| CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast |
 June 29,
2009
Ep.65 : Matthew Ebel - Stream your concerts to the world
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| CD Baby Music Podcasts |
 Music Discovery
 Hip Hop
 60's Pop
 Rockabilly
 Top Sellers
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| How much each Digital Retailer has paid (+ %) |
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I was curious, so I summed up a chart of how much each of our digital retail partners has sold/paid us, then calculated it as a percentage of the total.
Interesting (but not surprising) to see that iTunes is 82.8% of the total, combined. (Scroll down to see....)
| THRU JULY 2007 | SUM OF SALES | % of total |
| Apple iTunes | $14,388,901 | 67.8% |
| iTunes-Europe | $1,167,041 | 5.5% |
| iTunes-UK | $970,666 | 4.6% |
| Rhapsody | $846,626 | 4.0% |
| Napster | $762,227 | 3.6% |
| MusicNet | $516,515 | 2.4% |
| iTunes-Canada | $512,878 | 2.4% |
| Emusic | $498,720 | 2.3% |
| iTunes-Japan | $325,962 | 1.5% |
| MusicMatch | $224,203 | 1.1% |
| iTunes-Australia | $206,088 | 1.0% |
| Liquid Digital Media | $163,489 | 0.8% |
| MSN Music | $160,578 | 0.8% |
| Verizon | $96,865 | 0.5% |
| Sony Connect | $91,257 | 0.4% |
| Nokia/OD2 | $42,623 | 0.2% |
| MP3tunes | $37,164 | 0.2% |
| AudioLunchbox | $26,539 | 0.1% |
| BuyMusic | $24,393 | 0.1% |
| Puretracks | $23,108 | 0.1% |
| MusicNow | $21,755 | 0.1% |
| Tradebit | $20,858 | 0.1% |
| Ruckus | $16,538 | 0.1% |
| SNOCAP | $12,145 | 0.1% |
| MP3-Extension | $12,066 | 0.1% |
| PassAlong | $10,967 | 0.1% |
| iTunes-NewZealand | $9,523 | 0.0% |
| PayPlay | $7,743 | 0.0% |
| Nifty | $6,121 | 0.0% |
| MusicIsHere | $5,083 | 0.0% |
| GreatIndieMusic | $4,789 | 0.0% |
| Mperia | $2,935 | 0.0% |
| Bitmunk | $2,122 | 0.0% |
| Weed | $2,090 | 0.0% |
| Intent Media Works | $1,918 | 0.0% |
| NetMusic | $1,776 | 0.0% |
| Destra | $1,691 | 0.0% |
| HearMusic | $1,611 | 0.0% |
| DigitalKiosk | $1,180 | 0.0% |
| CatchMusic | $1,102 | 0.0% |
| MPGreek | $1,003 | 0.0% |
| USEN | $939 | 0.0% |
| iSound | $757 | 0.0% |
| Interia | $702 | 0.0% |
| Nareos | $639 | 0.0% |
| Viztas | $539 | 0.0% |
| DigiPie | $528 | 0.0% |
| QTRnote | $421 | 0.0% |
| IslandBeats | $348 | 0.0% |
| DiscLogic | $229 | 0.0% |
| TreeTunes | $97 | 0.0% |
| GroupieTunes | $85 | 0.0% |
| Chondo | $80 | 0.0% |
| Nexhit | $39 | 0.0% |
| RuleRadio | $38 | 0.0% |
| Muze | $35 | 0.0% |
| 3Guppies.com | $9 | 0.0% |
| TOTAL | $21,236,344 | |
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I'm glad to see this, because I was wondering why I was getting a lot of action from iTunes, but not much from the others. Now I see it's not just me.
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Derek
Hi, yeah its good to see what the actuall break-down of sales is. However i would be interested in how you get exposure on ITUNES, are there any marketing tips available for this area? We anit sold a thing yet...!!
Slan
Terry Harkin
WORD-STREAM
http://www.word-stream.com
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That is good info. to know.
thanks for helping us all get on I Tunes it has made a big difference
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I'm glad that cdbaby is selling my music directly to the public and I think over time, it's going to give I-Tunes a run for the money!
Marie
californiasongs.co.uk
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I would roughly estimated then that 27% of the revenue ever paid to artists in CDBaby's history is from Digital.
I wonder what this proportion would look like from a 2007 YTD perspective. I would guess 45% or greater.
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Most of my (limited) income from CD Baby is via digital.
it begs the question - often asked before I would imagine - of the future of physical CDs via services such as this.
Most of my 'real' sales of physical product are at gigs, and while it's kinda cool to see that people all over the world can buy a copy, the wind seems to be blowing at purely digital media.
I'd certainly be happy with just supplying one CD to get the tracks onto iTunes.
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It would save me international postage getting them to the States from Europe too! Things are tight down here...
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| by
on Friday September 07 2007 @ 04:03PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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Very interesting, Derek. Thanks for sharing this.
I, too, wonder about how the popularity of digital sales will affect how CD baby operates and how our band creates and distributes music. Will an "album" end up some romantic, nostalgic concept?
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Derek,
As long as you're in a numbers mood, do you think you might tell us the percentage of CD's sold at which prices, and including what percentage of sales the $5 bin produces. Setting the price for the Cd can become a mysterious process.
Thanks
Scott
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I study industry trends, including those here at CDBaby, as I do lectures and seminars in music industry studies ... these numbers and those posted in the other thread are very telling for purely DIY independent artists.
It's estimated that independents account for roughly 80% of the product in the distribution pipeline -- yet, only account for 20% of the overall sales and that roughly 49% of sales in 2006 went to the top 100 titles overall. Consider that there were nearly 70,000 titles in distribution in 2006, and the head does indeed appear very small compared to the length of the tail.
