| CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast |
 Nov. 13,
2008
Ep.38 : Pandora Radio
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| CD Baby pays out $3 million to musicians. Sales doubling. |
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Exactly 5 years after I started this little online record store, our payouts to musicians just hit the $3 million mark.
What's best is that it took:- 3.5 years to hit the first $1 million
- 9 months to hit $2 million
- Only 4.5 months to hit $3 million.
Here's our most recent sales chart, for CD sales through 2002:
So what's this about the music industry being in a slump? Perhaps it's only the major labels that are slumping while the independents are thriving?
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> So what's this about the music industry being
> in a slump? Perhaps it's only the major labels
> that are slumping while the independents are
> thriving?
EXACTLY. The labels would be fine if they stopped cranking out high volumes of garbage. Long live CD Baby!
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Way cool, Derek! I'm a new member of CD Baby but it's the ONLY place I send people to buy my CD online. CD Baby is to Sony as Southwest Airlines is to United! Keep it close to the customer, my man.
Thanks and congratulations...
James Curley
www.cdbaby.com/jfcurley
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Awwwww!! Thanks for that comparison. I always tried to make CD Baby like SouthWest Airlines or Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. :-)
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Thank you Derek, for being an independent music messiah! More power to the indie world...
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Fantasimoliscious!
CDBaby - "the hope beyond the hype."
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY!!! Derek & crew, you guys are doing a fantastic job! Thanks for being here for us little guys (not little for long, though). Bravo to you!
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Ah, to be independent, happy and making the music I love...what a great life. My band RIPE is so happy to be part of the CD-Baby family!
--Christa
RIPE
always at CD-Baby!
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Congratulations on selling 3 million.
OutSTANDING.
I find this very amazing, considering you can't hear all the songs from each CD on CDBaby.
As a listener, I only buy CDs if I know the entire CD is worth it. The CDBaby artists I've discovered have actually been found thru Whole Wheat Radio, where I can request each song of their release. The station links to the artists, who often link to CD Baby. Ruthie Foster is next on my list to buy, because of one of their album spotlights.
http://www.wholewheatradio.com/
(Their server is down as I write this, but try again if you can't get thru.)
So, if CD Baby ever decides to stream the entire CD, they'd sell more to music lovers like me, who hate to disappointed with music purchases.
I'm sure the costs of streaming each song are too high, but thought I'd mention it! The more the soul-less major labels are put to shame, the better.
Christina
Violet Edge
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It's not the cost! We'd LOVE it if people put up every song. But some feel that they'd be giving too much away & people wouldn't want to buy it anymore. Strange, huh?
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Oh. That IS strange.
When we release our full CD on CD Baby, can we request all songs be clipped?
Even if you charge us extra for the clipping time, I'd rather pay it to prove to listeners that the CD has no filler songs to hide.
Thanks,
Christina
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Hi Christina,
Absolutely, we do not charge extra if you want all of your CD tracks done, just select them all in your control panel.
That said, we strongly encourage sending some chocolate, tea or cool coffee to us. The production people here LOVE goodies when they're going the extra mile for you. :-)
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Thank you so much! I really had misunderstood the whole issue. For years I thought it was CD Baby's policy and not the artist's choice. When I joined two weeks ago, the form asked me to pick 3 songs to clip. So you see...
Anyhow, we are chatting about CDBaby today on Whole Wheat Radio's chat page. Trying to convince Esther to join and sell her live CD thru CD Baby. And many of the listeners are musicians.
I hope that will substitute for chocolate until we finish our full CD!
Thanks for all your replies.
Christina
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Thanks Derrick, for this fantabulous site!! i never knew just how good my music was until i had cats from London to Japan asking me if they could play my music on their radio stations & promote all throughout Asia!! although im not "hitting" in the u.s. like i wanna, im sure its only a matter of time before Dana Marsale steps up into the r&b game baby!!! (readers hit me at caperentertainment.com, "original" r&b baby!) ROCK ON CD BABY!! (you too Derrick)
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Love it, sold 2 albums this week!
Noah
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CONGRATULATIONS HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YA! First and foremost, CDBaby is the premiere independent artist distribution & record label site. We celebrate with Derek and the crew at SGM; because we joined them for our first release and now our eighth release is in the mail! If it wasn't for CD Baby we might be spinning our wheels, wasting time and money, trying to get in the major label doors. Salute to Derek & CD baby "How to" Crew! All hail King Derek!
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CD Baby will be my only on-line store for a while too, since Amazon now wants to charge an annual fee around $45 for advantage accounts beginning May 1st. I'm proud of Derek and the folks at CD Baby for their achievements. I know they work their assess off for this success! Thank you!
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I look forward to publish a record out by the end of this year and i depend on cd baby to help me succed. Keep the good work up.
