Selling music downloads online.

[Dawdeeb]

Hey everyone. I want to set up my site with a shop from which I can sell my music downloads. A full blown credit card merchant account is too expensive for me at the moment, so I'm going to be using paypal in conjunction with the e-commerce tools provided by netfirms (my website host).

I'd like to hear from anyone who has used Paypal to sell music downloads online, and basically anyone who knows the pros/cons of using Paypal as a merchant account.

Please help me with this.

Thanks. Rohan.

ps. to hear my music visit http://www.myspace.com/rohanforsale

[mjr]

I haven't used PayPal, but I'll offer this:

I'd guess the main thing to look at would be if it's worth $X per month to sell Y CDs.

Using PayPal might require that your customers actually sign up for a PayPal account.

If you're ONLY selling downloads, why not try iTunes or SoundClick or whatever? I know you can sell your MP3s via soundclick.

You may want to look into online music merchants as well.

[Dawdeeb]

Yeah, I know what your saying. But the great thing about Paypal is that you can accept credit cards aswell. I intend to put my stuff on itunes too, but I'd really like to have my albums for sale from my site. I set up a sound click profile ages ago but havent done anything with it, I should check that out.

Yep, at the moment I'll only be selling downloads, it cuts out all shipping and as far as I can tell the cd wont exist within the next few years.

Thanks for your opinion.

Rohan.

[mjr]

If you're looking for digital distribution, you might also want to check out CD Baby's digital distribution page:

http://cdbaby.net/dd

Don't know if that's what you want, or not.

Check around, though. You may be able to find other cost-effective ways to do what you want.

Try looking on www.musicbizacademy.com as well. There are some good articles and helpful tips on there. There may be a link on there to exactly what you want.

Good luck!

[warble]

PayPal does not require account sign-up - used to, but not any longer. Good move on PayPal's part and it's worked for me (not selling CD's etc., but offering the ability for clients to pay me for my Web development services).

I'm curious how easy it is or not to get on iTunes. I know that they review the submitted material and that there is a waiting period, and it would seem to me that the "big" labels would get priority.

[Dawdeeb]

I applied to get on itunes. Its actually quite good. You just give a sort of description of your music, they evaluate the description and send you a list of organizations that will encode and destribute your music to itunes as well as other online music shops.

So paypal works well for you? I'm setting up to sell an album of mine on soundclick right now and it said they send you your payment via email. I havent recieved a payment through paypal yet so I dont really get how they send me mony through an email. This is probably a stupid question but could anyone walk me through what happens when you recieve an email payment using paypal?

Thanks.

[kurtteej]

I actually managed a PayPal payment implementation for a pretty robust product at MyPhotoAlbum.com. We used a different cart application (osCommerce I believe). It worked well although a bit clumsy at times. If you need a quick and efficient way to process your payments and you're not anticipating huge volumes, PayPal works very well.

[Dawdeeb]

Cool, thats good to know. But what do you mean by huge volumes? Sure, at first I probably wont be selling loads but I am certainly hoping to be selling quit a bit in the future.

So is there an actual limit to how much you can make on paypal?

[mjr]

With PayPal, I believe there's a transaction fee. So, in theory there is no limit to how much money you can make. Of course, if there are transactions going on, then you'll have that much less money. I believe there's a monthly fee, also.

[Dawdeeb]

No, I'm sure theres no monthly fee. I think anyway. I know paypal take 9% of each sale as well as 30c. But I'm pretty sure theres no transaction fee. I supose if you were making a lot of money you would set up a proper credit card merchant account anyway.

[warble]

All we need to do here is goto the PayPal site for the correct information:

Website Payments Standard (customers shop on your Website, pay on PayPals Website):
No monthly fees
No setup fees
Transaction fees=1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD

I've used this one and have the transactions completed in a pop-up window. People have used it for payment and it doesn't seem to bother too many people.

Website Payments Pro (customers shop and pay on your Website):
$20 monthly fee
No setup fees
Transaction fees=2.2% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD

I've not used this one, but will be soon for a new e-commerce project. It's basically comparable to a number of merchant accounts available out there, and requires a compatible shopping cart (osCommerce for example) or knowledge of scripting and API's.

My intention was not to advertise for PayPal here, just clear up any confusion. There are certainly other options out there!

[kurtteej]

Originally Posted by Dawdeeb

Cool, thats good to know. But what do you mean by huge volumes? Sure, at first I probably wont be selling loads but I am certainly hoping to be selling quit a bit in the future.

So is there an actual limit to how much you can make on paypal?

Huge volumes would be dozens per day. PayPal takes a nice chunk (like 5 or 5 1/2 % of the transaction. PayPal will serve you very well. It's a nice simple interface that doesnt require people to register with them -- it's 1 extra click for someone, but not to worry.

KT

[Dawdeeb]

Great, thanks for all the info guys. I've got a better Idea now.

[warble]

Originally Posted by kurtteej

Huge volumes would be dozens per day. PayPal takes a nice chunk (like 5 or 5 1/2 % of the transaction. PayPal will serve you very well. It's a nice simple interface that doesnt require people to register with them -- it's 1 extra click for someone, but not to worry.

KT

Where are you getting 5-5 1/2% from?

[mharr552000]

here are a few sites I found when I was looking into this a few weeks ago.
http://www.streamingdelivery.com/index.asp
http://www.payloadz.com/
http://www.easybe.com/

[cmhansen]

There is a account at Paypal where you can get a 'micro' account. I contacted them about a week ago. It's a $.05 and 5% charge, compared with the 2.9% and $.30 for each transaction of the macro account. But they also included that if you sell more than $2.00 worth of downloads then that account won't work and it would revert back to the 'macro' account.

As of right now though they do not let you combine the two accounts, so you'll have to set up two accounts. One for the macro and one for the micro. I know it stinks.

I was thinking of setting something up like you are. I've been looking at a place called Payloadz. They have a plan where you pay them 15% of the charge and they handle everything for you. You put your songs on there servers (up to 1000mb of space for this specific plan), and they handle the transactions with Paypal. Not sure if I'll go that direction as of yet, but it is another option in conjunction with PP.

Considering that many places like Soundclick, Songplanet, etc., do this and charge more than that, it seems like a fair deal. Mind you, that's probably just my opinion. If you go to something like osCommerce then you're going to have to have the music on your site, so you're paying for the extra space there. Alot of trade offs to what you're trying to do.

Good luck with your endevour.

[warble]

Originally Posted by cmhansen

There is a account at Paypal where you can get a 'micro' account. I contacted them about a week ago. It's a $.05 and 5% charge, compared with the 2.9% and $.30 for each transaction of the macro account. But they also included that if you sell more than $2.00 worth of downloads then that account won't work and it would revert back to the 'macro' account.

Seems to me that the micro account is kind of a waste of time...

[cmhansen]

Originally Posted by warble

Seems to me that the micro account is kind of a waste of time...

Well, if someone goes to your site and wants to buy just one or two downloads, then why pay the extra charge to Paypal. If you're selling them for $1.00 then the charge would be $.10 compared to the almost $.34 for the macro account. It seems like a good thing to me. Especially if you're lucky enough or good enough to sell alot of downloads. Almost a quarter for each transaction can add up.