| 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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| Amazing Opportunity for CD Baby Artists |
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For the past few years, CD Baby has held a top-sellers contest. The artists who sold the most CDs for that month would be placed on a compilation disc sent out to 5,000 CD Baby customers. This year, we are taking it to the next level.
Starting the 1st of each month, we will be tracking all of your sales through CD Baby’s site (sales on http://cdbaby.com only). We will offer one of our top-sellers a physical distribution deal. Through our partnership with Ryko/Warner, we have the ability to release a limited number of CDs into retail stores each year.
This opportunity will be offered to one of our CD Baby top selling artists per month over the next year. NOT necessarily THE top seller each month, since circumstances vary.
We'll also help promote each CD chosen with a marketing fund of $3000 per release. This can be used for anything from manufacturing to hiring a publicist to having listening stations in music stores - or a combination of each of these!
There is nothing you need to do except go out there, promote your music, play shows, and do what you do best and directing your fans to your CD Baby page. If you do it well enough, you will be rewarded with one of the best, rarest, and fairest distribution deals available. We will notify each month’s winner a few days after to explain all the rules, details, and legalese. If it is something you are not interested in, if you already have a deal, or if you don't think it is right for you, don't feel bad about saying no.
If you have any questions, please check out the post at CDBABY.ORG. We'll be updating that page frequently, so the answer you're looking for may already be displayed there. If not, just post your comment/question and we'll respond quickly for all CD Baby artists to see.
Now, go out and start promoting your music to the world.
Please, no cheating. No buying 100 of your own CDs or other such silliness. We’ll know. We won’t select you. You’ll be out $400 and have bad karma.
Questions: Email our customer service ninjas at cdbaby@cdbaby.com
Jamie Chvotkin
- VP CD Baby
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FAQ
*What is the CD Baby Label Group?*
Through our partnership with Ryko/WEA, we have the ability to release a limited number of CDs into retail stores each year. We will be offering this opportunity to one CD Baby top selling artist a month for the next year. And to help get you off on the right foot, you will have a marketing fund of $3,000. per CD. This can be used for anything from CD manufacturing to hiring a publicist or having listening stations in music stores - or a combination of each of these!
*Where will my CD be available?*
This deal will have both your physical and digital distribution needs covered. From iTunes, Napster, and 200 other services on the digital side to FYE, Best Buy and the corner family owned record store in Iowa on the retail side, all retailers will have the opportunity to purchase your CD.
*It sounds awesome, how do I sign up?*
Just keep doing what you are doing. All CD Baby members are eligible to participate. Each month, we'll tally the best selling albums from CDBaby.com. If your CD is on there and you’re a fit, we will contact you. It is just that easy. If you don't want to participate, already have a deal for that record, or you're not ready for prime time, no problem. Just say no. We won't be offended.
*Do quantities count? How about Digital sales? $5 sales?*
YES. Everything sold through CDBaby.com counts. If you can convince your fans to buy 10 copies to sell to their friends - good for you! BUT DON'T CHEAT! Buying 100 copies of your own title will not help you.
*Do sales at live shows count? Do downloads count?*
No sorry. Just each month’s sales through your CD Baby page(s).
*That's not fair! My music is great but I'm not a top-seller!*
Get creative. Try a new approach. Reach some new fans.
*But my music's not rock/pop/folk/popular!*
Look at the current top sellers on CD Baby. Get over the mental hurdle, and go turn people on to your music.
*What do we get paid?*
CD Baby is ONLY taking 9%! Whatever Ryko pays us, we take only 9% and the rest goes to you! For a $14.98 list, Ryko sells a CD to retail outlets for $9.60. They pay CD Baby $7.49 for that CD. You then get $6.81 per CD (current estimates and numbers might change).
*Does CD Baby own my work?*
We don't own any rights to any part of the record. We offer all this to you without taking any rights away – you’re still the label and in control! We just help get your records out to a much wider audience.
*I'm sure the deal I have to sign is pretty complicated?*
Not at all. Each deal is only for the one record. There are no long term or multi-record deals. We never want to get in the way of your music. We will send you the full deal if your CD is selected. We encourage you to read everything you sign.
*Is this exclusive?*
Yes it is, but only for this album. You can opt out of the program at any time, but the removal process from retail stores can be up to a year and there may be some costs associated.
*When will my CD be available nationwide?*
It will take about 3 months to get your CDs into stores nationwide. That’s right, nationwide, not just regional. However, we will make sure there is a big push in your home area.
In that time, we will work with you to create all the materials needed to get you going. There is going to be a lot of work involved in making sure the product is ready for retail. If you feel you want to take the next big step and go for world domination, we can help you with that, too.
*What to do now?*
Go promote! Steer fans to CD Baby. We'll do the counting beginning the 1st of each month!
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Wait, you said before that Live swiper sales ans digital sales counted... What's with the switch?
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Raymond,
Good eye!
Yes, swiper sales and downloads counted for the August
"contest," put in order to keep things fair and fast, only sales
through your CD Baby page count from this point forward.
That's why we re-posted the announcement.
Hope that helps explain things.
- Lewis
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This whole thing strikes me as humorous. I remember back when I graduated high school and started college. I found that one side of the liberal/conservative divide would try to persuade me to their point of view with reason, whereas the other were more interested in ridiculing those who disagreed with them, imputing motives to their ideas, and never engaging in a discussion on the substance of the concepts. When I look through that lens at what's going on here, I see a clear winner, and it isn't CD Baby.
