mp3 shopping cart software

[conkon]

Hi. I am planning to create an mp3 store and I am not sure what software would be the best choice for that. What I would need is:

1) Music player integrated with the website and not opening in the new window etc (something like a simple Winamp on the top with play, pause and buy buttons)
2) Possibility of viewing all the songs from particular Artist, Genre or Label sortable by(ascending or descending) Artist Name, Release Date or Label Name (something like Beatport.com or Junodownload.com). I would also need a possibility of switchinch between viewing all the tracks and all the releases (and tracks within them) if you know what I mean. Basicaly evertyhing needs to be connected to each other and I am not sure if I can get any software like that. Thanks.

[fionix]

I think the companies your are mentioning have build there own system from ground, I can only hardly believe that you can buy a out of the box solution for what you want.

[Jessicca]

Conkon

I have also been looking for this kind of an MP3 Player thats has a Winamp feel to it but can also be a storefront. I manage several bands and alot of times they release singles and not full albums for purchase.

I did some google surfing and found a Flash MP3 cart that is right on the money, check it out here: http://www.dreamlinestudio.com/mp3Cart/. You are able to search Artist and Tracks using the search bar. Looks like your ableto sell singles and full albums :icon_cheesygrin:

The only problem is that I am not too Flash Savy, so I may have to either pay a developer to tweak it to my liking or I may have to just pick up a book and learn, lol.

PM me if you know of other MP3 storefronts

[Suomedia]

We are soon releasing a GPL cart that we use ourselves for creating MP3 stores - here is our most recent site still in development:

<url snipped -- see signature>

We were aiming to release this month, however I have been rather snowed under and we probably wont get it out until next month. It wont however be an MP3 store out of the box (we specialize in custom development) however it will certainly be good to start with.

Matti Ressler
Suomedia

[ultrafunkula]

Hi. I am planning to create an mp3 store and I am not sure what software would be the best choice for that. What I would need is:

1) Music player integrated with the website and not opening in the new window etc (something like a simple Winamp on the top with play, pause and buy buttons)
2) Possibility of viewing all the songs from particular Artist, Genre or Label sortable by(ascending or descending) Artist Name, Release Date or Label Name (something like Beatport.com or Junodownload.com). I would also need a possibility of switchinch between viewing all the tracks and all the releases (and tracks within them) if you know what I mean. Basicaly evertyhing needs to be connected to each other and I am not sure if I can get any software like that. Thanks.

Hi,
it's possible now with cs3 to make a cart for digital downloads in flash using the paypal api. it's not as difficult as you think.

There's the FEX cart, with addons for digital delivery. Only thing is, like all the solutions flash or not, they look like templates. you can see from a mile away thats it's not custom built like beatport and such.
If you don't mind the template look, it should cost you around 100 bucks. if you want a custom built solution, contact me

cheers

[Suomedia]

The problem with full Flash solutions is that your site will never be indexed by search engines.

A truly professional solution (fully Ajaxed site) will cost you significantly more than $100

Matti Ressler
Suomedia

[ultrafunkula]

The problem with full Flash solutions is that your site will never be indexed by search engines.

A truly professional solution (fully Ajaxed site) will cost you significantly more than $100

Matti Ressler
Suomedia

A custom built flash solution will certainly cost more than 100 bucks, but from what I gather from the original thread, he's looking for a simple and cheap solution to get his stuff going.
Not my custom built solution or yours. :)

Dave

[Suomedia]

A custom built flash solution will certainly cost more than 100 bucks, but from what I gather from the original thread, he's looking for a simple and cheap solution to get his stuff going.
Not my custom built solution or yours. :)

Dave

He didn't actually mention money, but rather outlined his requirements, which are not "simple" (he mentioned Beatport and Junodownload)

My point was that a Flash solution is not good, for the simple reason that it will never be indexed by search engines. Beatport has a huge marketing budget to make up for this fundamental flaw.

Our ecommerce engine, once released will be fully GPL and *free of charge*. There are others already available that are suitable ( we previously developed with osCommerce, eg. http://holyculturedownload.com ). As for search engine indexing (which is vital), the results speak for themsevles.

So, my recommendation is to find a suitable ecommerce engine and adapt it to suit - this is both the best and cheapest way. While its true that there are a few "cheap" out of the box solutions, they are by no means suitable for the very competitive music industry. As with any business, its necessary to invest in order to gain decent returns, whether that be time in doing it yourself or to pay a developer.

