Once more into the Bandcamp mailbag:
“I like your service but want to add some physical copies, and it would be really nice to use your interface to sell these items so I don’t have two different payment UIs (I worry my customers may be nervous about that). Obviously I would ship the items myself.”
“Does Bandcamp allow us to sell physical items? So, allow the user to select quantity and give us their postal address? If you do, can we do stock control via Bandcamp?”
“Can you guys take payment for physical product via the same route as for downloads and simply forward the delivery details to your bands?”
It pleases us greatly to finally be able to reply, “Agreed, implemented,” “Yes yes yes” and “We can and do.” Starting today, you can sell both your physical merchandise and your digital music from Bandcamp, and better yet, you can sell them together. So, for example, you can easily create a vinyl, poster and download package, give your fans the digital files immediately, and then ship out their merchandise. It looks like this:
Notice that we provide a simple, clear way to show your fans what you’re selling. They just click the thumbnails, and those expand into nice, large product images. Seems obvious, yet we constantly run across online music shops that rely on nothing but a 75 square pixel cover shot and a few brief sentences to help make the sale. For online physical sales, where customers can’t evaluate the product by holding it in their hands, it’s especially critical to give them as much detail as possible, and now you can do that quickly and easily.
Below the images is a package title and description that you can of course customize, mentioning things like any bonus items (such as videos, or PDF liner note booklets) or hidden tracks that are included in the download. You’ll also see that you can specify the shipping details, and even call out when a package is a limited edition.
When the fan clicks “Buy Now,” we display a dialog from which they can adjust quantity, view shipping costs, and pick the format for their download. They then check out, we start up their download, and send you an email with their shipping info and the details of what they purchased (for those who prefer to let someone else do the shipping, we’ll be launching fulfillment house support shortly).
All of this is easy to set up — you just click the edit button on your album page, click the “add” link in the new physical package section, and go to town:
Note you can specify shipping and handling costs for different destinations and quantities, adjust the shipping time to give yourself some leeway or take pre-orders, and also manually adjust the quantity remaining of limited edition releases. We automatically update the quantity for orders that happen through Bandcamp, but if you’re selling at shows or elsewhere, it’s great to be able to change the quantity yourself.
Now, as anyone who has ever sold physical goods online is painfully aware, charging the proper tax is typically a colossal pain in the ass. In California, for example, there are literally hundreds of different tax rates, and if you’re in say, Los Angeles, and shipping to an in-state fan, the tax is determined by the buyer’s location, not yours. The usual solution to this issue is to allow a seller to set up a bunch of tax profiles, but with so many rates, and increases happening all the time, expecting the seller to create and maintain those profiles is just ludicrous. Many people end up throwing in the towel, and make the risky decision to not charge anyone tax, or charge all in-state buyers a single, flat tax rate and hope things just work out. Fortunately, there is a better way.
In Bandcamp, you go to your Profile page and tell us your location, right here:
Then, when a fan enters their shipping address, we take a look at your location, compare it to the buyer’s location, and if taxes apply, we dynamically pull in the current and proper rate.* It’s practically invisible to you, just as it should be.
OK, that about covers it. We’re tremendously excited about this feature, and think that bundling physical and downloadable versions of your music will help drive sales from folks who might a) never pay for a digital download alone, or b) be reluctant to buy a physical copy because of the hassle of ripping or the added expense of a separate transaction. Looking forward to seeing the sorts of packages you guys put together!
*Dynamic tax lookup currently applies to U.S. sellers only – if you’re outside the U.S., you have a choice between charging a single tax rate, or none at all. We hope to improve upon this as we learn more about what’s desired/required (and continue working towards our advanced degree at the EU VAT eLearning center).
Freakin’ awesome..awesome..Im forget’bout itunes and all that stuff..bandcamp is number 1…forever..i love you
THANK YOU SO MUCH for this feature! Awesome. Is there going to be support for multiple physical formats though? My album is in two- a standard CD and a USB Wristband.
Hi Max, yep — we plan to support multiple packages per album in the pretty soonish future.
This is incredible, I love you guys!
Fantastic! You guys are amazing! Any chance of making the maximum track length equal to CD length? I thought your comments in the FAQ were funny, but I have some (just over an) hour long ambient tracks that I’d love to be able to sell here and can’t. 🙁
Bandcamp is undoubtedly the greatest thing to happen to the independent artist/label in ages. Thank you for all that you do!
