrong with Sounclick [soundclick.com]?"
I signed up for them once and got a lot of spam. They even make you sign up for the spam lists to download their FREE mp3's.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Sounds like http://www.mindawn.com/ is what you're looking for. They sell lossless (flac) and lossy (ogg) sound files. No DRM. Their catalog is growing steadily, and they work with a lot of independents.
Dreamhost (note: my hosting provider, and a referral link) recently announced Files Forever (non-referral link) that I think would let you do what you are after. It's beta now (I don't know if they will let non-Dreamhost customers in) but I think it's an easy solution to what you're looking for. When they announced it on their Blog they specifically mentioned being able to use it as an iTunes alternative.
Hope that helps.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
dreamhost is offering a service for their customers: https://files.dreamhost.com/ - No DRM is allowed.. period! - Once you upload your file to sell, you pay a tiny one-time storage fee, and we serve it FOREVER at a nice, permanent, URL. - Anybody who buys a file somebody offers via Files Forever get an online backup of it included.. that is, they may re-download the file as many times as they want, FOREVER! - Any file you buy from Files Forever you can also "loan" to your friends via the service! They are then allowed to download the file as much as they want until you ask for it "back." (This is awesome, trust me.) - We handle all the payment processing / shopping cart stuff, and take just 5% + 50c for credit card fees. (We combine purchases to minimize these costs too.) - You can even offer an "affiliate cut" for people who re-sell your files!
/ http://suffocate.us
/ http://johngrayson.com
If you don't go the DRM route, you might as well just set up a website with a standard store and sell the files and a donation button so people can "tip" you. This is not difficult and could be done in a few days. Of course you are going to have to hope that
Your band can literally be the test case for musicians using micropayments as a means of making a living as so many people claim is possible.
One other thing, you can try this with one or two songs to start. That way you don't give away your entire catalog.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
...richie - It is a good day to code.
First, a preface. There are sites out there that will do what you want, and as part of their fees, will handle the site development, order processing, and fulfillment. If you really want to do it yourself, remember that there are typically per-transaction as well as percentage fees for card processing, which is why micropayments have yet to really take off.
Now, that being said, OSCommerce will do what you want. It will provide a pretty interface, allow you to create time and/or number of download limited links, and has plugins to handle billing with pretty much anyone you'd ever want (and some you wouldn't touch) to handle your billing.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
"DRM is required to have a "non-transferrable download". Once you do that, it's not an MP3 anymore. MP3 files are not encumbered by DRM and are transferable. You are going to have to ask: do you want MP3, or do you want DRM? You can't do both."
I think by 'non-transferable download' he means he doesn't want somebody to get the URL to the MP3, then paste it to all his friends on ICQ so they can get it too. In other words, he wants a unique download link per customer. I bumped into that problem myself when I worked on a Lightwave plugin a year ago. We were able to incorporate an unlock code into it, but that's not something that can be done with MP3. So the solution he needs has to be on the server end, not in the MP3 file.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I have an independent label. We have interns manage getting the releases out to all of the major sites.1 1638090
/ ArtistServlet?id=36183 //teh evil
We track royalties and sales data from all of them.
in addition to iTunes store, the catalog is available on most pay sites:
http://www.playittonight.com/
http://www.dancerecords.com/artists/Synthique
http://www.last.fm/
http://www.emusic.com/artist/11616/11616213.html
http://www.napster.com/view/artist/index.html?id=
I just noticed that I have stuff on the WalMart music site. That's disturbing, since I don't remember anyone contacting them..
http://musicdownloads.walmart.com/catalog/servlet
Have you considered the Podsafe Music Network? They now let artists sell their music for a dollar a track, with no DRM. The PMN has an added benefit of promotion via podcasts playing your music.