The compact disc in its present shape and size is due for obsolesence within the upcoming decade. Environmental issues notwithstanding, i.e. the cd is made from expensive and non-biodegradable and non-recyclable petroleum byproducts ... the current compact disc only holds 700mb of data. The new iPod holds as much as 160gb of data! Which would you rather carry around?
In every single poll I've taken over the past five years of lecturing at the college level, it appears that while aspiring studio engineers and musicians still want to produce 'albums,' they're not buying albums when asked what they buy. CD swapping, file-sharing, and P2P are still the #1 methods the vast majority of those I've interviewed get their new music.
The #1 cd purchasing demographic in America today? 45-54
The least likely to buy a cd? 18-24
The least likely to buy music period, in favor of getting music from radio or some other form of broadcast medium? 35-44
Recent studies indicate that the 45-54 demo buys an avg of 9 downloads per month, compared to the national average of 6 download purchases per month.
The 25-34 demo is the most likely to utilize newer technologies in urban markets ...
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In every single poll I've taken over the past five years of lecturing at the college level, it appears that while aspiring studio engineers and musicians still want to produce 'albums,' they're not buying albums when asked what they buy.
I suspect this is because almost everything else in the industry is still built around the traditional album release schedule. When you're pushing out MP3 singles each month, it's hard to get attention because it's less of an event. Even music bloggers tend to gravitate towards album releases.
Also: album != CD
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I suspect this is because almost everything else in the industry is still built around the traditional album release schedule. When you're pushing out MP3 singles each month, it's hard to get attention because it's less of an event. Even music bloggers tend to gravitate towards album releases.
It's not that I disagree, but I believe your reasoning unsound, when compared to the direct interviews I've conducted with aspiring engineers and producers. Nearly all of them say the reason why they're still into it is that while it might cost an estimated $1000 to record a single ... the revenue to them for an album is 10 or 12 x that value = $10,000 to $12,000 per album. So, if you're opening a new studio, you want to record albums worth of material, not singles.
Also: album != CD
This is becoming less and less a true statement. Within less than a decade there likely won't be a mass market CD (compact disc) album.
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So, if you're opening a new studio, you want to record albums worth of material, not singles.
Oh! That makes much more sense. Yeah, if I were in the recording/producing business I definitely would prefer the longer projects. I lumped "engineers and producers" in with "musicians."
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WoW!
67% from Apple Itunes, while itunes-Europe and UK Itunes only 5,5% and 4,6% : I am surprised!
And the dollar is going down...
.
http://musicjazzvideos.com
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Derek;
I really appreciate what you do for the 'Local' Artist.Thank You!!
Could you suggest a way to get more 'traffic' to the 'sites' that are
NOT producing income!?!
Is there something 'we' musicians can do???
Thanks a million,
Peace,
Peter
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Great job Derek most of my sales comes
from Itunes.
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Now I feel privileged that I sold a download at Itunes Australia
It's interesting to see how poorly Snocap does being it's right in your face under the player on myspace
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Not too surprising. All of my digital sales have been from iTunes (U.S.), every single one. There have been a few stream pennies here and there from Napster, Rhapsody, Ruckus and Music Now, but no sales. Thank goodness for Steve Jobs and his evil empire!
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My recent digital sales was directly from CDbaby! I wish to get rid of iTunes and their fees! CDbaby takes just 9% wich is breakthrough. Derek, go ahead and make flash widget to embed to myspace instead of SNOCAP. You'll beat iTunes and SNOCAP easily with your deal!!!
http://www.myspace.com/nadishana
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I'd love a CDBaby download store widget. But single tracks and albums, please. (SNOCAP doesn't do album bundles, do they? Argh...)
I'd put a CDBaby store up right away on my MySpace and main web pages.
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agreed - a cdbaby store downloads widget would be preferred for use on sites like myspace (over the snocap store, especially).
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| by
on Sunday September 09 2007 @ 07:40PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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My Cd will be in CdBaby this month. I don't
think to make it available for iTunes because
they take to much for each mp3 sold.
SergeD
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It seems it's different for different artists: My biggest download sellers are iTunes Japan and iTunes Europe. Living in Europe myself could explain that part (or not?) but seeing that there are people in Japan who have cared to pay for downloading me was a nice surprise!
The sums earned were, of course, minimal, but yet!
So, great thanks to CDBaby for making this possible!
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Yeah Derek, make a flash widget and then sound out the troops. I'm grateful to be in all these digital outlets, but I'd be down right zealous about promoting something in house from CD Baby.
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hmmm I'd have to agree a flash widget would be righteous...probably would be banned by Myspace though
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Well, you can put PayPlay widgets on MySpace (they even have a customize thing specifically for posting there) so I don't see any reason MySpace would ban CDBaby (or really anyone else) directly. I don't think they're gonna integrate anyone else like they have SNOCAP either...
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We have a flash widget at www.GreatIndieMusic.com that works on myspace page or any other website for all CdBaby Artist on our site. Very simple to use, just copy the code and paste it onto your myspace page or any other web site.
Thank you for your support and have a great day!
Sincerely,
Bradley Gailey
www.GreatIndieMusic.com
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My Cd will be in CdBaby this month. I don't
think to make it available for iTunes because
they take to much for each mp3 sold.
SergeD
absolutely not a good move, strategically. iTunes is where 90% of digital dl'ers go to at least look for music. many in fact who don't come here out of ignorance of its existence, go to iTunes. To NOT put yourself there because of its commission structure is short-sighted, to say the least.