Matti Ressler
Suomedia

[ultrafunkula]

If I google "mp3 downloads" or "buy mp3" or anything like that, i don't see beatport, juno (which is not flash) or your gospel music site.
As for the results. This small site has only one page and one swf but i can see it in google just the same -
See here
or this other flash page: bigtunes
If these sites had 50 pages or so, I'm sure they would all appear as well.

beatport and juno have a great reputation among dj's and music freaks. I assume he mentioned those 2 because he's into music. You did something for Hi Bias which is a label that I know from way back when, I have records from that label. I believe Hi Bias will prevail because of their reputation, not because they don't use flash.
The point is dj's and music freaks know where to get their stuff. Beatport started with aquaviva and hawtin, 2 very known dj's. That alone played a huge role in their popularity, plus the fact that they were pretty much the first to allow indies to sell online. Now they are huge and have set a new standard. The Hi Bias site is ok, but as far as I know, Release Records is pretty much THE online retailer in the canadian realm. Mainly because their retail store has a great reputation they carry the latest and hottest tracks. The site isn't beautiful or fancy like beatport, but they have what matters most in the music retail biz. the hottest and latest tracks in the genres the specialize in.

Anyway, I'm drifting away from the point :).
The gospel site, I dunno, It doesn't have the look and feel of a music store. Hi Bias will surely do well regardless of what type of cart they're using. I'm still not convinced..

Cheers
Dave

[Suomedia]

If I google "mp3 downloads" or "buy mp3" or anything like that, i don't see beatport, juno (which is not flash) or your gospel music site.

As for the results. This small site has only one page and one swf but i can see it in google just the same -
See here
or this other flash page: bigtunes
If these sites had 50 pages or so, I'm sure they would all appear as well.

Thats really quite funny. What we are talking about is search results for relevant content. It is true that Google will index the HTML container for a full Flash site, but that is as far as it can go - title tag and description tag (perhaps). Their actual *content* will never be indexed. Both your searches are for site:my_site.com which will naturally bring up the *one or two* search results for whatever is in title tags on the sites.

beatport and juno have a great reputation among dj's and music freaks. I assume he mentioned those 2 because he's into music. You did something for Hi Bias which is a label that I know from way back when, I have records from that label. I believe Hi Bias will prevail because of their reputation, not because they don't use flash.

So clearly you agree that Beatport's online success is in no way connected to being indexed by Google (because their content never can be).

You say that Hibias "will prevail because of their reputation", however I can tell you for a fact that last year was almost a total loss to Hibias in regard to online sales - the reason? A developer (not us) introduced an error that prevented Google from indexing the site for most of the year and sales fell through the floor (they were not to be found on Google AT ALL). We corrected that error and the site was fully indexed within a week and sales returned to normal. So, you are quite wrong.

The point is dj's and music freaks know where to get their stuff. Beatport started with aquaviva and hawtin, 2 very known dj's. That alone played a huge role in their popularity, plus the fact that they were pretty much the first to allow indies to sell online. Now they are huge and have set a new standard. The Hi Bias site is ok, but as far as I know, Release Records is pretty much THE online retailer in the canadian realm. Mainly because their retail store has a great reputation they carry the latest and hottest tracks. The site isn't beautiful or fancy like beatport, but they have what matters most in the music retail biz. the hottest and latest tracks in the genres the specialize in.

Again you are a little off track. Hibias are an independent label that sell only their own material, so its not relevant to compare to a site that sells everything. Hibias has very good search results for *its own content*. Beatport's success is due to both their marketing strategy and reputation - on this we at least half agree.

Searches for "mp3 downloads" or "buy mp3" are not really relevant, since most people will search for the actual CONTENT - artist name and song/album title. Such content can never be indexed from a Flash application. Lets just do some random tests to show how "bad" our search results are:

Holyculture-1 - #1 ranked search result

Holyculture-2 - #3 ranked search result

Holyculture-3 - #2 ranked search result

Hibias-1 - # 2 ranked search result

Hibias-2 - #2 ranked search result

Hibias-3 - #1 ranked search result

Anyway, I'm drifting away from the point :).
The gospel site, I dunno, It doesn't have the look and feel of a music store. Hi Bias will surely do well regardless of what type of cart they're using. I'm still not convinced..

Funny again. Both Hibias (one of our very old sites) and Holyculture will both soon be redeveloped to our latest technologies. Holyculture have specifically requested that we retain the current look of their site, so whether you like it or not is just a matter of opinion. They are both doing quite nicely due to their high search rankings.

Matti Ressler
Suomedia

[Suomedia]

Addendum: I just searched "Release Records" and their downloads are no longer online. Yet another music download site bites the dust. Most likely cause is poor search engine rankings due to poor site design or insignificant sales also due to poor site design. Reliance on "reputation" alone clearly no longer cuts the mustard.

For any site to be successful with online downloads they MUST be able to get a large proportion of their content within the first ten search results on Google. We are playing against aggressive big boys such as Apple's iTunes whose Quicktime malware alone has killed many sites who have been unable to find a solution for how it screws mp3 downloads (we know the workarounds). Most people do not have anywhere near the marketing budget of the big players, so the only solution is superior software.

Matti Ressler
Suomedia

[coumarin]

Have you looked at the options available in Zen Cart? They are an open source software shopping cart with a great many add ons. They do have a separate area for on line commerce like yours, people who have music sites and the like. They have a robust forum where you could ask the question as well. I am not affiliated with them other than I use their software and it works well.

[hooinsider]

do you have the copyright of those mp3?