Summary
Enable E-Commerce to set up online checkout and payment processing, turning your site from just a track management solution to a complete license purchasing system.
When you activate E-Commerce on your SourceAudio site, and a user clicks to license a track, they’ll be prompted to provide relevant info requested, then check out and pay for their license according to either a custom rate card or subscription plan you set up. Invoice and license details are provided to you and your client upon checkout.
To get started, head to your admin panel (by clicking the wrench and screwdriver icon seen in the top right corner of your browser window once you’re logged in as an admin), then click E-Commerce seen in the lower part of the left-hand admin tabs.
Read over the terms and click Sign Up to instantly get started.
If you have any problems or questions, please contact us at support@sourceaudio.com
Instructional Videos
Check out the videos or read on for a complete guide to getting your new E-Commerce features up and running.
Part 1 - Basic Features:
Part 2 - Advanced Features:
Basic Settings
Your E-Commerce settings are found in your admin panel (by clicking the wrench and screwdriver icon seen in the top right corner of your browser window once you’re logged in as an admin) → E-Commerce → Settings.
Tick the checkboxes under E-Commerce Enabled to enable E-Commerce for non-admins and admin users respectively. By checking the For Admins checkbox and leaving the For Everyone box unchecked, then saving changes in the very bottom right of this page, you can engage the system for admin testing while getting set up, without letting regular users see a half-finished product.
Tick the checkbox that reads “Include Alts in Purchase” if you’d like a track license to include the use of the alternate versions of a track nested under the main version.
Tick the checkbox that reads “Email Notifications” if you’d like the site’s licensing contact to receive an email when a client licenses a track with the details of the purchase.
Tick the checkbox that reads “Sub Notifications” if you’d like the site’s licensing contact to receive an email when a client buys a subscription plan with the details of the purchase.
Tick the checkbox that reads “Allow Download Request” to re-enable the download requests that are present without E-Commerce.
The following sections go over the essential elements of the E-Commerce setup: payment processing, the pricing information on your tracks (implementing a rate card and/or subscription plans), and supporting information exchanged between you and your licensee during the checkout process.
Payment Processing
Payments are processed through either a Braintree or PayPal account that is linked to your SourceAudio site. Get set up with your processor of choice by following the instructions below.
Skip down to the Payment Processing section on your Settings page (Admin Panel → E-Commerce → Settings) to link your Braintree or PayPal account.
Braintree and PayPal essentially accomplish the same thing, but Braintree is geared specifically towards business needs. Additionally, only Braintree supports the implementation of subscription plan pricing in E-Commerce– PayPal does not support this. If you haven’t yet registered with your desired payment processor, you can do so by clicking the corresponding link at the end of the first text paragraph seen under the Payment Processor header.
Once your payment processing account is up and running, select either Braintree or Paypal from the Payment Processor dropdown, and follow the instructions directly below to fill in the relevant information. Once everything is filled out, click to Validate Settings, and finally, click to Save Changes. Your payment processing is now all set up!
Rate Cards
Build out and assign rate cards to labels on your site using the tools under Profile Management and Project Details in the E-Commerce section of your admin panel.
Under Profile Management (Admin Panel → E-Commerce → Settings), click to either edit the provided “example rate card” from the “Choose a licensing profile to edit:” drop-down, or click Make A New Profile to start creating a rate card from scratch.
Once you’re editing a new or previously existing rate card, mouse over the listing bars in the editor to display the edit tools. Edit the listing by clicking the pencil icon. Make a copy of the listing and edit the copy by clicking the double paper icon– this is how you can create alternate choices to the original usage choice. Delete a listing by clicking the X. Add sub-options within a usage option by clicking the Plus icon on the listing. Click to edit an option and list its details and price on the right-hand side.
For example, one usage option may be for television. Make a copy of that, and change the title of the copy to a different usage option like theatrical. Click the plus icon on the theatrical listing to add different territory distribution options as sub-options within the theatrical option. Click the plus icon on a distribution option to add sub-options within that like license duration, production budget, etc. List out the prices for all final choices by clicking to edit them, entering the price on the right-hand side, and saving.
Scroll to the bottom of the rate card and click “Preview” to preview the selected rate card option. Click Save to save any changes.