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Like they all say, 60% of something is better than 100% of nothing. And far and away, iTunes is the best source of revenue for my material, too. Better than the CDBaby averages, I think, even. :)
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| by
on Tuesday September 11 2007 @ 12:37PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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Anon,
On the pragmatic side of things 60% of something is better than 100% of nothing as cowtrax says.
But it feeds big brother which acts as composers depend on him. In fact it's a real steal. iTunes and friends are nothing without musicians.
I've done both programming and composing orchestral music. And believe me nowadays setup an online store is a lot easier than composing music. The problematic question is that iTunes has a lot more affluence than CdBaby. But a good advertising could be the way to make CdBaby the talk of the town.
CdBaby should proclaim itself as the unique equitable mp3 online store in the world. We all know here that it is the truth but other people don't.
CdBaby should sell mp3 songs along with entire mp3 albums, it's mandatory for having success. But they could take 15% instead of 9%. Musicians here would not scream.
They should have a certified logo which confirms that when people buy a mp3 song at CdBaby they feed the musician not the distributor. Then the rumor would spread the world. The End
As a musicians (having to eat at least once a day) we would sell our songs also on iTunes but only promote CdBaby :)
SergeD
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Wouldn't make sense to just figure out what you make from a
direct CDBaby download and then set the price for the iTunes
album download so you make the same either way?
Unfortunately, we can't control iTunes album prices, even to
lower them. I understand that Apple wants to keep the tracks at
$0.99, but I think we should be able to charge something other
than $9.99 for an album.
Regarding per track download via CDBaby:
I think the best solution would be for the artist to price their
albums relatively low (since CDbaby is only taking a $0.09 cut)
to encourage people to just download the whole album. I think
it's crazy that iTunes automatically prices albums at $9.99. In
my opinion this is BEGGING people to ignore the album and
cherry pick. I know this is true, because I use iTunes and I cherry
pick songs all the time, unless there is a significant price
advantage to the album, or if I'm huge fan of the artist.
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Hey Anon,
I know iTunes takes a big bite out of your digital sales so the best thing to do is to have your own official website where people can download your music and you keep 100% of the profits.
I am a musician and a website designer as well. If you need help to start or get more traffic to your website feel free to contact me at Poppaproductions@gmail.com
The secret is to search engine optimize your website so that when people search for your music, your "official website" appears above iTunes, CDBABY and the rest and you have more chance that people will buy your CD from your website and you keep 100% of the money. I do Search Engine Optimization as well.
Best Regards,
Daniel Chege - "
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hi Daniel -
Are you actually posting on the cdbaby.org board, encouraging people to stop using CD Baby?
Is that polite?
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Derek, these are all time figures, right? it'd be interesting to see these same figures for YTD, as i guess some of these are new deals and it'd be good to see them all on an equal weighting.
keep it up, eh!
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Anon,
On the pragmatic side of things 60% of something is better than 100% of nothing as cowtrax says.
But it feeds big brother which acts as composers depend on him. In fact it's a real steal. iTunes and friends are nothing without musicians.
I've done both programming and composing orchestral music. And believe me nowadays setup an online store is a lot easier than composing music. The problematic question is that iTunes has a lot more affluence than CdBaby. But a good advertising could be the way to make CdBaby the talk of the town.
CdBaby should proclaim itself as the unique equitable mp3 online store in the world. We all know here that it is the truth but other people don't.
CdBaby should sell mp3 songs along with entire mp3 albums, it's mandatory for having success. But they could take 15% instead of 9%. Musicians here would not scream.
They should have a certified logo which confirms that when people buy a mp3 song at CdBaby they feed the musician not the distributor. Then the rumor would spread the world. The End
As a musicians (having to eat at least once a day) we would sell our songs also on iTunes but only promote CdBaby :)
SergeD
I'm not going to say you're wrong Serge, but I will say you're looking at the picture thru a macro lense.
The issue is one of technology, not marketing. iTunes is popular, not because of marketing, but because of the hardware/iPod it supports.
The reason you see the sales of songs on iTunes that you see, according to Apple's sales figures for their stockholders, is because the avg NEW iPod owner is dl'ing 28 tracks ... and that's about it. With the new iPhone now at 1 million units sold, the same thing is occuring, which will push the aggregate number of songs purchased to new heights. However, where no new technology exists to create a desire to dl from iTunes, the avg number purchased becomes minimized.
You speak of 'big brother.' Business is business. eMusic is bigger than CDBaby when it comes to independent artist releases, according to my sources. What is 'big brother?' Orwell, et.al. considered intrusively peering govt's as 'big brother.' Are you comparing iTunes to the govt' in your country?
CDBaby has a sound business model, that continues to evolve as the needs of the content suppliers themselves evolve. I don't see CDBaby as being responsive to the consumer needs -- otherwise, they'd be in the hardware business, not the record-distribution business.
If I were a recording artist w/ product to sell, I would not just speak that I have product for sale here --- but would always be asking, "where do you, mister consumer, do your online shopping for music?" Then, depending on his/her answer, I would direct them accordingly. But then, I'm a sales-guy; a marketer of retail products ... I owe my alliegence to the consumer, not the store.
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Anon,
Are you comparing iTunes to the govt' in your country?
Of course not. It's like saying that petroleum industry is in the driving seat of the USA government... non sense.
iTunes is not technology, iTunes is Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs is the king of marketing. MySpace is not technology, MySpace is marketing. Business is not business, Business is marketing. And more than ever today marketing is sociology.
Many people will tell you that Steve Jobs is ecologic and Bill Gates is not. They don't know about zillion of iPods dying in dumps. Marketing man, marketing.
Thanks for your comments. I agree with everything you say on the business side and statistics. As for "big brother" is a bit too much in my reply.
SergeD
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Thanks for posting and sharing.
