Let me just begin by welcoming Cartfly to the FanMail family. Cartfly makes it easier for anyone to run there own on-line store through a PayPal account, which means the barriers between artist and consumer are continuing to fall.
Everyone knows that music is traded in files, not on tapes or CDs anymore, but there are somethings that cannot be downloaded. Posters. Shirts. Commemorative coffee-cups that let everyone at the office know that while you might work a nine-to-five, you are still more hip than they are. But how is an artist supposed to sell these things? There are two ways that immediately spring to mind: door-to-door (merch table), or by mail order.
Obviously the direct person-to-person method has its limitations, especially for smaller acts who play to smaller crowds, but mail order also has its problems. The main problem with selling merch by mail is that you have to have someway of getting the orders and processing the payments. That is where Cartfly comes in.
Cartfly allows a seller to create an online shopping cart widget that can be posted anywhere. I mean anywhere: Facebook, MySpace, blogs, websites, on your daughter's homework. Okay, so I might be exaggerating a little with the last one, that is, unless her homework is an online presentation or web-site. All it takes is the ability to copy and paste the code that they give you. That's it. Oh, and a PayPal account. All of Cartfly's sells are immediately processed through the seller's PayPal account. That means a band can set-up shop on the cyber-strip without a merchant account or dedicated host-site. Wow.
Did I mention that it's free? That's right, free. That leaves only one question, really. Why isn't your band/venue/label/grandmother peddling their wares via the Internet right now?