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Personally I thought it was a great thing that CD Baby was originally
going to count Digital and Swiper sales as well as CD sales. Three
trackable sources of sales gives a better picture of what an album
is doing than just one. The only problem is, it takes time to get
that info, probably something like two months. It's better to be
patient, and get better data don't you think? I think so. Anyone
else agree?
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"Scam",
What's changed is that only sales through http://cdbaby.com are
being used to determine a month's top sellers.
And we also just clarified that the "winner" might not be THE top
seller, due to circumstances, previous distribution deals, etc.
Hope that clears things up!
- Lewis
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How can something that encourages you to go out and sell your
CDs be a scam? CD Baby didn't ask me for any money to be a part
of this! You never see artist who are out there making things
happen complain. Only the artist that wants people to do all the
work for them. Life does not work that way! Grow up and stop
whining! A scam would be getting 20 of your friends to buy a
bunch of CDs so you can win a silly contest.
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Hey, I don't think it's a scam at all... In fact I've sold more CDs this month than ever before. I'm just curious why it changed.
Raymond Gregory
http://raymondgregory.com
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It's a scam because it was originally a contest. Read the original announcement.
You decided to change your mind and rip off the winner of that contest.
Then you decided to make sure it was clear that from now on, there was no objective winner. There is only whoever CD Baby decides is the winner.
It's a scam because you lied to the contestants last month and claimed it was an actual contest. Then you never announced a winner. Now you are changing the rules and you'll announce that you are awarding the prize to someone other than the winner.
That's a scam. It's a rewrite of the rules AFTER the first month of the contest.
Derek announced the winner on several blogs and by email. Now you are changing your mind because all of the efforts you made to stop the winner from winning failed.
That would make you a scum bag, cheat and scammer.
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These refinements do not impact the August "contest," Scam, sorry if there was confusion on that point.
Down the road, we may count direct download sales from CD Baby, but for September, it’s just CD sales through the site. Nice and neat.
As far as we know, Derek made only one post on the site of our top seller at the time (before the end of the month, with limited swiper sales counted and not even a single download report possibly available – hence tweaking the way we’ll count sales).
If that was taken as an announcement of the winner, we apologize. While this was/is Derek’s idea, he is “hands off.”
Finally, looking at the old discussion you helpfully provided the link for, the wording on the original announcement largely indicated something along the lines of ‘deal is offered to one CD Baby top seller’ and even the slight room for confusion has since been removed (hence the new post this morning).
Really hope that clears it all up – feel free to call anytime if that would help.
Lewis
503-595-3000 ext. 319
lewis@cdbaby.com
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Hey "SCAM" shut UP already...your name is SCAM haha...that makes YOU the scam in here. haha I bet you a dollar you are James Brausch, self-help millionaire internet guru late night make it big...now THAT is a scam
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Sounds like someone just got busted!!!!!!!!! "Scam" - wasting time
on blogs is the same as committing suicide!!!
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What?
Here is exactly what Derek said on SEVERAL blogs:
Derek Sivers, August 31st, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Hi Pat -
I would leave a comment on your blog but I didn’t see a way to do that unless I also had a trackback-enabled blog.
re: http://www.patbdoyle.com/?p=35
James thought that we were going out of our way to work against him personally, doing everything we can to keep him from winning a contest.
If that was true… what time we must have on our hands! What evil malicious people we must be!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_Razor
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”
(1) - After 2.5 years of programming, I finished a total CD Baby software rewrite, and published it. The site was down for 30 minutes when doing so.
(2) - I didn’t do this “during the contest”, because the contest is for all future time : every day from now on. If I was not to make any changes ever “during the contest”, I would never be allowed to make any changes ever again.
(3) - Our mistake : Someone must not have seen his email sending his tracking numbers telling us his CDs were on their way, and so the site remained in its “out of stock” status.
I’ve deeply apologized to him repeatedly for #3, and even had a meeting with all 25 customer service reps explaining the seriousness of this problem. Unfortunately nobody remembers getting that email with the tracking numbers.
But to think that any of this was some kind of giant calculated effort to make James lose a contest is just very very wrong.
It’s sad that he took it that way, and a shame that 8 blogs are now discussing what a scamming rip-off rigged-contest CD Baby must be, and how to destroy us.
James and I have already worked everything out by email, and he has won the contest by far.
I just wanted to let you know.
Sorry for the trouble.
–
Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
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"James and I have already wored everything out by email, and he has won the contest by far."
That is the direct quote by CD Baby owner Derek Siver. How can that be misunderstood?
Either he is a liar or he isn't. His words can't be misunderstood.
What do you mean by "hands off?" Do you mean that he doesn't stand by what he says?
-Pat
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Yes it is!
When is CD Baby going to step up to the plate and keep their promises?
Derek already plead stupidity, but enough already. We believe CD Baby was very, very stupid. When will they smarten up?
-Pat
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One thing is clear. CD Baby has got to realize that contests are not "games". Contests have 1-2 pages of rules for good reason.
The Federal Trade Commission has say over the validity of any contest claims and lawyers are involved at every stage. In a contest, you honor your statements or end up in court. So it's lawyers up front or later.
And up front is way cheaper.
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People cry about so many small things, they fail to see the big picture! What really is the motives behind all these complaints?
What if there was NOT a cdbaby that helps you get your music to places were some of you could not get them yourselves? What would you be uptight about in that case? So much emphasis placed on the other guys faults? What a shame!
If you have ideas to improve a thing share them if not please rethink how you come off to people!
