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How can I build a homebrew online music store?

serial_consign — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:30:19 -0800

What are some open source/inexpensive e-commerce solutions for developing a homebrew online music store? I've been charged with designing the site of an independent record label and the only concern I have is their desire for an online record store. They want to sell both physical media and dowloads.

Ideally I'd like to use Drupal for this site as that is my platform of choice. However, I don't have much experience with the e-commerce or ubercart modules and I don't anticipate connecting cart functionality with a music player/browser would be much fun.

Beyond Drupal, I'm curious as to if there are any open source or affordable music oriented e-commerce/cms solutions out there. Since the store will be one of the central features of the site - it may be worth choosing the e-commerce solution first and reconciling the rest of the site design with the limitations of that platform.

Any suggestions as to platforms to investigate would be greatly appreciated.

The demand is there, the money is not.

mhp — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:19:14 -0800

We have a lot of local talented artists locally, with a pretty happening music scene. Lots of these are college students with not much money, but loads of talent. Help me help them. A couple friends of mine and I are opening a venue/record store, and we've got a fairly successful online store selling local albums and other merchandise on consignment, but there are quite a few bands that we get asked about all the time, that we don't have, because they never made one because of a lack of funding.

We think this is a shame, and want to help.

Our solution is this:

1. They need $500 to produce a CD.
2. Let's say they raise $300 on their own, but they need $200 more to produce it
3.The decide to offer preorders of their cd for $5
4. We accept preorders, but we don't charge anybody until there are 40 willing people ($5 x 40 people=$200) or the band adds some more money
5. After the goal is reached, we charge everybody the $5 and give all of it(minus 15% or so)to the band, who then makes the cd, and gives to us so we can ship out the preorders

Are there any obvious flaws with my plan? Has this been done before, It seems that I've read about it someplace else, but my googling has failed me.

Are there any other considerations I may have missed?
Is this a stupid idea, or does it have potential?
Name Suggestions? The store is called "The Station"

How to securely pre-sell MP3's

mule — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:49:57 -0800

How to pre-sell MP3's and allow access to buyer via a password system? I am wanting to sell an album of MP3's which I will have stored on my server.

I want the ability for the musician to be able to "sell" the album at live shows, whereby they give the buyer a postcard with the web address and an access code to download the music.

I want to be able to create a list of different access codes/passwords (for multiple buyers), and have each pasword/code expire after the first login to avoid multiple downloads.

Is there a way that I can do this?

I want them to pay!

wsg — Wed, 24 May 2006 13:50:36 -0800

What's the simplest way to charge someone to download a song from a web site? Can it be done with Paypal?