I'm working on a way to be able to sell mp3's online using Paypal.

Having a "buy now" button is easy enough to take people's money, but the tricky part is securely giving the users their mp3's. The best technique that I've thought of so far is implementing the paypal notification api, and then sending the user an email with a link (and password) to download the tracks.

Basically I'm trying to do a simple payloadz site.

I've got a proof of concept working, and I'll probably put it up onto the Toehider site soon.

So it would work like this:

1) User hits the "buy now" button, and they are taken to paypal.com, where they confirm their purchase

2) User hits "confirm payment" button, user gets shown a "thanks for purchasing" page.

3) User gets sent an email saying "click here to download your tracks"

4) User then follows the link and hits "download"

Would you be happy to do this?

Direct Link Tags: Selling mp3's online...

Date: Friday, August 28, 2009 11:52
User: Bennet McLean
Comment: I think it would work fine, especially knowing you are more than capable to set up such a system. I think the problem you might have though is public perception. Most people are still afraid of buying things online, and being presented with a 'custom store' may scare them off even more, especially when it appears to be made by the guitarist, and he is too good at that so he clearly has no time to be good with computators too!

That is the main benefit of using the major online stores, your potential customers are much more at ease that their money wont just disappear, and they have someone to complain to if everything does go wrong.

Plus I'm too lazy to be bothered creating a custom store so the next time I have a music client wanting a way to sell their music I'll just set up a bandcamp.com account for them. They've got a nice system that allows you to set the price (or allow the customer to set it within your own parameters) and available formats and additional files bundled in.

Date: Friday, August 28, 2009 12:01
User: Bennet McLean
Comment: I always seem to break your comment length limit!

If you want to sell your VoA stuff (or just have another place for streaming or free downloads) I think I registered http://voiceofapollo.bandcamp.com/ ages ago so it wouldn't be taken by the American VoA!

If you do make your own system I suggest customising the download links, make them require two variables, their email address or name and an encrypted copy. That will deter any unscrupulous buyers from sharing the link online (and if they do you know who the leak is). Of course that wont stop people sharing your files, but at least it is at their cost rather than hitting your own server's bandwidth.

Date: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 16:25
User: Lach
Comment: Thanks Bennett - the key thing though is that the "custom store" wouldn't really be one - the "buy now" button still takes you to paypal. It's just the download link would take you to metaltheater.com.