Does this show revenues for the 12 months up to July 2007? Or for 6 months January-July 2007?
thanks
Clive
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Derek,
Am I too far off topic to request the role of the $5 CDs ? And similiar breakdowns such as # of cds sold between $5 & 10 and numbers of CDs sold between $10 & 15. And your insights into the results if any.
Thanks
Scott
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Excellent numbers Derek!
I also like the way the thread here took off in such fascinating directions. The industry is in the midst of great changes. In the end, CDBABY will reap many rewards for all it does for all artist who use it. You don't just help us out Derek, you help keep us on the cutting edge of the future of the marketing of ourselves and our music! You truly help us to be,
LOUD AND PROUD!!!!
I really hope you do a TV spot someday. (Super Bowl????)
Yeah Baby!!!!
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I had to come back and list my own numbers to let you all know that the numbers Derek gave are useful.
Appel i-Tunes=59%
Musicnet =17%
Verizon =13%
Rhapsody =6%
Napster =3%
Musicmatch =2%
AND BY ALBUM,
Paint By Thunders =47%
Alloys Of Emotion =2%
Nobody Wins =27%
Screaming With My Eyes=2%
Death And Decay =22%
Just think, I was able to glean this out of $13.87! (And it does not include the total amount sold of my music, only what is yet owed to me. I gave the other $14.00 to charity.
The numbers may be small for me, but they still amount to exposure. Thanks again Derek!!!!
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Derek,
As CDBABY Members we should be able to track our digital sales through something like google analytics, because despite of promoting my music heavily, the sales has been stagnant and the hits to my cdbaby page has remained the same for some months.
Is it that cdbaby is slow to publish our sales or what is going on at "cd baby" - It makes us think that there's something fishy going on with our sales.
Also I would like to know if the possibility of having a cdbaby download widget is within our reach or should we just rely on PayPLAY.
Best Regards,
Daniel Chege - " Poppa "
Poppaproductions@gmail.com
http://poppaproductions.net
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hi Daniel -
The Google Analytics kind of thing you're talking about would have to be installed on each site's service. (iTunes would have to have an open traffic-viewer, Napster would have to have an open traffic-viewer, etc.)
We only see the sales reports they send us once a month and immediately import into your account.
Because all of these music services are being watched SO closely by the major labels' lawyers, the chance of fraud is very very small. (If Rhapsody, for example, tried to cheat any of their clients out of $100 and got caught doing it, word would spread instantly, and it could bring down the entire company. No legitimate company would risk total death just to fudge the numbers a bit.)
As for your 2nd question, no cdbaby download widget on the way. Use PayPlay.
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Since CDBaby is offering digital downloads now, maybe CDBaby
could also offer a monthly subscription service similar to eMusic--
except one that offers the usual $0.91 percentage to the artists
while keeping prices reasonably low (maybe something like
$0.40-45 per credit instead of $0.33).
It would still be a good deal for consumers while practically
doubling the money that goes to the artist. It could also be a nice,
steady income for CDBaby for the turbulent times ahead.
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To clarify my post, I was thinking somthing like:
$9.99 per month = 20 downloads
$14.99 per month = 30 downloads
$19.99 per month = 50 downoads
This still offers a significant price advantage over iTunes while
making it possible for artists to earn a living. Maybe some of the
labels that have pulled out of eMusic recently would be willing to
work with CDBaby on these terms.
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can't agree there in my experience CDBaby pays monthly iTunes royalties way earlier (sometime 2-3 weeks) than other aggregators. Right now they are the *only* one's who have earned my trust.
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Derek
Is my question aove about the role of $5 CD sales a do-able request ? Pricing a CD is mysterious.
Thanks
Scott
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Derek, thanks for posting these figures.
Just shows - where would we all be, without Itunes! But to be fair to other companies, if figures were, say, just for 2007 totals, percentages would be significantly different.
Even in relation to Itunes US vs Itunes Europe,
currents stats would be way different. For us,
it varies from month to month, but I would say it's about 60/40 (although, we've had a few albums in Top 100 on several European Itunes stores).
Also, to all those artists, who think that they would be better off, selling directly, from their websites and keeping all the profits etc. -unless you already have a big fan base, don't even waste your time. Remember, 100% of nothing, is still nothing. By all means, have a good website and have a direct sale option, but don't expect too much from it. Better, spend your time on producing good music!
David Faiman, Odessa Mama Records (Australia)
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No BeatPort or BigPond Music? That's strange, are these two DMS a part of CD Baby's distro chain?
Inertia music made the list? Wow that's awesome, especially when they don't even promote their store as a priority. After seeing these figures why would you bother to promote your online store anyway, there's just no money in it..... I love how CD Baby release their figures, champs!
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We have a flash widget at www.GreatIndieMusic.com that works on myspace page or any other website for all CdBaby Artist on our site. Very simple to use, just copy the code and paste it onto your myspace page or any other web site.
Thank you for your support and have a great day!
Sincerely,
Bradley Gailey
www.GreatIndieMusic.com
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Hey Derek,
I have been a CD BABY member since 2004 so please believe if I did not want nothing to do with cdbaby I would still be here but if my fellow members need my help, I will give it without being bias,so let me know what specifically you are refering to?
I will not bite my tongue if I have a question to ask and if that is what you are refering to,shold we as cdbaby members not ask you questions?
Thanks and Best Regards,
Daniel Chege - " Poppa "
http://cdbaby.com/cd/poppahiphop
Poppaproductions@gmail.com
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JALEBI Music Flash Comment:
Dear Derek/CD Baby,
Namaste! Thank you for giving us the facts and figures about digital distribution here at CD Baby! Once again you are showing us all that CD Baby is aboveboard on all of its dealings and wants to keep its musician members and customers informed about the services that CD Baby offers and the results…..be they positive or negative!