No One is perfect, and people have lapses in their accuracy, so lightened up, GROW UP AND let's all move forward using the tools that cdbaby provides!
I've met Derek in person and frankly he is a standup guy! So if there are discrepancies in an area, most likely it was not intentional, so for you nay sayers and flat out haters give the man the benifit of the doubt! If you can't be nice then send your music to theorchard where you will never see your revenue in hand!~ Only on there site~! Then you will have real reason to pick at an organization! But SERIOUSLY back off of cdbaby! Bark at a real backbiter! Get over yourselves! When You (EGO) you EDGE GOD OUT!
Then No good is left in you! period!!!!!!!!!!!
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I find it pretty interesting that this contest-flaming war that is going on here seems to involve one of the top sellers--James Brausch.
It might give an artist pause whether or not to get involved in such a contest or with a company that allows such a thing to fester.
Comments such as these are not helpful either:
by Ray on Friday September 14 2007 @ 02:25PM PDT
"A scam would be getting 20 of your friends to buy a bunch of CDs so you can win a silly contest."
Hmmm. According to the advice on HOW TO WIN in the FAQ section:
"If you can convince your fans to buy 10 copies to sell to their friends - good for you!"
Well, I'm a fan of James Brausch... and only a recent one, at that. I've never met James Brausch. And he doesn't know me, I'm sure. But my business "Action Steps" needs this product for our customers.
I find it rather humorous that someone thinks they could sell so much product by calling up their buddies and getting them to spend their hard-earned money. I'm a friend to lots of people, but not THAT good a friend!
But, that aside, here's CDBaby's advice to a question on how to win:
*That's not fair! My music is great but I'm not a top-seller!*
Get creative. Try a new approach. Reach some new fans.
What James Brausch does understand is marketing.
And he understands--as his winning CD content on Life Management advocates--what to get rid of in your life so that you can give yourself a shot at winning... in life.
I just had a homeless family living in my house for the last three weeks. They had gotten evicted from their rental and they were living in their van. So we took them in on condition that they would let us help them OUR WAY.
After feeding them, and forcing them to take showers, we spent a lot of time counseling.
And I gave them James's CD on life management--which hits so many areas of their life that put them where they are.
So this accusation of getting your "friends" to buy really miffs me. I'm operating in the REAL world.
I'm sure CDBaby understands marketing to some extent... or they would never have started this contest.
But I do hope they are fair about it, going forward because, where there's smoke... there's often fire. And I see a lot of smoke here.
I tried for nearly two hours to get my order through one day, so I don't understand if the site was down for only 30 minutes, why I couldn't get my order through. If I hadn't needed them for our customers, I'd have given up.
What is even more troubling is this statement:
"And we also just clarified that the "winner" might not be THE top
seller, due to circumstances, previous distribution deals, etc."
Who would want to enter a contest if some of the variables are unknown?
"Circumstances?" "Previous distribution deals?", "etc?" Yeah, that's a really level playing field!
I really don't care who wins the stupid contest, but businesses that have them should be above board in the way they are run.
So if I can find a way to order James' CDs another way in bulk... I'd much prefer it.
Cause I just don't like this stink.
And if you think I'm just saying this for James Brausch, just look up my company... Action Steps, LLC, Eastover, SC on Dunn & Bradstreet.
Maybe $1000 orders aren't that large, but even CDBaby will have to admit 15 or 20 of us guys starts adding up!
*But my music's not rock/pop/folk/popular!*
Look at the current top sellers on CD Baby. Get over the mental hurdle, and go turn people on to your music.
Not everything that is producable on CDs is music.
Some things are about less important things... like LIFE.
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Chuck,
I am sorry that this is reduced to what you call a "flame war." That means that the substance of the debate is lost. But follow the posts carefully, and you'll see who is actually interested in considering the merits of the case, and who is acting like a recalcitrant 4-year-old, engaging in name-calling and other such cognitively empty technique. I believe CD Baby has showed its hand, and it will reflect in their bottom line. I wouldn't want to do business with a company like this.
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You sound like an intelligent guy John, so I'm curious; what "hand"
did CD Baby show in your view?
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Ladies and Gentlemen!
Indeed, this is getting ridiculous. Derek Silvers left a message on my E-Biz Small Talk Blog http://www.fcon21.biz/talk/?p=40 saying, "...James Brausch has won..."
Then, old blog entries get deleted, ... rules get rewritten. Now you say the winner might not be the best seller, it might be the product of circumstances.
Bottom line: There are no rules left! What circumstances? You make it clear for the future that you are determining the winner. Period. But obviously you don't dare to say it as clear as it is. But you should. And say upfront what kind of CD's are exempt from the contest, right away.
Marketing musicians is challenging and we all know that picking someone for a promotion solely based on the results of a sales contest does not guarantee an optimum outcome. There are other factors to consider. Today's gray duck, could be tomorrows swan and the hype-band could already be forgotten. I understand your (cd-baby's) efforts to have more control over the selection. But say so clearly, this will make you more trustworthy.
Back to Brausch's case: He is declared winner, isn't he. Would be great if CDBaby and he could sort this out silently. Does the world need to listen?
Some have written that the poor musicians are the loosers of this contest. Well, depends on them. If they are smart, they act upon the free lesson from James. To make a CD, put it in an online store, ... or to hang out in MySpace, ... That's simply not enough.
Music business is odd and has been odd before, but there never have been so many opportunities for independent artist as there are today. Don't think 'poor'.