Once your rate card(s) are finished. You can assign them to your tracks under the Profile Assignment header a bit further down the page. List a site default rate card, and/or assign your rate cards to each of your labels. Changes will save automatically after making a selection from a drop-down.
If you need to assign rate cards on a track by track basis (different tracks in the same label need different rate cards), first head to the Settings tab in E-Commerce, and check off the Track Assignment checkbox under Options. Please note, this does make the licensing pop-up take slightly longer to load, so leave this turned off if you’re not going to use it. Export a spreadsheet of the tracks you’d like you’d like to custom assign a rate card to from Admin Panel → Manage Metadata → Export Data and click Export Track Data to CSV. Edit the downloaded CSV data according to the instructions under Track Level Assignment (back at Admin Panel → E-Commerce → Profiles), and import by clicking Import CSV.
If you happen to have a rate card that only offers one usage choice, you can prompt your user to manually click through the only available choice, or you can bypass the usage selection process when only one usage option is available. To bypass the single choice, go to your Admin Panel → E-Commerce → Settings, and tick the box for “Bypass Single Choices”. After making this change, scroll to the very bottom of the Settings page and click in the bottom right to Save Changes.
And that’s it! Your rate cards have been created and assigned. Test it out from the front end of your site and see how it all looks.
Agreements
Agreements that cover the terms and legalities of purchased licenses can be edited under Licensing Agreements and assigned under Profile Management.
Under License Agreements (Admin Panel → E-Commerce → Settings), click to either edit the provided “Standard Agreement” from the “Choose an agreement to edit:” drop-down, or click Make A New Agreement to start creating one from scratch. The provided agreements are just examples of agreements meant to act as a placeholder– SourceAudio does not assume any responsibility for the use of material from this agreement.
Once you’ve finished editing your agreement, click Save in the top right of the agreement pop up.
Assign a licensing agreement to a licensing profile by first selecting the profile from the “Choose a profile to edit:” drop-down under Profile Management. When editing the licensing profile, adjust the “Agreement” drop down to list your desired agreement. Save your changes to the right of the bottom of the rate card after making your selection for that profile.
Project Details
Create a Project Details form for licensees to fill out at the time of licensing with as much information as you’d like to request.
Project Details forms can be applied to the checkout process by assigning them to your rate card(s). Open your rate card under the Profile Management header and tick the Project Details checkbox to request Project Details as they’re outlined under “Project Details” a bit further down the page. Save your changes just to the right of the bottom of the rate card.
Edit what information is requested of licensees under the Project Details header a bit further down on that same page. Click Save Fields to save your changes when you’re finished.
Add to Cart Button
An “Add To Cart” button added to track lists will allow users to put a track in their card without having to view the track’s detailed page.
To display the “Add To Cart” button, start by heading to your Admin Panel → Edit Site Settings → Lists → Track List Columns. The drop-downs under each header (Wave View Track List Columns, Wave View Alternate Columns, Sample View Track List Columns, Sample View Alternate Columns) list the fields that display under each of those views as they’re selected to display under Admin Panel → Edit Site Settings → Lists → Default View Settings. To make the “Add To Cart” button appear on a respective track list view, click a drop-down and select “Licensing: Add To Cart”, the bottom-most option. After making your selection, scroll down and save your changes in the bottom right.
Subscriptions
Create monthly recurring subscription plans that grant users allotted amounts of download credits by following the instructions below, or by watching the video below from 8:50.
Subscription Setup Instructions:
The first step to setting up a subscription plan is to head to your admin panel → E-Commerce, where you’ll land on your Settings page. Tick the checkbox next to Subscriptions and click Save Changes in the very bottom right. This should refresh your page and you should see a new sub-tab appear across the top of your E-Commerce page that says Subscriptions.
Click your new Subscriptions tab and fill out your basic information under Subscription Options. Then click Save Changes. You can view your progress on your Subscriptions page before publishing it at any time by visiting [Your URL].com/#!subscriptions.
To create your subscription plans, start by clicking the link to Braintree from within the text under the Plans header on the Subscriptions page. Clicking this link will take you to the Braintree site where the plan is created. After clicking the Braintree link, click the green “Create A Plan”, which will direct you to “New Recurring Billing Plan”. On this page, you’ll fill out all the relevant details for this first plan you’re creating. Skip the Plan ID field. Title this specific plan in the Plan Name field.
