I'm not sure how feasible an amazon mp3 front-end would be. I'm not familiar with any sort of one-click payment API that I could leverage for that. Either way, as cool as that idea is, that's not the goal of the site as far as I'm concerned.
So I guess here is my (loose) plan:
- Start planning/coding this weekend. I've got my dev box all set up with Apache/Postgres/PHP/Bitcoind for testing various pieces.
- After planning is complete, make a skeleton of the database.
- Start coding the artist interface for uploads and controlling/categorizing their content.
- After there is a basic artist interface, start in on the general site - rendering artist/album pages, browsing by genre, searches, etc.
- After the base of the rest of the site is built, start the user areas (payment, downloading, etc, etc).
- Find some artists to upload to the site - I've got a couple ideas of places to look.
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- Become bigger than iTunes.
Major points that will be worked out in the planning:
- To what extent (if at all) I want to use a pastecoin-like service for storage and payment processing
- To what extent (if at all) I want to use the mybitcoin SCI for payments
- How simple/elaborate I want the site to be.
Each of those decisions have major implications.
Using pastecoin would simplify the upload, storage, and payment processes. However, I and (by extension) the artist would lose control over the media - moving it, manipulating it, changing the price, deleting it, etc. It would also make it difficult to render my own site fee on each purchase. This might not be a big deal, as I don't really know how much money the service is going to cost to run. This also depends on how easily I can abstract away the external service from the artis through an API.
Using the mybitcoin SCI would, theoretically, simplify the payment process. However, part of me just wants to use local RPC. I can't help thinking it would be more secure, give me more control, and allow me to provide better service to both the artists and users. But I can't help thinking that there is no use in re-inventing the wheel.
I'm also going to keep in mind that using existing services like pastecoin and mybitcoin, and maybe even improving them, would do good for the community/economy. Improving, strengthening, and integrating different services that can serve different needs would make things easier for other people. Maybe I use pastecoin and I have to work with the owner to get a better API and new features; now more people can create more services more rapidly.
Anyway, I just got off the overnight shift so it's time for bed.