I can gladly say that for JALEBI Music…. the results have been very positive indeed! Thanks to CD Baby and its distribution deals our digital and physical CD sales are increasing monthly. JALEBI Music has only been distributed by CD Baby for about 10 months but things are definitely progressing very nicely! I for one ….am optimistic….and grateful! : )
Keep up the great work!
Hare Krsna! Namaste, baby! : )
Shirley Marie Bradby (MiraBai Devi Dasi)
JALEBI
http://www.jalebimusic.com
http://www.betarecords.com/jalebi
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Thanks, Derek. You have been so amazingly wonderful to Indies over the year. If you're ever in SF I owe you dinner!
I'm not surprised - iTunes is pretty cool and they have all the products to complimnent it. Why does SNOCAP suck so much? I haven't sold one track with them.
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on Saturday September 29 2007 @ 08:41PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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I'd get really excited about a cdbaby "widget". In the mean time, I'll be using Payplay but I 'd be much happier with cdbaby. One thing I'd REALLy like is a cdBaby download widget where people from outside the USA could buy individual songs. As far as I can tell, Payplay is USA customers only.
Thanks for everything Derek, CD Baby ! Much appreciated, ~ JZ
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Thats alot of DD's with o% :/
I don't recognise half of them, guess i should go have alook.. i reckon music buyers don't find these sites in the first place, don't know who they are and find it easier to use iTunes cause there familiar with the setup..
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I admit cdbaby gives a lot of artists an opportunity to sell their music to the masses in a way that otherwise wouldnt be...and for cheap. I don't understand what to do to market the digital distribution more...It's a little easier to do outside sales (at shows, clubs, word of mouth) but I havent figured out how to promote myself better on the net. Any help is appreciated. You can catch me at www.myspace.com/aprilfoolrecords.
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I think the DD is great. And the %'s make sense to me and eqaute pretty dang close to my sales here.
I do have a question though...has everyone else had no sales post reported yet (for this month)? Or is it just me actually getting no sales for last month at all?
That would be quite strange in comparison to the consistant increase I've seen over the past 6 months.
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Does anyone know if there are plans to put CD Baby artists on the new Amazon mp3 site? I just received an e-mail today saying it's up and running.
Thanks!
-Pete
www.petecalgaro.com
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this is exactly what i was going to ask.
whats happening Amazon Mp3 and CDBABY? they are looking to
compete pretty well with itunes, esp. because of the lower cost and
no DRM resrictions for the songs.
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Yes, most of our clients are in Amazon's MP3 store. We have been delivering them audio for over a year now.
If your music is not there yet, it will be soon.
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I just want to ask Derek are there some companies Like walmart, Rapsody who may be reluctant to put more Cdbaby tracks on?
Does the progress of Cdbaby tick them off or they need their elbow greased THIS IS CAPITALISM SO YOU NEVER KNOW.
I even see tracks from villages in Africa on WALMART but something is happening that we should be noting.
I understand it takes times to get on their site but that may be 25% of why they are ticked off. I have told Derek that places like Walmart You need to buy your friends there coffee.
Even that Itunes you need to set a table for them sometimes In a 4 star restaurant. CDBABY is very big now . IT IS LIKE BOXING .CDBABY is the boxer . You came to ring with your corner people. If you win the JACKPOT you turn around and buy a big dinner for all in your corner.
I sell on Itunes so I am worried so I have to tender this advise to Derek
Derek the money they take each track is Corporate.
has nothing to do with TOP INDIVIDUALS
Those individuals in the trenches in Itunes ,Rapsody, Walmart Etc MARK YOU I AM USING THE WORD "INDIVIDUALS" very different from Corporate.
Make them feel at home with you. Something like RHAPSODY to be explicit get the TOP managers or VP there Lunch at a 4 star restaurant enjoy it with them with Cdbaby Managers go to their headquarter City. Same with Itunes , walmart etc
Do not let that ball roll anyhow. IT IS A DOG EAT DOG WORLD OUT THERE . THERE ARE MANY DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES NOW OUT THERE DEALING WITH ALL THOSE MAJOR COMPANIES. Derek take my advice.Go closer to those individuals at the same time make it Corporate.Do not ignore the Top individuals who know you are making it.
Chief Kooffreh
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That is great but unfortunately my account is $0.00
Does Cd Baby do any advertising for the artist?
Im doing all I can but my budget is low and I am broke :(
http://www.williamstenner.com
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Derek,
How are you? I hope all is well with you. First of all, thank you for your commitment to the Independent Artist. I appreciate all that you do! Do you have any figures on the amount of cds sold through Discount Distribution to Super D? Or the figures for how many are bought buy stores after an artist installed a discount for multiple purchases?
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CD baby rocks, I have been listened to by thousands all over the world and many hundreds have bought my music. The digital distribution is awesome as is the reporting. Sorry to say if you aren't getting any income from digital then the most likely reason is that people don't like it. I have one track that has made more than all my other tracks put together, that tells me something, its not my favourite, in fact my own favourite is my lowest selling. Digital means people can sample each tune and buy each tune seperately if they like it enough to part with the cash, sure marketing helps, alot, but good music if available will be found and although it will take time people will pick it up sooner or later.
Rock on Derek!
