Leading the Red Herring’s top articles this morning is a story about a new service called Zipidee that’s a paradigm shift in the sale of digital content, particularly for independently produced digital media and long-tail products from the majors:

“A startup coming out of stealth mode is hoping to upend the market for digital products in the same way eBay did for all types of physical products. Expected to launch in the next week or so, San Francisco-based Zipidee will let companies sell videos, music tracks, ebooks, mobile ringtones, software, games, and podcasts through its online marketplace. The idea is to allow small to medium sized companies—and individuals—to set up “stores” much like they can already do on eBay, but merchandise on Zipidee will be limited to digital goods. But unlike eBay’s auction system for physical goods, digital download prices on Zipidee will be fixed by the seller, much in the way that Apple’s iTunes store set prices for digital music tracks” (story continues here).

Indie distributors like CD Baby and Manifesto Games as well as stock footage site Pond5 have tried similar gambits in music, games and video respectively, but this new play purports to offer these digital form factors and more all in one place. Thought the comments following the Red Herring post discuss some of the potential downsides - pricing model, DRM issues et al. - as a long-time indie producer I’m loving the idea of being able to sell to my customers directly. In fact way back in the last century I had an idea the Internet would make this kind of 1:1 relationship possible, so I’m looking forward to seeing what Zipidee brings to market. Stay tuned.