Yours
John W.
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No one else is responsible for your success but yourself!! You have to go out and make it happen... such silly bickering over a contest is ridiculous!! Get back to doing what you need to do to sell your cd's - sheesh!!
Cdbaby has been awesome to me - contest or no and I just started here... congrats to all the top selling winners - that's all I can say :)
All the best everyone - have a great weekend!
Di
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Di,
I'm not so sure that I can agree that this is silly bickering. Please remember when you may have worked hard for a promise and were then betrayed. I'll bet it didn't feel too good. I appreciate that you want to leave this behind, but there is a possible fraud issue here.
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I have never heard of a "contest" that has such arbitrary rules. A "Top Seller" should be just that - whoever produces the most sales. I don't even see any fault if an artist wants to purchase 100 of their own cd (maybe they want to give them away) I don't see any harm in utilizing whatever marketing techniques an artist wishes to utilize. Everyone faces marketing techniques daily - we have the choice to responsibly purchase those products we feel will enhance our life. CDBaby has every right in the world to randomly promote or give added benefit to any artist, but that does not make it a contest.
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I've never met James Brausch personally but I read his blog daily and have been watching this whole thing unfold with nothing more than mild interest.
I have to admit that I was kind of confused by the whole apparent controversy surrounding the top seller contest on CD baby. But that's probably due to the fact that I wasn't following it that close. So I decided to do a little research and read the whole thing from the start.
I've gone back and reread the whole thing and I'd like to make some observations.
I have a theory about what may have happened with that whole contest. I might be right. I might be wrong. Let's talk about it.
James' CD doesn't really fit in very well with the CD baby line up. It's not music and everything else I see on CD baby is.
I think the folks at CD Baby are kind of... all about music.
James' CD is non-musical. I own it and would describe it as a heart to heart talk that one friend would give to another about getting serious about making the changes they need to in their life to achieve the success they want.
No music... none.
So it sticks out from the rest. Now... add that to the fact the James has a very large following and is a really good marketer. He's not up against much in the way of competition as most of the other folks on CD Baby are all about music and not really into business. So he easily wins the competition for most sales in August.
I think someone at CD baby didn't really like the fact that a non-music CD was winning and started to muddy the water. That's where it started to smell foul. Behavior like that might be overlooked in hobby circles but it's indefensible in business.
Let's say I hold a contest. It's simple: who ever buys the most from me (dollar value... not units) for a given time frame gets a one hour personal phone consult with me. At the end of the contest, I tally the sales. OOPS somebody I don't really like won. No problem. I'll just toss that out and pick someone I want and give them the consult. Is that fair? Is it even legal?
I tried. I really tried to find something legitimate in your actions.
From what I can tell, you started off running a legit contest and, mid-stream, turned it into a popularity contest. Those actions have no place in business.
Now I see you are running a popularity contest in the open. Well... OK. You are being open and honest in the fact that your new contest and all those going forward will be popularity contests.
Not real contest.
Not a single one of your sellers has any incentive to actually try and sell more because at the end of the month you'll pick your favorite. Your favorite may not actually be the top seller.
Well at least your now being open about it. But stop using the term "top-sellers" anywhere in the description. That has no direct link to the winner. You're not running a business. You're playing with a hobby and passing out prizes in a popularity contest.
What CD baby doesn't even realize is that you've pissed off a world class marketer that could have been a great asset. One thing that comes to mind is that you could have worked with him to develop a home-study type of system that walked musicians through a step-by-step process teaching them how to be more effective at marketing their music.
But, sadly, I think it's too late for that now.
Popularity contests won't teach your sellers how to sell more. They'll just be reminded of high school / junior high.
-Richard Lee
www.RichardLee.com
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Hi Jamie or Lewis,
This post is about the future. Most of the comments are about the past ie August 2007.
Can you announce the winner for August to stop them?
Might help heaps.
Cheers,
Martin
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It is definitely suspicious that CD Baby has not declared last month's winner, and that they are making it clear that the winners from now on will be arbitrarily chosen by them. It really makes one wonder what kind of people we are doing business with here.
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> It is definitely suspicious that CD Baby has not declared last month's winner
No it's not. We accept returns on CDs, and digital sales take a while to come in.
Any time we run a contest like this (like we have in the past) in takes a few weeks after the closing-date to make sure all those CDs purchased don't get returned by the purchasers the day after we announce, for example.
I'm sorry to see that everyone has decided in advance that everything we do is a scam and is using every single action as proof supporting their prejudice.
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Derek,
You say you have to wait for returns, by why is this only for August of 2007? You never waited this long before.
Also, claiming that "everyone" pre-decided that "everything" you do and "every single action" is an unwarranted generalization, and betrays a position defensiveness on your part, as opposed to a frank discussion of the issues.
This is typical of the behavior we usually see in a narcissist or a liar.
What are you evading? What are you afraid of?
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John,
The reason for the delay is obvious from Jamie's original post
about this. They are counting all sales avenues they can track:
CD Sales, Digital Download sales, and Credit Card Swiper sales.
It takes time for the digital partners to report their sales to CD
Baby (close to two months for some), and for the swiper slips to
be received and logged. There is nothing suspicious here, it was
clear from the get-go. To announce the winner before all the
results are in, would be UNFAIR. Waiting for all the results to
come in, and allowing time to tally and re-check the results
before announcing the winner, should be a no-brainer. This was
clear to me from the start, why can't you understand this?
