BitPass is a new system for online micropayments. It gives creators of online content an easy way to charge for online content and services.
Aren’t there already hundreds of ways to charge for stuff online? Yes, and that’s precisely the problem. Every site has its own way of charging, and it takes too long to sign up for subscriptions and payment systems. I’ve already got my name, address, phone number, credit card number, mother’s maiden name, and cat’s favorite breakfast cereal entered into dozens of online shopping sites, and it was a five-to-ten-minute process every single time. And then I get the thrill of trying to remember dozens of different logon IDs and passwords. If all I want to do is read a webcomic or download a piece of music, going through the entire signup process just doesn’t make sense.
Enter BitPass. The system works like a prepaid phone card. You can start up an account with as little as US$3.00. As you purchase content from sites that use BitPass, it deducts money from your account, and when you run out, adding more money is ridiculously simple. BitPass is unobtrusive and so easy to use it’s almost silly.
I ran across the system at Scott McCloud’s Web site. Scott is selling access to his new online comic, The Right Number. I clicked the Read It Now link on his page, and I was taken to a BitPass signup window. I gave BitPass my PayPal information, made a password, put three bucks into my new account, and I was reading the comic. Less than two minutes, all told. It probably takes a little longer than that if you sign up with a credit card instead of an existing PayPal account, but you only have to do it once.
Scott is charging 25 cents to read his comic. Not only is this more than reasonable for quality content like Scott’s, it’s probably a far greater amount than he’d make by selling the comic to a publisher. Having had my own dealings with the publishing industry, I can say from experience that the vast majority of the cover price of a book does not go into the pocket of the author.
I followed a few links to someone else who is distributing music via BitPass. Joshua Ellis, whose weblog I’ve been reading irregularly ever since I found it a few months ago, has a new album online titled Love Songs for Bastards. Joshua is selling individual songs for 50 cents, or the entire album and interactive liner notes for US$3.50. If anything, the record industry is far worse than the publishing industry about getting money to artists, which makes BitPass an excellent opportunity for musicians to actually make money from their music. It makes me smile to think that Joshua actually gets to keep most of the $3.50 that I shelled out for his quirky, eclectic album.
The other nice thing about a micropayment system is that, if I only want access to a single piece of content, there’s no need to sign up for a yearly subscription. It’s a very flexible system, and it’s very easy to use.
It remains to be seen how effective BitPass will be in the long run. So far, there are only three content providers (one of which isn’t actually up and running as I write this), and it’s hard to say whether or not the micropayment model will catch on. If Apple’s iTunes is any indication, though, people are perfectly happy to pay small amounts for individual pieces of content, provided you make the interface simple. BitPass is the very essence of simplicity, and if it’s even half as easy to sign yourself up to receive payments as it is to make payments, I could see BitPass becoming as popular as PayPal.
