Software Advice

[Lazz]

Do any of you have information/recommendations for decent shopping-cart and shop-front software that is appropriate for selling downloadable music in MP3 format?

[FinnArild]

Do any of you have information/recommendations for decent shopping-cart and shop-front software that is appropriate for selling downloadable music in MP3 format?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try getting a deal with iTunes or some of the other online firms (orchard is one, I believe) directly. You would need to set up your own record company for that.

[Lazz]

I am a record company and I have a deal.

Thank you.

Do you happen to have any answer to the question, though?

[Steve]

I am a record company and I have a deal.

Thank you.

Do you happen to have any answer to the question, though?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I recently looked at some software for compiling an online store for a friend. It was by a company called Actinic. The software itself was a doddle to use and they were advertising a plugin to allow MP3 downloads. Not the cheapest option but well worth a look!

Also found this! Paid Download Management System

And this! PayLaodz

[Lazz]

Thanks, Steve.

I have added those to the small bundle of others I found. (Been looking for this Payloadz site for some time - but had been spelling it wrong, naturally, and ended up instead with information about particular viral dangers.)

My search for an affordable independent on-line solution first started almost two years ago. The firm Finn mentions in passing, The Orchard, was one of my first stops. They are a digital distributor, by the way, not a store-front like iTunes. And they claim to be the biggest. But then, so does the company they led me to, one called Loudeye, who have been in the business of digitally encoding media since 1997, and are heavily capitalised by Microsoft, Intel, AOL-Time Warner, CBS, NBC et al. Loudeye were the guys who designed the shop-front software for all those other traders. It came as a kind of “white-label” package that enabled other operations to dress it up as a bespoke branded identity. It was predictably way beyond my means but, as they had by that time moved into the business of also supplying content, we instead entered a digital distribution deal with them. All the omens were good: the rate per download was significantly better than other options I’d been chasing, the ISRC encoding process was charged at around one fifth of the price offered by other companies, it promised a great deal more that I shan’t waste time going into, and it was non-exclusive. Just what we wanted.

Only they don’t actually deliver the goods – far too busy with survival through growth and acquisitions to concern themselves with low priorities like proper service to small fishes like us.

In the interim, thankfully, these other smaller software companies have developed packages that enable small-time independents like us to offer downloads for sale without losing an arm and a leg in the process. Great. We get quite a lot of site traffic, and we also have a lot of projects mixed and mastered that we can’t afford to manufacture yet. All I need to do is find out what the choices are and which one is right for us. So thanks again for your comments, Steve. I need the help and appreciate it very much.

[Steve]

Good luck! Let us know how you get on.

[hariossa]

I just bought the last issue of computer music and they talk about this Actinic that Steve posted, they say that with this product you can sell mp3, t-shirts and cds.

they have 2 versions, one of them allows you to sell up to 25 products and the other one allows you to sell up to 10000 products.

the 25 prod. version costs 290€ and the other one 725€.

actinic audiostore

[Steve]

I just bought the last issue of computer music and they talk about this Actinic that Steve posted, they say that with this product you can sell mp3, t-shirts and cds.

they have 2 versions, one of them allows you to sell up to 25 products and the other one allows you to sell up to 10000 products.

the 25 prod. version costs 290€ and the other one 725€.

actinic audiostore

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They do a good range of software. I put together an online pet store for a friend. I was hoping he would go for it so I could buy the developer package. With that, you can build as many online stores as you want! Unfortunately, the guys a skinflint and wanted me to do it for nothing...

[nigel lawry]

now heres a novel idea..a shopping cart that you don't need to use a shopping cart to own one..confused?..welcome to open source

Version 4.4.0

Have you ever wanted to put up a simple store front, but not had CGI access to do it, or wish to lower your server overhead? Then this free JavaScript shopping cart is exactly what you need. Every browser supports JavaScript these days, and with the use of NOSCRIPT tags, those very few who have turned it off are alerted to re-enable it during the duration of their shopping experience. This script also features the ability to have your products on many pages -- you do not have to have all of your products on one page, like so many of the other solutions. This complete, simple to use shopping cart is easy to implement on almost any site. All that is required is pasting in the source code on every page that you can purchase products from, and on the final checkout page.

http://www.nopdesign.com/freecart/

[Lazz]

Great. Thanks for all the help, guys. It doesn’t look like I would have found my way unaided. Typical.

Nigel – I am no programmer, so still feel a tad intimidated by coded stuff of which I possess such a limited understanding. On the face of it, “Free” seems a much better deal than “Expensive”, but I’m going to have to get someone else to look at your open source suggestion on my behalf and see how it can address what appear to be my two core needs for integrated payment and delivery processes. Do you have any other observations about how this could function?

The delivery process has been bugging me the most. From what I can figure out, the common solution is for the purchaser to receive a “key” via e-mail that enables them to go pick-up the downloads they’ve bought. That way, they get only the copies they pay for and not unlimited access to multiple copies or even my complete library.

Inventa, PayLoadzand Actinic have that end neatly covered, of course, because paid downloads is what they’re made for, but I’m not at all sure about the other off-the-shelf systems I had previously been looking at like Fortune, EziMerchant and Pinnacle.

The one big advantage of the Actinic product is the fact that we can buy it and own it and use it ourselves rather than having to be committed to some regular monthly gouging in order to use what amount to third-party gateway facilities. We already use an external commission-based gateway for purchases and I'm waiting to see whether they have any mechanisms for handling this download business.

Stevie the Parrott and Harry the Bear get a big hand for leading me to Actinic.

This looks to be the canine’s testicles at the moment.

Even if it is a big chunk of change.

(I might have to get another paper-round.)

Mille grazis.

I’m getting a more informed geezer than me to help look at these options and I’ll tell you how we get along.

Edited June 27, 2005 by Lazz

[nigel lawry]

good luck with this lazz as you can see the choices are many and too add more to it

   

Artists First is the most powerful e-commerce application available to the music industry today and used in conjunction with our "drip feeding" thinking (see thinking for more information), provides a genuine alternative income stream to the old CD album.

Once installed on your own website via HTML code - just like a Pay Pal button - a small window appears on that page and from this fans can buy your downloads on their mobile phone bill or credit/debit card.

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For more detailed information click on each of the sections opposite to find out more...

i found this here

http://www.audiostreet.net/

happy 'shopping' lazz