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How are you Pete
I would just like to defend myself
Ruth is correct by saying it's marketing. I would like you to know I have only been on CD Baby for about a month and 1/2. People Do not know who William Stenner is and it is my job to get my name out there. I fund my project 100% and it is not cheap. I also believe that I need more than 3 songs. I don't have enough product right now so I am hoping that these three songs can help me fund a full length. I am Glad you have been listened by thousands all over the world (I tip my hat off to you.) Whether you think my music is good or not isn't going to change the world. In my post I was simply asking if there was any advertising, Thats all. Give me your email address and I'll e-mail you my spin report for terrestrial radio. My song "I'll Do anything" has been played right along the likes of Major Recording artists being heard by Millions (not Thousands) and I did it without a record label. I believe that is an accomplishment in itself. If you read who produces my music you should see that it is in good hands when it comes to quality recording in the industry but unfortunately I don't want to become a name dropper to get ahead. When my first song was recorded I put it on the internet and started mentioning my producers credentials. I have since learned that no-one will know who "William Stenner" is because I was mentioning all the other artist. He simply told me, "Will, It's not about me, this is your music this is about you." I want people to like my music because its My Creation. Not because of my Connections 'if you understand what I mean'. I in no way shape or form was talking smack on CD Baby and Yes DEREK does ROCK (Great Job with CD Baby!)
I hope this helps you understand Pete. After all why pick a fight, We are family here aren't we?
-William
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I am not sure that it is fair to make a statement like this, Pete--
"Sorry to say if you aren't getting any income from digital then the most likely reason is that people don't like it."
I sing classical music which is a relatively unpopular genre with the general public, but yet my digital download and stream numbers are pretty decent. I think that the answer is far more complex, involving a number of marketing issues. Sometimes it is something so simple/complicated as how your song title is structured and whether search engines pick it well. Not to mention the whole can of worms about local marketing and your local fan base. It has to be exposed to people before they can even decide if they will like it! And, p.s., I listened to one of William's songs and I am sure that you have fans out there :).
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Thank you Ruth. Much appreciate a smart mind.
-William
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Bad that I have not seen these detailed list before transfering money to iSound for a 6 month download period (http://www.isound.com/dorninger).
I like Payplay - they are fast, have a nice widget, but they also have no consumers??????
following the numbers it only makes sense to promote the iTunes link. all other links just disturb the willing consumer.
Wolfgang
http://cdbaby.com/group/base
ps: Derek, maybe you can do an update end of 2007. Thanks!
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Derek,
I am not encouraging people not to use cdbaby, but I am encouraging them to have them own official web site where their fans can learn more about them and their music.
Cdbaby is a third party service, and it does not let us do what we can do on our own web site.
CDBABY DOES NOT LET US MUSICIANS :
1. Write press releases about our music labels.
2. Let people know about our tour dates.
3. Download single songs like at www.payplay.fm
4. Search Engine Optimize our web site to get more traffic.
Best Regards,
Daniel Chege
Poppa Productions
http://poppaproductions.net
Poppaproductions@gmail.com
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I also encourage everyone to have their own official website and only send all your fans there.
It's not that CD Baby doesn't "LET" you do those things (we don't own you).
We're just sales and distribution.
By focusing only on that it makes us very good at that.
If we tried to be everyone to everyone (press releases, tour dates, SEO, etc) - then we wouldn't be good at anything.
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Have a good New Year Derek, all the best.
I also want to wish all the CD Baby members a Happy New Year as well.
John Janes
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Wow 16 Million Dollars, that's great to see that many micro-transactions, paying very well, I think it's new to most folk still, so this number is going to triple next year!!! All the people have just boarded the first flight, once they realize it's safe, easy, fast, and even fun, they'll be more flights and huge increase in revenue!!!
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Hey Derek,
I love CD Baby. erful1 (and yes I have my own website!)
Mad Love,
Chad "Sir Wick" Hughes
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For us European musicians the extreme low Dollar exchange rate
becomes a problem. Have you ever thought of opening a bank
account in Europe and paying European artists from this European
bank account?
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Hi Derek!
We love CDbaby and everything you are doing for Artists. The long tail is a wonderful place to be.
One question for you (i appologize if i didnt look hard enough through all the posts). Are you working on a relationship with Amazon? I suspect they will be a big iTunes competitor in the near future. I would assume the answer is yes, but thought i better ask.
Thanks again! CDbaby rocks!
Rick
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> Are you working on a relationship with Amazon?
Yep! We've had a deal with Amazon MP3 store for over 2 years now. We have delivered almost everything to them now, and will continue distributing almost everything possible to them.
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hi Derek
my first feedback I would like to thank cdbaby for all of it great works God Bless.
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Is there any plan by Cdbaby in future to run a soundcan program of monthly download based on Isbn number of tracks Sold worldwide against vendors sales of cdbaby music?
As music depends on digital download is expanding it is essential to use camera to monitor . Do you only plan to depend on Lawyers on mega stars checking on vendors?
I am sure we trust the vendors but does it not make sense to at least verify their claims of sales against the data base of Cdbaby Isbn numbers worldwide sales of cdbaby music.
Thanks again to all the efforts of cdbaby . We are thankful to your effort and courtesy to all the Artists.
Chief Kooffreh.
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I for one love CD Baby and we thrive on our Itunes & Rhapsody sales. But it's the digital aspect that I love. They have in sense made my life easier.