Also, there is nothing about using the words "everyone",
"everything", and "every single action" that indicates that a
person is a "narcissist or a liar". Nothing about using a
generalization "betrays a position of defensiveness". It takes
quite a leap of imagination to assume that it does. Every post
on this blog impugning Derek's character, has been a
generalization, including yours. Not one has provided any proof
that the truth was distorted at all, that something dishonest has
taken place, or that anyone's word has not been kept. Not only
that, but no one has even stated any specific act of dishonestly,
on CD Baby's part, much less provide proof of anything. CD
Baby has and is living up to everything they stated in Jamie's
original post about this deal. Please, be specific about what you
are accusing CD Baby of, and provide proof to back it up, before
implicating them of any dishonesty publicly. Failing to do so, is
by definition, slander.
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I'm glad to see you do what you have to do. Brausch begged, complained, gimmicked and cajoled his list ad nauseum to run up a FAKE "bestseller" on CDBaby that was NOT in the true spirit of things, a "bestseller". If was cosmetic and manipulated. His CD doesn't even fit CDBaby. He's good at MARKETING, period. His content is mediocre at BEST.
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The owner of CD Baby doesn't seem to understand the ethical (and legal) way to run a contest.
You can't simply change the rules and play childish games simply because you don't want a particular contestant to win.
But, I have a feeling that the petty (and self admittedly stupid) things they have done will in the end cost them so much more than they had bargained for.
For starters, as a highly successful online marketer myself, I for one will never offer my products for sale at CD baby.
Sure, that may only cost them a few thousand dollars per month in lost sales, but I know a few dozen other high profile online marketers that have been watching this foolishness with the same level of disgust that I have.
So multiply a few thousand dollars a month by a couple dozen marketers and the loss of potential business is a bit more significant.
Also, the real tragedy in this whole scenario is that if CD Baby had half a brain they would have embraced James and his highly effective marketing efforts and tried to learn a few lessons from his success, they could have applied those lessons to their business and made millions in additional revenue.
But instead they are left with a black eye, damaged brand, and lost lesson...
Eric
PS - Lewis... Did you ever actually listen to the CD that James won (by a landslide) with? You may want to buy yourself a copy and give it a listen.
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Eric - Your entire point is based on the false accusation that we have changed some rules or done anything dishonest.
If you could back that up with any example or proof, then you'd have a point. But we have not changed the rules for the August contest in which James was involved and you're apparently upset about.
It's true that when re-annoucing the contest for SEPTEMBER (a different contest, since this is a monthly thing) - that we got more specific with our intentions to prevent another misunderstanding like this.
The difference in the post above has nothing to do with the AUGUST contest in which James was involved.
So what are you actually accusing us of?
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This whole thing is quite a mess... I have to agree with Martin that at least showing the August sales figures could make this dispute settle down or go away.
That said, hiding behind the code update excuse really isn't cutting the mustard. Is something being done to avoid this scenario in the future or is it just business as usual?
-Jimmy
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James Brausch is a fraud in my honest opinion.
From my personal interaction with him I never met rudest person in my life. I know that he has ton of fans, but it does not justify marketing tactics he employs. Case in point is this his Marketing fraud: Affiliate Alert: $15.57 Visitor Value at this url http://www.jamesbrausch.com/?p=687
He promised to pay 90% to his affiliate. Instead of this he just announced it to be a fraud, discontinued a letter and keep his commision.
No communication is possible.
Similar tactics combined with copywriting skills allows him to collect his millions of $$$.
Yevgen.
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Hi Yevgen,
I know this is few months late, but I only just saw this.
That guy the scumb bag brausch was referring to is me.
Not only did he with hold my commission, he insists that I still owe him another $300.
Oh, make that $320, for wasting the few minutes it took his equally anal retented assistant, Debbie, to write me a reply accusing me of fraud, once again, for the same thing.
And, as for those idol worshippers on here who can't bear to see a bad thing said about their saviour, yah, boo, sucks.
You'd think he's their father, or something.
Or maybe it's just him under yet another disguise.
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James Brausch is a good marketer but a poor businessman.
I purchased a $50 product from him about 9 months ago that was not delivered. There is no contact info for James and he refuses to answer blog posts about my loss. He very conveniently says there is no support for products sold on "special"... and that also means NO replacement on products not delivered or lost in transit... in my opinion James Brausch is a 2 bit scammer.
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If you want to make up stories to defame someone, here are some tips:
1. Don't post twice in a row under different names right after dozens of positive postings. Any idiot can see that you are the same person and can't be trusted with either post.
2. Don't claim "rudest person" and "no communication is possible" in the same post. How is that possible?
3. Don't say "was not delivered" and "no support for products" in the same post. Why would you want support if it wasn't delivered?
In other words, try to at least make your attempted defamation be internally consistent. No one will believe you if your own statements conflict with each other.
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You idiot, if you had a brain or access to IP addresses you'd see that I only posted once.
YOU ARE AN IDIOT!
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AND for your information... here's another related post I placed on a blog back in July...
Woo Hoo… James Brausch has an Open question time on his blog for people to submit questions related to Internet business, copywriting, traffic generation or product creation.
OK James … I’ve got a doozie for you:
“How do I get a product I bought off you, that was not delivered?”
I bought Glyphius2007 in January or February and I never received it.
I have been buying products from you since you started your blog. I tried emailing you, posting to your blog, posting trackbacks to my blogs and god knows what else, but you simply do not reply in any way shape or form.
I have continued buying your products up until about a month ago, but I now flatly refuse to waste any more money on a marketer who has NO AFTER SALES SERVICE.
