Something to write home about...

There are a lot of these "made to order" merch stores that target bands cropping up - Spreadshirt, Toto Merch, Reverbnation's Reverb Store/Audiolife, Streetshops to name but a few.

The idea is that the band doesn't have to get merch made in advance, it can be made to order with the store taking £X and then the artist able to set however much they want to make on top of that set price. For the bands it is a no risk way to sell merch, for the store it's all about the long tail. All good so far.

The Reverb Store and Audiolife (essentially using the same software) also allow bands to sell MP3s and made to order CDs within their store. Nice.

However, they are ALL missing a trick. Any one of these store solutions could become the absolute ultimate in online merch store providers if they just added a couple of features.

If any store manages to tick all of the following boxes then they will win this game. Everyone else can go home.

Made to order merch

Yep, everyone ticks that box. It's the core of their business and I am focusing on these companies instead of other online merch stores, such as Big Cartel, that don't offer made to order merch.

Various currencies

It sounds obvious, but this is the WORLD WIDE web. Bands will have a fanbase that is largely based in one country. Let them set the currency. At the moment, Reverb Store and Audiolife are only available in USD.

Digital music sales

Allow us to put MP3s for sale. If you're feeling REALLY cool, let us give them away. So far, just Reverb Store/Audiolife allow you to sell music.

Let us sell our OWN products in the store.

This for me is the big one. I may not be able to afford 100 bulk T shirts, but I can afford to hand make some really awesome limited edition tapes. Let me sell these alongside the made to order merch, seamlessly in the same place, and you can take 10%. I'll sort out order fulfilment, you just give me that space to sell. Hell, maybe I DO have some bulk T shirts, why can't I sell those ALONGSIDE the ones already in the store? Again, here's 10% for your trouble. It's easy making money isn't it?

I don't even care if it's customisable or embeddable. Give me those features and I'm your's forever.

If just ONE of those stores up there did this, then there would be no need for bands to have separate merchandise, MP3 and physical music stores, regardless of budget or size of band.

The point is that this would be so easy for those companies to do that it's ridiculous that it hasn't been done already. If anyone listens to me who can do this, do it. You'll make millions.