Digital and External Products
Sell downloadable files like sample packs, presets, and PDFs — or link out to products you fulfill on another platform.
Not everything in your store has to be a t-shirt. Digital products let you sell anything fans can download — sample packs, MIDI files, presets, e-books, sheet music, project files. External products let you list items in your TribeNest store while pointing checkout at another platform you already use.
Digital products
A digital product is a single file fans pay for and download instantly. There's no shipping, no inventory, no fulfillment work — TribeNest handles delivery automatically as soon as the order is paid.
How to create a digital product
- Go to Store then Products.
- Click the menu button in the top right and choose Create Product.
- Pick Digital Products in the dialog (the option with examples like sample packs and presets).
- Fill in the product details — covered below.
- Click Create Product.
Digital product details
Title — what fans see in your catalog. Be specific: "Lo-Fi Drum Pack Vol. 2" beats "Drum Pack."
Description — use the rich text editor to explain what's inside. List file formats, count, BPM ranges, anything fans need to know to decide. The description must be at least 20 characters.
Cover image — a JPG or PNG that represents the pack. For a sample pack, mock up a cover. For an e-book, use the book cover. This shows up everywhere your product is listed.
Price — the amount fans pay. You can also tick Pay what you want to make this a minimum and let fans pay more if they want.
Product file — the actual file fans download after they buy. Supported formats:
- PDF — books, sheet music, guides
- DOC / DOCX — editable documents
- XLS / XLSX — spreadsheets
- PPT / PPTX — slide decks
- ZIP — anything bundled (sample packs, project folders, multi-file kits)
If you're selling a bunch of files together (like a sample pack), zip them first.
Release date — leave blank to publish now, or set a future date to schedule the drop.
How fans receive a digital product
Once a fan pays, TribeNest delivers the file automatically — no work from you. They get a confirmation email with a secure download link, and the order shows up in your orders page marked as a digital delivery.
If a fan ever loses their email or asks for the file again, you can resend it from the order detail page — open the order, find the digital delivery row, click the menu, and choose Resend.
Pay-what-you-want works great for digital
Digital products are the perfect place to experiment with pay-what-you-want pricing. Set a low minimum, suggest a number in your description, and let your most generous fans support you with more.
External products
External products are listings that live in your TribeNest store but get fulfilled somewhere else — your existing print-on-demand setup, a bandcamp link, a vinyl pre-order on a label site, or any other shop you already run.
The product appears alongside everything else in your catalog so fans see the full picture, but the actual purchase happens on the other platform.
Connecting an external store
Connecting an external store happens from the Products page. When the connect store option is available, you'll see it in the create menu — pick the provider you want to connect, follow the on-screen prompts to authorize TribeNest, and your products sync into your catalog.
After the connection is set up, you can resync your products at any time to pick up new items, price changes, or stock updates.
Editing an external product
External products show up alongside your other products in the catalog. You can:
- Edit the title to match how you want fans to see it.
- Update the description with your own copy.
- Mark it as featured so it shows up in featured slots on your storefront.
Other fields — pricing, variants, images, shipping — come from the connected platform and update on the next sync, so they're not editable inside TribeNest. If you need to change a price or add a variant, do it on the source platform and resync.
How orders work
When a fan buys an external product on your TribeNest store, the order appears in your orders page like any other. Fulfillment happens through the connected platform, and the order shows the fan that the item is being handled by your external fulfillment partner.
Choosing between digital, physical, and external
| If you... | Use a... |
|---|---|
| Have a file fans can download instantly | Digital product |
| Ship a physical item from your home or studio | Physical product with variants |
| Already sell on another platform and want it visible in TribeNest | External product |
| Are releasing music | A music release (album or single) |
You can mix all of these in the same store. Most artists end up with a few of each.
Where to go next
- Adding a shippable product → creating a product
- Sizes, colors, and stock → product variants
- Releasing tracks → music
- Watching orders come in → orders