I don’t expect you will allow this trackback to appear on your precious marketing blog, but you never know. Trust me, I’m not holding my breathe.
You will find my phone numbers below if you have the guts to call me.
Russell Savige… a very successful Forex Trader
+61-3-9363-8997
+61-3-400-296-251
freequest@iprimus.com.au
Postscript… James Brausch is a scammer. He sells products that have ABSOLUTELY NO AFTER SALES SUPPORT.
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Yep; I'm an idiot.
Somehow you ordered a product from a supplier and didn't even know how to deal with not receiving it and blame James, but I'm an idiot.
Did it occur to you that James has never shipped any product ever? If you bought a product "from James", then you actually bought from CD Baby, Amazon, PayPal, Kunaki or some other processor.
It takes a real idiot not to contact the processor and ask for a tracking number and then contact UPS to find out what happened to your package.
Oh yeah; but you wanted support for the CD you never received. Here's your support:
1. Put the CD that you never received into the drive.
2. Click the play button.
3. Stop being an idiot.
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P.S. No CD Baby vendor offers "post sales support."
If they have a fan club, that's up to them. You don't get to talk to Eddie just because you bought a Van Halen CD or to Bill just because you bought Windows.
Grow up and learn to deal with simple tasks like tracking a UPS shipment and contacting the company you actually ordered from when you don't get something in the mail. It's what everyone else does.
Thanks for your comments Yevgen. Or should I say Russell?
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As I said before, I only posted once... I have no idea who Yevgen is. Sounds jewish to me.
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Idiot... in case you may not know, James Brausch himself complained PUBLICLY in his weighloss dude blog that Dr Mercola never delivered meat that he ordered and paid for. If I'm supposed to know how to handle misplaced orders you'd think that a "guru" in marketing would be able to find a pound of steak wouldn't you?
You can see my reference to it in my blog back on May 24th... http://www.weightlossgal.com
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Russell,
What am I missing here? Isn't Russell a male name, yet you claim to have a blog as a weight loss gal? How can we trust anything you say?
Plus, if you really were so successful at Forex, I really doubt you would be dabbling in marketing. What you likely are is another scum-bag marketer selling trading systems that don't work.
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Since someone mentioned my blog here, I thought I would chime in. I covered the controversy over the August contest here:
http://www.patbdoyle.com/?p=35
Derek Silver, President of CD Baby, sent me a comment and asked me to post it to the blog, so if you scroll down on that post, you can see his comment.
Derek said in his comment that James Brausch is the winner of the August contest. So I am not sure why people are saying that a winner has not been announced?
My other observation is that I wonder why the rules of the contest have changed. I agree with those who say there is no incentive to sell CD's now, since the top seller might not be the one chosen to win in future months. Is that a way to run a contest?
When I first heard of CD Baby on James Brausch's blog, I emailed a friend whose son is a music artist. I thought my friend's son could sell his CD's on CD Baby. But now I wonder what kind of an outfit it is. I might have to tell my friend not to send his son to this site. They seem to change the rules of things and there seems to be a lot of confusion. This is just my impression from the little I have seen of CD Baby's operation.
Just thought I'd chime in with my 2 cents. I will check back later to see how this is resolved. (Might be another interesting blog post?)
If anyone has any comments they want to send me, you can reach me at my contact form on my blog, here:
http://www.patbdoyle.com/?page_id=19
This is kind of an interesting lesson in marketing do's and don'ts.
Thanks,
Pat B. Doyle
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Post sales support?
What are you talking about? It's an audio CD. If you don't know how to play an audio CD, then don't order.
I agree the CD Baby looks pretty fishy from here. Why haven't we heard a confirmation of Derek's announcement of the winner? It's already the 15th of September!
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Everyone: LISTEN UP:
Last year we struck a deal with Warner Music's Ryko subsidiary, saying that they could take a few of our top artists that we felt would do really well in their record store outlets like HMV, Virgin, FYE, and put them into their music outlets.
They said they would take our word for it that the records we would send them were not only great music, but were being made by artists who were out on tour, playing shows constantly, supporting it, and driving their fans to the record stores to purchase it.
We worked out a deal with a music publicist who helps bands on tour, so that they could help promote the couple artists a year we chose to put through Warner/Ryko's distribution.
We hand-chose 1 or 2 artists we thought would be great for this. Then we thought we should let the marketplace decide and see who was the top-seller for the month. We had some other criteria, too, like that the artist must be touring, and that the distrbution would only happen in regions where that artist is touring. In the end, we decided to not be so formal about those requirements, but instead to play it by ear.
So - we started the top-seller contest to see which of our artists had the most demand.
Then one night when I updated the site, it was down for 30 minutes.
Next thing I know James Brausch has a blog post saying we are a distrustful scam that is plotting against him trying to destroy his chances of winning this contest, and offered to pay money to people who could come up with ideas of what to do to us for these evil deeds directed against him.
He picked apart our top-sellers-of-all-time list and because he wasn't on top, called us a scam.
He went out of stock and our automatic out-of-stock system kicked in, so he called us a scam.
He started a many-blog-wide discussion in the old tradition of, "Have you stopped beating your wife?", declaring that we were obviously a plotting thieving scam of a company intentionally trying to destroy him.
Of course he was talking about how he could sue us into oblivion, too.
All of this before I had ever heard of him.
