Small creators struggle to sell directly through suitable channels
Independent software makers, musicians, and other small creators want to sell or distribute directly, but payment onboarding can be burdensome and storefronts may not support the formats or scale they need. Music buyers also report limited options for buying DRM-free downloads directly from artists, while very small musicians seek services that can help them earn from a small audience. A focused storefront for digital goods could address part of this problem, though merch and restricted content bring different requirements.
For independent creators and small online sellers. Mentioned from Sep 2024 to Jun 2026 on Bluesky and Hacker News.
7 different people described this problem in 7 separate discussions.
- Indie fit
- 4.0/10
- Pain
- 5.1/10
- Frequency
- 7.5/10
- Willingness to pay
- 3.8/10
- Momentum
- 5.0/10
- Who pays
- Professionals
- Competition
- High
- Build difficulty
- Medium
What people said
Quoted word for word. Follow a link to read the whole discussion.
If selling software for money wasn’t such a pain in the arse I would put stuff on my website rather than itch.io It took me two weeks, plus sending IDs, incorporating an ltd, to get a license to sell software with Paddle
Same with music, I like buying music but relatively few artists let me give them money for flacs
See what to build and who will buy it
- 1 product idea with the smallest useful version and pricing
- 4 places to find your first customers
- 5 more quotes from people who have this problem
- Current workarounds, existing solutions and risks