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CDbaby is only going to get bigger so hold on for
a wild,happy and exciting ride.Independant labels
are replacing the majors as it should be,insuring the people who create the music are rewarded not robbed.Much success to cdbaby and all independant
labels and artist!Holla back if you feel me!
cdbaby.com/vegas
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Thank you CDBaby for helping me to sell my album, and for doing it in the right way!
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devil's workshop big band would like to
congratulate derek sivers and cdbaby on five
GREAT years of doing the right thing.
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My hands are waving high up in the air for CD Baby.
Cd baby has this way of making you feel important. Everyone there is working hard to sell our CD's. I am very impressed by the relationship we have developed.
Thank you Derek and all the staff for you efforts!
Lori Cullen
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I've been in the top 10 for smooth jazz under Soundclick.com charts for 5 months. "It's All About Love" has made it to no. 1 and is still no. 10 on charts. Thanks to you Derek, Ronald Turner And The Fashion Statement is a band that's on it's way. Airplay in the LA area is just around the corner. You know how hard that can be. My promoters love the stuff we've done. We can't thank you enough for what you've done. Keep on sellin' me baby!
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Congratulations Derek, and to all who work to make CD Baby such a success!
It's always enjoyable doing business with CD Baby, and it's great to see the public support of independent artists.
cheers, Adrian
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| by dg
on Wednesday March 12 2003 @ 02:58PM PST [ reply | parent ] |
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i was just curious what percentage of your population makes money,are certain ones making all the money or is it fairly spread out. thanks,keep up the good work dg
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It's a curve, of course. We're just one little record store, so it's hard to tell who's made their money back & who hasn't. But if you look at the top-sellers list http://cdbaby.com/topever - most of those folks have made about $100k from us.
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Indie is the only way!
I found out about cdbaby.com at a Kerrville Folk Festival workshop.
It was and is refreshing to find solutions and sales in one great site.
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Congratulations on your success and I pray 3 more million in less than a year! I think you're doing a wonderful job because my CD sold 2 copies in one week of advertisement on CDBaby. I'm here for life! Congratulations again!!
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hey! Happy Birthday Baby! I am new to CD Baby but I love it. You guys are great!
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Derek! you rock! Truely there is still someone out there who does it only for the love of music, and look how it profits!! I won't be surprised when Sony or other major labels try to sue you in the future cause you're steeling sales (in their opinion).
Heres an idea- T-shirts with the cdbaby emblem on the front in support of such a good cause. I'd buy one! WHO'S WITH ME?!! ALLRIGHT! YEAH!! (those are my manly grunts to get the crowd warmed up)
Strictly off the hizzle my blizzle,
Derek Auth
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Dayam- 5 years of your fantabulous achievements and still the majors think they have a chance? Oi- when will they ever learn?!
I have forwarded your e-mail tips, etc. onto everyone and their mother. Thanks for the continued inspiration you've provided us all!!
And of course, happy bday! I hope you're spending it eating lots of chocolate :) Hmm.. Chocolate...
Danny Katz
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Derek,
Many congrats on your CD Baby successes.You are very blessed,and I wish I would of would of been the one to come up with your idea.
Okay,here goes my cynical self,the only problem with all this is,you are making alot of money,and the musicians you are charging to set-up pages aren't making any(or at least not much at all).Well,let me at least speak for myself,I have sold 3 CD's on CD Baby since I joined almost a year ago,and that is only because of the friends I told about it.Plus,I have a feeling I am not the only musician out there who has not sold many by way of your service.I still have yet to sell one by any regular consumer browsing your pages.How the hell can a musician sell his or her CD's in quantity on CD Baby?If you have anymore,or new ideas please let us know.Best regards.Scott Mann
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>> you are making alot of money,and the musicians you are charging to set-up pages aren't making any
C'mon. Anyone who's ever run a little store knows that just because $3 million passed THROUGH us, doesn't mean we MADE $3 million! I wish!
No it's still just a little record store. Nobody's getting rich. Yes the rent is paid and it's in the black, but nobody's a millionaire here.
That $35 setup we have to charge covers the four full-time customer service people here answering the phones and about 500 emails a day. Plus the shelf space, warehouse cost, etc. The $4 cut we keep only pays the warehouse guys that do the shipping.
>>I still have yet to sell one by any regular consumer browsing your pages.
Maybe you should alter your one-sentence style description, your genre-categories, your sounds-like famous artist listings, etc. These are the things that get you noticed on CD Baby.
Many musicians say they sell more to total strangers through CD Baby than any other source.
Read some of the other posts here if you don't believe me.
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Some people kill me Derek.
Cd Baby gives you a platform to advertise and sell your product.Get serious and take out some ad space in your local paper, Music Rags,banner ads on Rollingstone.com, flyer your local record stores and colleges and do it relentlessly for a period of a year.You will get results and build a
base.Keep rockin' in the free world Derek!