I looked up in the database and saw that yes, he was far ahead of everyone else in sales. So now I REALLY didn't understand why this person had anything to complain about, since he was obviously winning our contest and under the plan, was about to become a very close client who we were apparently going to working with daily to put his "album" into record stores everywhere, and working with this music promoter to promote it.
Ah yes, this sounds like a real fun client to work with.
And yes, Ryko Music I'm sure is going to be thrilled that the first album we bring them to put into the Rock/Pop bins at record stores across America is a "Life Management 101" spoken word audiobook.
I'm sure the kids at the mall are going to be into that.
I'm sure the music publicist that helps promote bands on tour is going to be able to work that one pretty well.
Nope.
We're screwed.
We can pay James his $3000 worth of music publicity as promised.
We can destroy our relationship with Ryko, have many blogs written about what a scam we are, all because we ran this contest, and honored the winner as promised.
We try to do something to help musicians, and this is what happens?
I still don't understand why James was trying so hard to vindictively win this music-publicity record-store-distribution contest. It's like a person without a cat trying to win a year's supply of cat food, then loudly shouting insults and threats at Purina as he goes up to collect his prize.
So, you pissed-off cdbaby-hating scam-accusing commenters, what would you recommend doing?
Putting James' "Life Management 101" into the Rock/Pop bin at record stores and hiring him a music publicist as promised?
If not, then what?
- Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
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If you are finally being honest, then you still have a lot of explaining to do.
You specifically told everyone to not worry about being "pop/rock" in your original contest rules. You told them to go look at your top charts and see that hardly anyone on them was rock/pop.
You also specifically said that you were doing a nationwide deal, not just a localized deal. You never mentioned anything about touring or anything else that you are now being "honest" about.
In any case, if you are not being honest... yes... of course you should keep your original word. James knows his stuff. Why don't you publicly declare him the winner and then give him a call to ask him what to do about the problems you created by being dishonest?
Don't you think that someone who sold 1,100 CDs might be able to work out a way to make this a win/win?
You haven't been playing fair. Stop; drop and roll. Once you have the fire out, then figure out how to stop setting yourself on fire. Right now, you need to put out the fire you started.
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If you are now being honest, you should consider removing all of the defamation in your post. I followed what James said on his blog. Your "coming clean" post is clearly defamation. James never called you a scam or any of the other things you allege.
If you are ready to come clean and start a new slate, then you should immediately apologize for that defamation. James didn't cause this problem. You did. You are just making it worse with untrue statements in your very late "coming clean" post.
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> consider removing all of the defamation in your post
What is defamation in my post?
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Agreed.
Stop the slander. Stop the hiding. What kind of way to do business is that? You declared him the winner. He was the winner. Deal with it.
Do you really think he cares about the $3,000? He sold $21,000+ in CDs in a single month.
Instead of slandering him and hiding behind the blanket of lies you already created, give him a call and find out what part of the prize did interest him.
Why would he want to be in the pop/rock bins? I'm sure he wouldn't. Would Dan Zanes (your all time top seller)? Would you be able to make some money with Dan in such a deal? How about Hypnotica (which is the same genre as James)? Do you think you can make a deal with them?
You'll run into all of these same issues with ANYONE who wins. Every genre is different and has a different approach. James probably knows some of the things that would have to be different to make this deal work. You probably know the rest. You have to work it out. That's what a "deal" is all about.
As you should clearly see now; hiding behind your prior lies and misrepresentations just doesn't work in the Internet age. Stand up and be a man. You were wrong. You've half admitted it. Fully admit it and then get together with James to make something work.
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> slandering him and hiding behind the blanket of lies
Where did I ever slander him? My post, above, was only saying what his original blog post about this situation said. Where he accused us of trying to scam him out of something, when of course we were not.
What have I ever lied about?
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"Ah yes, this sounds like a real fun client to work with."
And who's fault is that, Derek?
You did wrong. You didn't make it right. He just held your feet to the fire.
Any artist that is going to make it would do the same thing. You can't blame James for not being fun when you started a war with him.
Those spending a week with him at a time in Costa Rica this month think he's fun. Maybe if you got your head out of your ass and tried to make things right, you would find a much funner version of James to deal with.
Have you seen any of the life documentaries of any of the great artists? None of them are "fun" when you are fucking with them!
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> You did wrong. You didn't make it right.
What did we do wrong, and what could have been done differently?
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After all this and you ask "What did we do wrong and what could we have done differently?
First, what you did wrong was have the intent of working with musicians but in your words encourage all genres. That's disengenous.
If you had UP FRONT limited the contest to musicians, and told even them that they had to meet certain criteria in order to win, none of this would have happened.
Maybe you wanted to benefit from the sales of ALL genres in the contest, and you didn't anticipate a non-musical product to win.
Big Mistake!
Big Mistake number two for not having a plan if this were to happen.
Second, when you discovered your intended outcome had gone awry, you could have tried to salvage your original intent by appealing to both sides, the commercial musical agreements AND the true winner. Explain the situation, and work something out.
I'm sure honesty would have gone a long way. Business people DO understand business mistakes--even while they won't tolerate getting screwed.
What could you have done differently?
Learn how to run a business... that's what!
Learn how to communicate?
What did we do wrong?
I still can't believe you have the nerve to ask that!