Great work, as usual.
Sounds amazing guys. Well done, can’t wait to start working with this…
Excellent news! Bandcamp can now be my music page AND my shop page! Nice work guys 🙂
this is amazing my whole goal today was to set-up a digital shopping cart on my website so i could sell my physicaly cd with a digital download now this comes out. Its as if bandcamp was reading my mind today!
this is super sweet!
Looks great!
Just one minor point/query though? Any chance of allowing fans to name their price (over a certain threshold) for the physical thing too? Or does the maths just get too complicated by the time you add shipping and tax calculations?
Jo
On our to-do Jo.
This is a very welcome addition to your service. Question: are you set up handle Canadian transactions?
Yes, see: http://blog.bandcamp.com/2009/04/10/if-we-had-an-icelandic-krona-for-every-juan-diederik-and-henri-requesting-this-feature/
Thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!!
Awesome addition!
From a fan perspective, I really like that you can see how many copies of a limited release are left.
Keep up the great work!
Wow Guys! You have totally outdone yourselves – THIS HERE JUST TOTALLY MAKES ME EVEN MORE EXCITED ABOUT RELEASING MY ALBUM NEXT YEAR. This will empower so many artists. You guys flippin rock! 3 THUMBS UP lol
Thanks Ethan! So, a question re Paypal 5 & 5 – I’m assuming that we would need to switch back over to the regular Paypal deal for this to make sense (that is if we charge over $20 bucks for a bundle./
Right, if you expect most of your transactions to be over $12, a normal PayPal account will incur less fees than a micropayments account.
This is incredibly impressive!
So, you’ve got the best online help/how-to guides I’ve yet seen, you’ve made it possible to sell virtually anything…any chance you could slip me the winning lottery numbers for next Saturday? 🙂
Time to get working on those snazzy, “Andy Gilmour”-brand biodegradable Yak-combs. For all your Yak-grooming needs…
Fully, totally ace. One small piece of nit-picking is that the “Buy Now” text button might scare away freebie hunters. Maybe it should say “Download Now” instead. Pretty minor thang though, forgive me…
Totally looking forward to the in-house CD order fulfillment, that sounds 100% ace. Is it going to include POD as well?
And I have some scales I really should be practicing – can you guys do that for me too? ;-P
totally awesome…
you guys are already legend!
Just to clarify, is this similar to paid downloads in that Bandcamp currently does not take a percentage of the sales?
That’s correct.
Yay! Props for the physical copies 🙂 I hope shipping to Poland works fine.
yes.
thank you again. please, think about doing on-demand fullfillment down the road. i truly believe it could bethe bandcamp killer app in that it give something to you without having to change your core feature set.
thankyou again,
onyx
I’m with onyx ashanti about the print-on-demand thing, it would be awesome!
So Cool! I love it when things – just make sense.
Wonderful addition guys, very happy.
But I think the option of selling T-shirts/variable size items is missing. Adding a drop-down menu to select would be good.
Or how about the option of selecting between multiple t-shirt/button etc designs within a ‘fan pack’. So, for example, click ‘buy fan pack’, then select from a drop-down a men’s or women’s shirt size, then select a button design. That way, multiple items could be bundled under one price, and then the fan selects what items they want to choose.
Otherwise, you’d need to set up 10 different products to allow for these options.
p.s. have my babies
> I think the option of selling T-shirts/variable size items is missing. Adding a drop-down menu to select would be good.
Yes it is! But it’s coming soon. In the meantime, fans can specify their sizing by clicking “leave a comment for the seller” on the checkout page.
Ethan you did not address the baby request. Shall I file a bug?
Wow. And, thanks.
On my own website Paypal shop I have a field where purchasers can specify if they’d like the CD signed to their name or someone else’s, and any particular message they’d like included in the signature (if they’re buying it as a birthday gift, for example). Is it possible for this to be included in the Bandcamp sales setup? Many thanks! You’re great!
Sarah
Yes Sarah, there’s a “Leave comment for the seller” link on the checkout page.
Excellent.. we’ll definitely be using this option in the future.. been waiting for a solution like this for ages..
