Basic premise of what I am looking for:

Our next album will be released this fall and I am interested in trying new ways of offering it online. Yes, the label takes care of putting it on all kinds of mp3 sites and the itunes store and amazon etc. but we are also free to sell it as we choose. They also have the physical version stocked all over.

What I want is a separate thing that I can integrate with our paypal account like TopSpin Media does (they just did this with Jimmy Eat World for a recent example). Basically the user can use a credit card or paypal and as soon as they fill out the information and submit/buy it initiates a download of the media. The reason I would like to do this is similar to what Jimmy Eat World and Cursive have done.

This gives the listener a nice digital option beyond just getting the songs and small cover art from Itunes or something. This would setup a download of a zip file with the songs + some extra stuff in there. I would like to package the new album as a zip file with all the songs in high quality plus a high quality PDF of the FULL artwork/booklet (not just coverart), the coverart file, and perhaps some other goodies such as including the last EP in the zipfile or including a music video for one of the "singles" off the album. My problem is just figuring out the best way to set up a triggered download once people submit a payment via paypal. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Edited on April 7, 2009 at 10:51 PM. Reason : ]

4/7/2009 10:50:23 PM

also, a link to a DL would be acceptable as this is what Cursive did I just remembered. But other bands have done the immediate DL link. Either one is completely fine with me.

4/7/2009 11:52:18 PM

bttt. Apparently I was tired when I wrote the 2nd post. To clarify I meant to say that an email with a Link to a DL was acceptable as well as having the file automatically pop up prompting the user to Save As.

4/8/2009 1:09:06 PM

You know you can include all the stuff you want through iTunes. Every album I have purchased has come with a 'digital booklet' with extra stuff. Not sure how you would go about getting them to include the digital booklet but its possible.

4/8/2009 3:18:25 PM

I have heard that, although I havent bought one through there that has had extra stuff myself I don't believe. I'll have to ask the label what Itunes shaves off the top, but I was under the impression that it was around $0.10+ per song or about $1 per 10 song album. Was trying to see if someone else did it cheaper (and without the user having to use Itunes). Either a website or if someone could program a secure site to do this via paypal.

If there isnt another good option out there, I probably will just have them figure out how to do it for us via itunes. But one of my intentions with this was not using Itunes since not everyone likes it and it would also be up on there and I was trying to find another good avenue digitally for people to get this.

[Edited on April 8, 2009 at 3:36 PM. Reason : ]

4/8/2009 3:34:02 PM

I would say iTunes is a great place to start. Its proven to work, proven to sell songs like no other, its DRM free.

I wouldn't say people don't like to use iTunes either...from what I've seen its really mostly TWWers who are too cool for iTunes/Amazon/whatever and they are also the same people that won't buy your music from anywhere unless its free.

Plus iTunes has a whole section dedicated to indy labels (don't know if you fall into that category or not)

Another pro is the cost to you is very cheap because you are only really paying a commission to iTunes and have no operating costs (in terms of selling your music online). It would also be easier to market and get your name out there vs. trying to market your own music purchasing tool in addition to marketing your site and driving traffic there. Do you also really want to have to deal with the support side of things? Example, someone downloads it but it doesn't work etc.

4/8/2009 3:46:17 PM

Good points. I'll try and check into Itunes' capabilities at packaging other things in with the songs (when someone buys the entire album of course). In my initial thoughts I was trying to provide an option to bypass requiring anyone to have extra software or sign up for anything etc. as well as providing extra goodies. But I guess if Itunes can do what I want it may be worth it.

4/8/2009 4:52:15 PM