I agree with a lot of folks here. We don't sell many CDs on CD Baby anymore. If we do, it's the international market. Mostly Japan, the UK, Canada & sometimes South America. Which is great, cause that's also led to more digital sales.
iTunes has saved us on many occasions. However shipping 20 CDs to CD Baby every month has been pointless & expensive. I wanna get my product to fans, but my sponsor Left Coast Boardwear will ship them and sell them for less than CD Baby. Not to mention we give them $2 for every CD sold. In comparison to $4. That's a better deal. Now we haven't restocked our CDs to CD Baby in a month and we have 17 CDs being demanded already. So I'm gonna go ahead and send 100, so that I don't have to do this every month. It should save me a few bucks on shipping. They told me not to because of their lack of storage space. If they don't like it, they can send it back. lol
If anyone wants help with promoting your music for iTunes. I seriously make most of my money by one daily bulletin and blog on myspace, one daily comment on facebook.com and plenty of word of mouth. Your best weapon is the word of mouth of your fans. If you're in a band that nobody knows about, sometimes that fan is your mom or your lil brother. You have to fire up the networks. When you plug away at shows. Mention that you're available on iTunes, when you're posting a blog, put up a nice pretty link with your logo and a CD Baby or iTunes logo directing to your iTunes page. Remind your friends constantly because they forget. They have lots of things distractin them and honestly they probably love you and all but your music is probably the last thing on their mind. That's just the reality of it folks.
Last year we had a special contest raffle at one of our shows. We gifted $100 worth of iTunes music, but we sent our music to 10 lucky fans along with a T-shirt and some stickers. Those people will gladly spread your music around. Excuse my language, but people love FREE SHIT!
I try and give away a free mp3 a month of a live recording, sometimes video too. It keeps people interested and also shows a different side of your music, it also shows interaction with your fans. If you only have 10-20 people at your show, get someon to get some good angles. It'll build in due time. Just keep pluggin away and remember to interact with your fans, keep them smiling. If it's the death metal crowd, make that Cookie Monster sound, that fires the crowd up.
Oh....and one great resource is your local college radio station. Get in good with their director. Radio stations like to talk about your scene, your story, you need to have a bit of a news hook tho. Can't just go out and say...yeah we rock.
-Weege of 880 South
http://www.880south.com
P.S. Create a street team, and let your biggest fan run it. Just be prepared to stock up on giveaways, free shirts, stickers, flyers, posters and stuff.
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WELL I DONT KNOW ABOUT NOBODY ELSE BUT I PLAN TO MAKE HISTORY ON CD BABY AS A INDPENDENT LOCAL ARTIST. I AIM TO BE THE FIRST TO SELL SO MANY RECORDS AND DIGITAL RINGTONES I GET PLACED ON THE BILLBOARDS AS THE ONE OF THE TOP SELLING INDEPENDENT ARTIST THANKS TO THE DISTRUBUTION CONNECTS OF CD BABY..SO BE APART OF THE MOVEMENT.
SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT FEMALE ARTIST: Shawty Ace
For Booking and Info:
Shawty Ace
www.myspace.com/shawtyacegetem
www.myspace.com/shawtyacegetem
Block Bleedaz Productions
281-995-7830
www.myspace.com/blockbleedazproductions
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Whats the haps? are there any new reports for CD Baby? Are there going to be any CD Baby gatherings or confferances coming up?
I would like to be involved if there are.
P.S. Namm show in Anaheim this year was awesome!
www.williamstenner.com
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We'll be at SXSW in less than a month!
Come by and visit.
As for other conferences, we'll keep you posted.
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Hi,
I have 5 albums here and only one is said to have been delivered to Amazon.
Does the responsibility fall on the artists to make sure everything is going to where it should be going ?
Thanks,
Mike
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No. Its definitely our responsibility.
But we don't mind at all if you want to check up with us about your recent delivery history.
As for Amazon, we're still in the midst of making huuuuge deliveries to them, so its probably just a matter of time.
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You guys may already know this, but iTunes is now the #2 retailer in the US, behind Wal-Mart.
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Very interesting will be in touch---Pete
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Yea, I noticed they were doin a lot more buisness.. Thanks Derick for putting it out clear like that, I like to see numbers.. Krak, p.s Any local artists come get your tats for only 50.00 bucks! myspace.com/krakadon 8015028254
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I will go digital with CDbaby, I think that's the best. The Technology is changing every minute, I hard someone calling me from a music store nearby trying to tell me they have new disc tech availalbe. First I ignored him, but now that this issue has come up, I am going to call them and see what's it's all about. It's all about this new device which takes more music than CDS, and it's smaller like your finger nail...Ok we'll see about that.
And plus if a customer wants to buy music, they'll just down load from Cdbaby it's easier that way. We don't have to sell hard copies anymore on Cdbaby,mailing expenses, and what tracking #'s, may be we'll just mail one copy Cdbaby puts it on for down loading and you're in business, or may be for those who have high speed computers we'll be sending MP3 files straight to CD baby straight. everybody soon or later they'll have new and fast computers,in fact many people have fast computers, because who wants to waste time? time is money, and I'd be rather composing more songs in my studio room and make video clips to load on my site, and hope for the best may be someone in "Hollywood" will discover me in my "Hollywood home". customers can down load music in any devices they want anytime. This is a new era! And no one wants to be carying around a bag of CDs any more you know. So going digital with Cd baby is the best for now for future of musicians/ composers, this way we'll save head aches. My music fans come in all ages, and if some one needs a live/ a hard CD disc they'll have to contact me the artist direct info on cdbaby site enough. Cdbaby will have to have our info on our cdbabydigital-sell-addpages. I'd say we are finished here the game is over***. We can't blame the world for this, things change for the better of the next generation it's the reality of nature, who knows may be in the future people won't need to move places to places driving and poluting the air, or they won't be able to afford the polution taxes, so the easiest and cheapest way out is great. Two Thumbs up!! I am going digital with CDbaby.
Thank you Cd baby****
if anyone want to get in touch:
www.adamsolomon.ca
www.myspace.com/adamsolomontikisa
Check my videos live videos, no tricks the real thing, the real man.
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i really don't know what i'm doing wrong... i am on cdbaby since 2005 here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/graziani
and this is my stats
total ever earned $53.43
my album is in EVERY SINGLE digital distribution.... i just can't find what is wrong....
