We just discovered Band Camp as a great e-commerce site for bands to use for selling music to fans.
It seems to have a number of advantages over other channels for artists and fans and is really well thought out.
1) Buyers pay with paypal and except for the tiny fee that pay pal
charges all of the money goes to the artists. Bandcamp takes no
commisions.
2) Buyers can sample tracks in full.
3) When buying downloads, buyers can choose almost any file format,
including lossless files such as flac. If you want mp3 you can choose
the bit rate.
4) Buyers can choose to support the artists they like by paying more
for the tracks than the artist is asking.
5) Artists can set it up (we have) so that when downloads are
purchased buyers get extras, such as lyrics, track specific artwork, PDF
liner notes, guitar tabs, etc.
6) If you buyCDs (hard copy) on bandcamp there is no commission
charged, all the money goes to the artists so that they can keep on
creating new music for you to enjoy.
7) The pages on the site look great and because they do not allow for costumization - you cant screw it up. The whole thing is very well thought out.
check us
out on band camp