This article will show you the basics of setting up a ‘Midi Files’ Licensing Profile in your LicenseQuote account. This enables you to offer midi files, or similar notation files, for download sales from any LQ plan regardless if track files storage is included or not. Since midi files will be delivered in .mid or other popular formats, you will be linking to your source music files on your server or any 3rd party storage hosting solution you prefer, such as box.net which we’ll use as part of the demo in this tutorial.

1. The first step is to create a dedicated ‘Licensing Profile’ to be used only for the midi file items you will be selling in your store. Don’t just add a Midi licensing type on your Default profile, because all those license types are geared for licensing downloadable master file tracks, so you’ll need to create a custom licensing profile to be used for selling your Midi or other electronic notation items.  

The image below suggests how you would create a new licensing profile and then give it a unique name such as ‘Midi Files’ shown in the example below.
Tip: to view images in full size, click to enlarge. 

Because it’s best to manage licensing profiles and types across one unique kind of item delivery (audio file, sheet music or midi file, etc.), we’ll use a unique ‘Midi Files’ licensing profile to demonstrate the basic setup and usage principals.

The image above shows the Buyer option settings on the Licensing Profile page. You can set these before or after you set up the custom license type on the Matrix Edit page. Note, initially you will see only the Default license types, but after you remove it on the Pricing Matrix Edit Page and enter your own custom License Type (following the instructions below), it will appear like the green highlighted line which says “Midi Files – .MID format”. The Free demo download License Type below it is optional and used only for our live store demo.

Since these are retail priced download purchase items, we recommend you disable the “send bids” and “request quotes” options which are more suitable for negotiation sync and master licenses. If a dealer or distributor wants to inquire about wholesale or distributor pricing, they can contact you with an inquiry via your website or contact form in your store.

2. When you click the Pricing Matrix “Edit” button, it will open up to this page:

As mentioned above, you will first remove the existing default Licenes Category because you don’t want them to appear on this custom license profile dedicated only for selling your Midi files. After deleting the default Licenses category, click the remaining ‘Add Category’ link to enter your custom Midi File license type. You can follow the example in the image above, but feel free to tweak the wording and of course the pricing to fit your needs.

Generally you’ll be adding the following:
Licensing Category – Midi File
Base price – Enter price in field on same line as your Midi File category. 
Property –  Midi File – .MID format (or whatever your format is)
Value – This is the multiplier value which is normally set at “1” to reflect your base price. If you are offering volume pricing, you could add another value line and set it to “-1” which will result in a N/A (not applicable) price which requires negotation. You can also enter a value of “0” which results in $0.00 price for example, to offer a Free download.

3. After you’ve set up the matrix and entered the pricing, you can click the ‘Test’ button which opens the online test calculator as shown below:

This lets you see what you’ve set up and to check that the pricing is correct. You’ll also see the license type Description which you’ve entered on the Licensing Profile page. You can add and edit this anytime, so if you haven’t done this yet, click the “Edit Description” on the Midi Files License Type (as shown in the 2nd image above) on your Midi Files Licensing Profile page.

In this example there are now three songs with the same name, the first, “Every Bit As Good” is the audio file version, the second, “Every Bit As Good (Midi File)”,  is the Midi file version, followd by the Sheet Music version. When the Play button is clicked, it can open on a demo page with short sample or download disabled version, to give buyers an idea of the format they’ll be purchasing. In the live demo store, the midi file ‘Play’ button links to this preview page on my box.net account. 

If you wish to leave the “Play” (preview) button blank, you can leave the track’s Preview field URL link blank on your songs data spreadsheet and then import. This will leave the Play button blank. 

4. When the midi file is being purchased, it will appear like this in your store:

The track item description (inside the green box) gives the details about this specific Midi file item. The description inside the red box is the license type description which you entered for this license on the Licensing Profile page. The $9.95 price shown at bottom is the price you entered on the License Matrix page for the Midi files license type.

Please note: for this example we used the Check by mail collection option, though normally these kinds of sales would be payed instantly into your PayPal account from the buyer’s PayPal account or any credit card.

6. Tips to get started: 
If you have notation score items (sheet music, midi files, etc.) you’d like to add to your store, I recommend you try setting up a custom profile and one or two items to practice and test before setting up more. On the track title and description fields, be sure to indicate which format you are offering. For easier searching, also add “midi” or “midi file” in the Tags field. This makes it easier for buyers to quickly find and review all tracks which offer the same source music format. After everything is set up, do some testing to make sure the links are working and then make a test purchase to confirm that everything works as expected. This also helps you understand what your buyers will be experiencing in case they have questions or need assistance.

7. When you test this feature in our Live Demo Store, you can access a Free Demo download by selecting the appropriate license option. This has been specially added so you can experience the “buyer side” side for any kind of standard or custom purchase transaction. To test drive this, you’ll need to register and login in by creating a test buyer account for yourself. 

After reviewing this tutorial and testing our live demo, if you still need any support to set up a custom licensing profile, please contact us and we’ll be glad to help!