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Don't feel bad. I have been with CD Baby since last October and Im barely getting reports back. I havent seen any reptorts from i-Tunes yet but my website shows lots of i-tunes hits to my directory. I don't make much but my name is all over the internet. If you Google "William Stenner" there are a ton of pages that come up with my stuff. I hope that helps. I am ok with not making much anyways I enjoy what I do whether I get paid or not. I write and distribute music because it's an artform that I enjoy doing. If you go to my website you'll find all of my projects up for free downloads. It doesn't make me money but it gets people talking. www.williamstenner.com
If anyone is interested, Contact me at William@williamstenner.com I'll put a link up to your page from mine. No charge.
Don't get me wrong though. I would love to get millions of downloads sold through i-tunes or any other download entity.
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I love the digital distribution through CD Baby; it may take a while sometimes (depending on the delivery schedule), but I see my stuff on SO MANY digital retailers.
My one niggling complaint is that I cannot get a spreadsheet for the sales for which I am getting paid.
Sure, I can sort the text file of total cumulative sales and sort of figure it out by deleting everything from the beginning of time; but it would seem your system knows what I'm getting paid for each distribution - I wish I could get that culled out.
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Derek's brainchild (brainbaby?) allowed my music to be purchased by someone on the other side of the world - several times. Heretofore, I literally only dreamed about that possibility.
More importantly: He does business straight up.
What else is there to say?
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The majority of my band's ( Mooli) sales via CD baby have come
from Digital downloads, and nearly every sale has come from i-
tunes. We've had sales from most i- tunes territories,inc canada,
Uk, Australia, of course the US, with a few sales from Liquid
Media, and Snowcap when that was live.
We have our debut album ' Concubine' ready for distribution,
both physical and digital. It will be interesting to see what the
sales pattern of that goes like, and it will also be interesting to
see what effect a single we have coming out on Universal , called
Wasted by My digital enemy feat Mooli, will have on our album
sales, also.
My label Mooli music has been offered physical distribution in
the Uk, by one of the big players, but the amount of money they
wanted for a retainer was beyond our reach, so it looks like we'll
be selling Cd's from our site, at gigs and via Cd baby.
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From what I am reading as to personal sales I have to say take a ride. Go to 3 download sites and start cruising the "styles" ie; jazz, R&B, Pop, Rock, etc..
THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF CD's AND MUSIC FOR SALE from all over the world!
Hundreds of thousands of artist's releasing music of all sorts from all era's of history. When I go to a site to check any "movement" at times I will click on one band which leads to another and another...which will bring you, eventually, to "The Charts" on some sites. Overwhelming when I see 'The Charts"! I always get a twinge of helplessness when the reality hits but I have come, now, to just say (and I do saay this to myself out loud) "whew there's so many dam people doing this". And I think back when someone said to me, when I first started back in high school, "there's alot of competition out there". The internet brings that competition into a monster of reality because now you can SEE it. Not just think "yeah there's a few here and there". I write this in an effort for those complaining and/or wondering about their lack of sales. When they say 'It's a jungle out there" they aren't talking about the deadly beasts. They are talking about the foiliage; tree's, palms, grass, bushes, everything that makes a jungle what it is. I've been in the jungle. There are places dark as night in the middle of the day in the jungle. So I hope you can get some perspective as to what we all are up against and ease your angst about sales and rev up your creative juice's to create more and more of your own, personal message or style to let loose in this jungle. Ya gotta throw a ton of chit out there man.
www.myspace.com/billdyckns
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You are reading right. Back in the Early 1990's before CD baby I relied on Demo reviews from magazines. I used to get so many letters and people sending me cash for a shirt or a demo. Now that the internet has taken over for snail mail I don't get didly squat in my P.o. Box. The internet is very fast paced. Not to mention the technology to record songs i.e. Pro Tools and such. Recordings used to cost thousands upon thousands of dollars and now you can get a good recording for just a few hundred dollars. A whole album for just a couple thousand and in very good sound quality with decent artwork. Everybody I know has their own home studio now. I think the best thing to do is get your song heard on a popular television sitcom. The hard part is getting it on there. But who is to say your song wouldn't get its chance. Its worth it.
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Oner thing I must ask about the digital side of things here. It says
that all these co's have received The Mooli One design EP, but a lot
of them are not displaying any Mooli products when I search for
our name on their stores. For instance Starzik, were supposed to
be carrying our Ep since April 2007, but here we are in march 08,
and still no sign of it. anyone else experiencing the samep robs?
http://www.moolimusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/mooli
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Hey There,
Many of our digital partners are so flooded with content that they do not post everything they receive. We cannot control what they post... or when. All we can do is guarantee we deliver it to them.
But if you have questions about a specific company's handling of your music, please click the "report a problem" link in your cdbaby.net member account's DIGITAL section.
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All my songs are posted except for Verizon. It was up for a while then they took it down. I don't know why. But it was ther efor a time.
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Hi D.S ,
Thank you so much for everything.
Thank you for the distribution of my music.
Thank you for liking my music.
and thank you for being fair and honest,and for all of the DIGITAL links.
IT's"GREAT"
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Digital Distro is a great way to go. I've found it nearly impossible to even get a response from the online stores when submitting music or even trying to get in the door. 35 bucks for this type of distrobution is well worth it, even though 1 or 2 online stores might not list the tracks. there's roughly 40 online stores CD Baby uses. I'd go with that, and on top of having a website, anyone could do really well if they put their mind to it. Be creative and get yourself heard.
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| NOTE: If you need a reply you should email CD Baby directly instead of posting here. We don't often read old message board postings, and have no way of replying to them!
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