Sell individual files from one folder
To sell individual files from one folder you do not need a shop with a SKU per still. Spike lets you pick Entire folder or Individual files on the same share. Buyers tick what they want, check out on that URL, and can come back for the rest.
People search how to sell individual files when the pack is bigger than the purchase. A couple wants three portraits, not 400. A producer wants one tagged WAV, not the stem kit. A designer wants the logo pack, not every unused mockup. The usual fix is a shop with one product card per file. That works when you need a catalogue. It is extra furniture when the files already live together.
This page is the leftover job: sell individual files from one folder, or sell the folder as a whole, without building a store. Spike puts checkout on the share you already made. How to sell a folder online is Entire folder. This note is Individual files, and when to pick which.
- One price unlocks every file
- Folder
- Tick, pay, unlock only those
- Files
- Minimum paid price either way
- £1
How a whole-folder sale works
You upload a pack. You finish Stripe Connect once, from Pricing. You turn on Sell This Folder and choose Entire folder. One GBP price unlocks every file for that buyer. Privacy locks to Public. Downloads wait until payment. The unpaid view can stay blurred, watermarked, clipped, or sampled. Payment is the unlock. You do not email a second ZIP. Charge for a download link is that switch.
Use Entire folder when the product is the set: a wedding gallery they booked, a brand kit, a course ZIP, a beat pack they meant to take whole. £0 is allowed only on Entire folder: a free unlock that still asks them to sign in so the folder lands in Purchased.
Where a whole-folder price becomes limiting
- They only wanted three stills and bounce off a gallery-sized number.
- A hero look should cost more than a B-roll clip in the same folder.
- A producer will buy one lease now and stems next month.
- You already sent the pack as a preview page and need a till that matches how they shop.
- You do not want 40 product cards for files that belong together.
Those are five reasons to sell individual files from one folder instead of minting a shop. If they need every file, keep Entire folder. If they should pick, switch the mode. You cannot run both on the same link.
How to sell individual files from one folder
The clicks live in Selling & checkout. Empty folders cannot be sold. Wait until files are on the server. Stripe Connect has to clear before the toggle will stick.
Put the deliverable in one folder
The stills, the WAVs, the PDFs. Subfolders survive. This is the pack you would have listed as forty products.
Treat the unpaid view
Blur or watermark stills. Clip video (default 20 seconds, 1–30 per file). Sample audio (default 15 seconds). Limit PDF pages. Looking must not be taking.
Sell This Folder, then Individual files
Gear. Choose Individual files. Set a default price per file in GBP. Optionally type a higher price on specific files. Minimum for a real charge is £1.00. Save. Privacy locks to Public.
Send the same URL
They tick what they want, pay on Stripe Checkout, and return to that folder with the masters they bought. They can come back and buy more later.
Default price and per-file overrides
Individual files is not forty empty price fields. You set a default. Most files inherit it. The look you know they will print can carry an override. That is how you sell photos individually without a SKU spreadsheet. The public page still looks like one gallery.
One mode per folder
You cannot sell the whole folder and à la carte files on the same link at once. Pick the job. If you switch later, a previous whole-folder purchase still stands. You are not clawing back a gallery because you changed your mind about stills.
When should you sell individual files?
Sell individual files from one folder when at least one of these is true. Price the whole pack when none of them are.
- Buyers routinely want a subset, not the archive.
- A few files are worth more than the rest of the set.
- They will return for a second purchase from the same page.
- You would otherwise split the job into many listings and lose the gallery.
- The unpaid view can show the whole set without handing over the masters.
Replace forty listings with one Spike folder
A photographer used to list prints as separate products, then email a Dropbox of the three they paid for. The Spike sequence is one folder.
Keep the gallery together
Every still they might buy lives in the folder. The page is the catalogue.
Gate the unpaid view
They can judge composition and colour. They cannot print the unpaid JPEG and call it done.
Price per file, not per listing
Default £12. The hero at £25. Checkout still happens on that URL. Get paid before sending files.
Let them return
Two stills this week. Four next month. Already-owned files stay unlocked. You are not rebuilding a cart.
Why the same URL beats a new product card
A shop listing is a ticket for one SKU. A folder URL is an address. You paste it in Instagram, in the invoice email, on the portfolio. When they buy two files, the address does not change. When they come back, they use the same door. That is the difference between selling single files online as forty cards and keeping digital file sales as a place.
Use cases: photographers, designers, video, music, freelancers
Photographers
Sneak the whole gallery treated. Let them tick prints. Keep Entire folder when the booking already includes the set. Photographers and selling client galleries are the pack version. This page is when they shop the set.
Designers
A mockup pack on one page. They buy the device they need. Source files after they are meant to have them. Designers and sell mockups online.
Videographers
A clip on the unpaid view. They buy the take they will cut. The rest of the folder stays gated. Filmmakers.
Musicians
A tagged loop in a story. The pack on Spike. Sell one WAV now, stems later, from the same folder. Musicians and how musicians sell beats.
Freelancers and agencies
A named job can still be Entire folder. A public pack on a storefront is where Individual files earns itself: one link, many small checkouts. How freelancers sell and deliver files.
Whole-folder sale vs individual files vs a shop listing
Caps and themes on other shops change. The job does not. This table is about workflow.
Price the pack when they need every file. Sell individual files when they pick. Use a shop when you need strangers in a catalogue.
A shop answers how to list a file. Selling individual files from one folder answers how they pick from a pack they can already see.
Sell individual files from one folder when the leftover job is a subset, not a second warehouse. Keep Entire folder when they already bought the set. Keep a marketplace if you still need to be found. What Spike is is the library either way: preview, pay, download, on the URL you already sent.
Questions
Good to know
Both, but not at the same time. In folder settings choose Entire folder (one GBP price unlocks every file) or Individual files (buyers tick what they want). The minimum paid price is £1.00 per folder or per file. Switching later does not take away a previous whole-folder purchase.
Keep reading
Related articles
Try the workflow in the article.
Upload a folder, protect the preview, share or sell from one link.