Doug Cash
www.swrecords.net
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In response to Scott Mann's posting, I think each of us artists is responsible for promoting their own cdbaby page and making as many people as possible aware of the album. I reckon I probably send at least 50 emails a day to radio stations/the global press etc inviting them to listen to my extracts and then offering them a free promo CD if they like what they hear. Of the 50 emails I write, I probably get one or two reply, sometimes more, sometimes none. You have to be really resourceful. Go to local gigs where music similar to the sort you make is being played and hand out your flyers with your CDbaby address on. Without a major label behind you no-one can deny it can be a hard slog at times but how well we sell, is essentially down to us i think!
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derek
a big congratulations..do visit the cdbaby thread on the rope
and --see my full letter to thank you,there, too..
all my bands are happy i recommend you.
ms indypub
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Cool site Derek! congrats on reaching the
3 million payouts
EVERYONE dont forget! where you can pick up the new
NED KELLY 7:50 minute epic ballad
@ cdbaby/russaimz
also at www.russaimz.com
Hurry before there all sold out due to the upcoming MOVIE! what a FRENZY this will create>>>>>>>>>>
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Congrats guys on your continued success!
Thanks,
Ant
www.Shoot4nooN.com
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Oh Yeah! Derek - you da man!
Thanks for creating this wonderful palce and helping the
community to survive and thrive. I am looking forward to my
first 10,000 CD sales, with your help!
Love,
George Kahn
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You know I've just joined the site this week and in the first day I sold a CD and the second day another. I've been on a cloud all week. I am so thankful for this site and you Derrick for having the heart to give of yourself and allow us hungry musicians a place to release our baby's to the universe. I've been very concerned about the state of music, but with this site creativity is now back in the hands of artist's not the bean crunchers. Thank You and God Bless You and Yours
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It the little things that counts. All a cdbaby needs is a little attention. Great work guys we make music for the people people buy music for what ever keep it Hot sell a lot.
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Oh they haven't seen nothing yet! No Iny or major will ever accommplish what is about to go down meaning accumlating sells regardless of the Country. It truly will be a world wide Work of ART & Soul of Music. That CDbaby will sell no matter what country a artist is from. You will be the first online independent to reach 1 billion in sales quicker than any other indy or major distributor off line independent ever did. Trust ME!What better way to spend your money buying a whole lot of chocolate cookies with a whole lot of MILK for all your cdbabies, YEAH BABY! :>)
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY
to Derek and the crew..........
and many many more!!!!!
Cheers,
jaen
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CD BABY ROCKS! You guys have helped us more than any other online retailer! Rock on...and thanks...
Peace,
Andy
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Hi Derek,
Congratulations on your success! I joined CD baby and my gospel CD titled "Who Is Like Unto You?" featuring contemporary, traditional and Caribbean gospel (reggae gospel and soca/calypso gospel) went up in the new releases on March 4, 2003. Yesterday, I sold my first CD through CDbaby.com!!!!!!!!!!I am so excited. Thanks for letting us see where hits to our page come from. You guys are great. You definitely beat out the deal that amazon.com offers especially now that they are going to start charging. I really try to send people to you guys as much as possible and usually include my cdbaby.com page at http://www.cdbaby.com/aquannette in my email messages in addition to including my own site at http://www.aquannette.com which has on the navigation bar a buy cd link to my cdbaby.com page. Keep up the great work!
Aquannette Chinnery
http://www.aquannette.com
http://www.cdbaby.com/aquannette
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In reply to Scott who asks about all the musicians who haven't yet sold any CDS... to be fair, CD Baby isn't here to promote the music to the outside world, just to sell the CDs, like a record shop would. I've not sold any CDs yet either... but I've done absolutely no promotion either, so I'm hardly surprised! But when I do get my ass in gear to spread the word about my wonderful music(!), I know there's a very cool place that any interested parties can come to to buy it...
Dan
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Congrats Derek,
I'm like many other artist who would like to sell more CDs, nevertheless, your site has opened many doors for me and my music. I think it's great. I appreciate being able to make necessary changes on the bio page when I need to, as well as being able to check the hits. Keep up the good work.
Wade
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Great going Derek and team...I've yet to get some sales for "California Blue" on line. however, I'm so pleased for all the artists who have sold CDs and reaping the benefits made possible through cdbaby....Keep up the good work guy's & gals..Roll on the next 3 mil +.
Best wishes and cheers...the "Sax Man".
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By the way, please listen to some cool tracks and make my day by telling your friends or even buying "california Blue" on line so at least I can say my Album has been sold overseas,
Cheers,
The "Sax Man".
http://cdbaby.com/williamtell1
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