With as many independent bands out there as there are, its no doubt that many of them need a fast and easy way to sell the fruits of their labor. While other services exist, they often don't provide the ease of use a busy band needs. And many of the services force DRM or other restrictions on their listeners (especially if you are lucky enough to get into a mainstream services like iTunes or Rhapsody).
An alternative is to use BitBuffet.com to host your album and provide purchase links on MySpace or your band's website. Here's our technique for doing just this.
Don't worry, its free to start off (you get a 7-day trial) and you don't need to purchase anything at all if it's not for you. When you sign up for a PayPal account, be sure to select a premier account (again, this is free).
This shouldn't take more than a couple minutes, all you need to do is point your PayPal account to BitBuffet so we know when someone purchases your album. If you need to go to the setup again, just click "Account Settings" and "Setup Account" in the top right.
If you have Windows 7, this functionality should be built in, if not, try downloading something like WinRar to "zip" all your MP3s and put them in one file. Sign in to BitBuffet and add a product, name it what you like and upload your zip. This can take anywhere from a couple minutes to an hours, depending on the length of your album.
This small button can be found by clicking the product in your Workspace and scrolling down. Simply paste the HTML code into your site.
You should be finished by this point! If you have any problems setting up your account or placing the button you can always contact us via the link up top and we'll reply to you as soon as possible.
Bonus tip: You can create your own button and host it on your site for a custom buy now design. Additionally, if you remove the < img > tag, you can place simple wording as well.
Extra bonus tip: If you aren't 100% sure your album is working, try changing the price to $0.01 and having a friend purchase it and give it a test spin! If you have any trouble, just contact us!