In the description field, add a description that your clients will see that communicates how many monthly downloads they will receive on this plan. At the end of the description add [Downloads: #] where # is the number of downloads the subscriber will receive. Enter 99999 for the # to enable unlimited downloads. If you have Content ID enabled, add [whitelist] to enable Youtube Whitelisting for that subscription plan. To exclude a plan from the subscription signup page and user subscription dashboard, add [hidden] to the plan’s description. Hidden plans will only be shown if the user is subscribed to the hidden plan. The aforementioned bracketed information will not be displayed to your clients.
List a price in the Price field. Enter a “1” for “Every __ Month” under billing details (we only support single month billing cycles). Then scroll to the bottom and hit Create. Head back to your Subscriptions sub-tab in SourceAudio, refresh the page, and the plan will appear under the Plans header. Reorder or make edits to the plans using the tools on the right end of the plan listings. Repeat this process as needed for as many different plans as you’d like to offer.
You can also add “Info Plans” that sit alongside monthly plans but don’t actually trigger a monthly subscription, they just redirect the user to another page of your site. For example, upon clicking “Add Info Plan” at the bottom of your subscriptions sub-tab, fill out the “Plan Name” field as “Pay As You Go”, the “Subtitle” field as a baseline price or “Pay By Usage”, and the rest of the information as relevant. Click Save when you’re done, and Save Changes on the Subscription sub-tab page.
Finally, to make your Subscription sign-up page accessible to your users you’ll need to create a tab for it. To do this head to your Admin Panel → Edit Site Settings → Tabs, and click the New Tab button. Select Subscriptions from the “Type” drop-down for the new tab, re-title it under “Name” if you’d like, and adjust its order using the up/down arrows on the far right. Save your changes in the bottom right when you’re all done.
Subscribers can see relevant details of their subscription by heading to their User Dashboard → Subscriptions.
Coupons
Create coupon codes for your clients to redeem for free or discounted track licenses by following the instructions below, or by watching the video linked directly below from 14:34.
Coupon Setup Instructions:
The first step to setting up coupons is to head to your Admin Panel → E-Commerce, where you’ll land on your Settings page. Tick the checkbox next to Coupons and click Save Changes in the very bottom right. This should refresh your page and you should see a new sub-tab appear across the top of your E-Commerce page that says Coupons.
Head to your new Coupons sub-tab. Each coupon you create will exist within a Campaign, so get started by clicking “Create a New Campaign” in the top right. Name your Campaign and list an expiration date if desired. Next, click Create Codes on that campaign to generate codes. In the pop-up that appears, start by selecting the function of the code from the “Coupon Type” drop-down.
From there, you’ll list the specific parameters of the code’s usage. For “How Many Codes”, if you list a number greater than one here your codes will each have a prefix (front half), and a randomly generated second half. If you enter to only have 1 code, you will have one stationary code. This stationary code can be redeemed pursuant to the following settings.
Directly below you can set an expiration date for the code(s) even if the campaign never expires or expires later, the soonest expiration date listed will be the one that takes effect. “Uses” denotes how many times each code can be used across the site. “Uses Per User” denotes how many times each code can be used by a single user. The bottom-most information will dictate the specifics of the coupons use depending on what Coupon Type you’ve selected.
Click Submit and the codes will become immediately available for you to distribute by clicking on the campaign title.
Coupon codes may be entered by the user at the time of checkout using the coupon entry module seen during the checkout process. They can also be entered at a designated coupon entry page. To create a coupon entry page, head to your Admin Panel → Edit Site Settings → Tabs, and click the New Tab button. Select “Coupons” from the “Type” drop-down for the new tab, re-title it under “Name” if you’d like, and adjust its order using the up/down arrows on the far right. Save your changes in the bottom right when you’re all done.
Viewing Purchases
You can view your users’ purchased licenses from your Admin Panel. Head to your Admin Panel → E-Commerce → Activity. From here you can see relevant information to licenses purchased on your site including invoices and transactions from within your payment processor.
A user can view their purchased licenses from within the User Dashboard. A user should start by making sure they’re logged in, then click their user icon in the top right → User Dashboard → My Licenses from the left menu. From here a user can play the track, see the date of purchase, download the track, and view/download the invoice or license terms.