San Francisco, Jun 21 (IANS): Popular chatting platform Discord has introduced a new tool called -- 'Downloadables', which will give creators a new way to make money from their communities by selling digital products via one-time purchases.

"Over the coming months, we'll begin experimenting with ways for server owners to sell digital products (like a recipe e-book, gaming guide or digital wallpaper) as a one-time purchase with Downloadables," Derek Yang, Group Product Manager at Discord, said in a blogpost on Tuesday.

The company also introduced Premium Roles, which is currently available as part of Server Subscriptions -- will soon be purchasable either standalone or bundled with users' chosen Downloadables for a one-time purchase.

With Premium Roles, creators can offer exclusive access with every purchase. Creators can make role-gate channels and perks, allowing customers to connect with each other and get support for their purchases, according to the company.

With all of these additional ways to earn on Discord, the chatting platform is also testing 'Server Shop', a single home for server owners, to sell Server Subscriptions, Downloadables and Premium Roles.

Moreover, Discord introduced a new type of channel in beta called -- Media Channels.

"Media Channels are a new media-first channel type in Beta that enables you to pamper your subscribers like never before, and will start rolling out today to all Community servers with Server Subscriptions enabled," said Discord.

These are designed to focus on videos, photos, and files, and they could be useful for communities that want to better separate meme dumps from text chats.