One minor thing, and it’s so minor as to almost be a non-issue.. but I’m curious: is it possible to choose to offer a physical item for sale seperately? As far as I can see, it looks like when someone buys, say, a CD, the download is included. Any way of selling an album as *either* a download *or* a physical thing?
Hi Dan, you just uncheck the box that says “include immediate download of album with purchase of this package.”
Aha! Thanks Ethan.. I didn’t notice that bit. Will have a proper play around with it tomorrow.. looks pretty much like the answer to my shop-related woes 🙂
x
This is amazing. No more faffing with paypal and buttons. I hate that shit.
We can be our own distributor? Hells yeah. We were gonna do it anyway, but Bandcamp just made it seem WAY easier. Thanks.
Hey Guys,
Thank you very much for this giant step feature, one more request, is there a way people could purchase multiple items in a single check out process?
Like buying one physical record, plus two downloads from this album, another tshirt here and a pair of pants there all that without having to take the credit card out each time.
Best,
Keep it moving
Peace…
On the to-do, optimizing for just pants first though.
great additional features!
So we just switched our physical sales to your direct system. First
sale just came in. SILKY SMOOTH.
You lovely people. I love you like the brothers I never had.
What do I say to that? I just spent a WEEK setting up an online store, registering an account at 2checkout to enable customers to pay by credit card and what-not…. and now THIS? 🙂
Thanks, anyway. This is a great feature! I guess we will just flood the web with shops everywhere. 🙂
BANDCAMP WINS
Is it weird that I almost feel guilty using something so innovative and easy to use made just for my convenience?
I love it! Great way to market ‘package’ options, but… (I know we musician’s are never happy!)
Is there any way we can sell ‘just’ merch/CDs without tying it to a download? I don’t see any option for that as yet?
Hi Grae, you just uncheck the box that says “include immediate download of album with purchase of this package.”
Ethan, does that mean we can set up a t-shirt or hoodie on a page of its own then?
Off to try it now 🙂
No, packages are still tied to a given release. It’s including the download that’s optional.
Awesome feature. Thank you. People are mentioning adding T-Shirts and other merch here… but I can’t seem to figure out how to add a physical product which is not an album. How can I add a T-Shirt, a DVD (A video player would be nice), or other physical merch not associated directly with an album? All I see is the “add track” button. Also will bandcamp integrate hosting video as well.. so people can purchase video content and download or at least view a sample and purchase a physical DVD? Thanks for your hard work.
Jon
> I can’t seem to figure out how to add a physical product which is not an album
Hi Jon, right now packages have to be associated with an album. So you make an album first, then add a package to it.
Myspace 0 Bandcamp 7862137462378642378946
This is fantastic – you really do get better and better. But I can’t see how to edit and add the physical item for the digital downloads I am already selling. At the moment I’ve got it linked to buy physical CDs from another site, but obviously I’d like to change that to your good selves and can’t see how to. Forgive me if I am being a chump…
Sounds great. Just click the Edit button on any *album* page (you can’t create packages for just tracks). Then, about halfway down the edit page you’ll see text that says “physical package,” and next to that an “add” link.
This is super impressive! How come Bandcamp doesn’t get much coverage from the music biz community? Is Lefsez aware of this greatness + stylish design + independent empowerment + superior functionality?
May I suggest testing other wording for “leave a comment for the seller”
to me comments imply kibitzing.(great job… love your music you rock…etc.) I don’t immediately associate comments with special instructions.
We hope to eliminate the need for that field entirely very soon Michael (by moving package options, like sizing, into the checkout dialog).
Does Bandcamp.com have a pressing plant or would we need to supply the product ourselves?
No, manufacturing is up to you.
Okay, I am now officially 100% sold on Bandcamp. I signed up a while ago but never started utilizing the system since I was trying to figure out this exact problem. I almost went through the headache of setting up a Zencart shopping system to address the very issue of selling downloads, selling CDs, and selling CDs that come with an immediate ‘while you wait’ download option with a variety of digital formats to choose from, so needless to say this is a HUGE relief.
The only thing I’m still hoping to see (eventually) is a more customizable interface for website integration and a better laid out dropdown menu screen… and maybe some other store options that allow sales of shirts, posters, etc.
That said, I’m not holding out to wait 🙂 Great job guys!