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I like what CDBaby is trying to do, and I don't think having a go at CDBaby is going to help anybody whatsover because there is no evidence that CDBaby is a scam. I got my CDs which were Enjae, Life Man 101 and another audiobook. But the contest should be honored and it does not seem very professional or positive what you've said Derek "we're screwed" etc. It sounds like you're very reasonable person. You surely must award the contest to James Brausch and treat it like any other had one because next month, if you limit the competition to can only win for one month, you're going to get music winners every other month. I mean, its obvious to everybody that James won the contest and you could make something of that. Instead it seems you have tried to cover it up in order to protect yourselves instead of learning from it.
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> the contest should be honored
Where did I ever say it would not be?
> You surely must award the contest to James Brausch and treat it like any other
When did I ever say we would not?
> you have tried to cover it up
I have done nothing to cover up anything. I don't know where this accusation comes from.
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Derek,
Take in that feedback. It's good advice and could send you over the top if you are ready to stand up and do the right thing.
I know James' background and worked with him during a sell-out $10,000/seat million dollar seminar (our word for concert in this industry).
I'm willing to bet that if you decide to work with James instead of against him that he will sell more "albums" during this deal from record stores than any of the other "musicians" you sign in the next three years under this program.
This little lesson that James has taught you proves that he knows his stuff about building a buzz. Do you want to keep being a weenie and getting bad buzz or do you want to team up with James and watch CD Baby jump to the next level?
Your choices so far haven't been very good, but I'm sure James can forgive and move on if you are truly repentant. Did you know that James was a homeless drug addict 10 years ago? Your errors are nothing compared to what he's been through.
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> Do you want to keep being a weenie
How have I been a weenie?
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Are you nuts, Derek?
How is doing a deal with James going to screw you with Warner? All of the other deals you do this year might, but doing a deal with James is a sure thing.
If you don't think he can drive people to the record stores to buy whatever CD you make a deal on, then you are totally nuts. He just sold more than a thousand in just a month with you messsing around with him.
He's a pro-marketer. He will sell CDs in the record stores. That's what he does! Everyone else you sign this year will only know music and probably will embarass you with Warner.
With Brausch though, you have a sure thing. Warner will be asking you how to deliver another Brausch-style artist to their distribution.
What are you thinking?
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This is terrible - on both sides.
Derek: CDBaby needs to honour its agreement, or come up with something else which is win-win for both parties.
One way or another, you screwed up. You set the rules for the competition, someone won, and now you have to wear it.
Either pay James Brausch his $3,000 worth of publicity, or find him a more suitable distribution deal - and then move on.
And James - call off your mob.
Enough already - stop wasting your time (and ours!) on this.
If this is what "effective life management" looks like in practice, then maybe you shouldn't be teaching people about it.
John
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> CDBaby needs to honour its agreement
I have never said that we're not.
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>> CDBaby needs to honour its agreement
>I have never said that we're not.
I never said that you WOULDN'T - just that you HAVEN'T. That's the issue here.
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> just that you HAVEN'T
I've explained many times that we haven't announced the results yet only because this is what we ALWAYS do for years of these contests in the past : make sure that the sales that happened will not be returned and were not purchased with credit card fraud.
Waiting a mere few weeks to do our diligents before announcing the winner has never been a problem in the past, except this time you're acting like we're doing something fishy, because of James' accusations.
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Derek - I don't hate you, and I don't think you're a scammer.
But with the information which was available when I made my first post, it was easy to come to that conclusion.
To be fair, the first mention that you made about waiting for returns was after my original post.
This is after you declaring (http://www.fcon21.biz/talk/?p=40) James the clear winner - "...and he has won the contest by far."
And after a post where it's fair to say you were completely cold on the idea of awarding the prize to James.
"We're screwed.. we can pay James his $3,000 worth of music publicity as promised. We can destroy our relationship with Ryko... all because we ran this contest, and honored the winner as promised... what would you recommend doing? Putting James' "Life Management 101" into the Rock/Pop bin at record stores and hiring him a music publicist as promised? If not, then what?"
Perhaps it was sarcasm in this post which was hard to pick up in writing - I don't know.
But you can see how, putting one-and-one together, I came to the conclusion I did.
Since you're on the defensive at the moment, you probably won't take my advice - but better communication will make this problem go away - forever.
Try this:
1) Stop replying to people's posts - the little snippets of information here don't really address the issues. And things are getting a bit personal.
2) Write down everything (what has happened, what you're waiting for, what will happen when what you're waiting for has happened, what the expected result of all of this will be).
3) Post it up somewhere prominent.
You know what's going on - everyone else is working off the tiny bits of information which they're getting fed all over the place.
That's why you see all these crazy people thinking you're holding back when you know better.
I hope it helps.
-J
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John - I get your point and appreciate it.
We've been doing this contest for years, just with a different prize, and never had any problems. Nobody minded waiting a few weeks for us to announce the winner. Nobody contested our results. Nobody threatened to sue us, call the FCC against us, or emailed their mailing list accusing us of wrongdoing.
But, there's a first for anything, and it usually teaches hard lessons.
The first time you're mugged, the first time you've had your house broken into, the first uninsured fire. They are all filled with lessons about what you should have done differently, in hindsight, but didn't, because you never had a problem before.
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James has screwed over a lot of people to get his money. His customers can not even get in contact with him about any problems. He makes his own rules and whines when he can't throw his weight around to get his way.
The contest was for the music industry you second rate dummy. Get a life James and start treating people the way you want to be treated.
CD Baby has stood it's ground with this school yard bully. BRAVO!!!
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As someone who purchased James Brausch CD's from CDBaby I would like to add.
CDBaby did everything they said they would when they said they would.
Customer service was great.
James CD was great.
The special software offers he put on for purchasing the CD's were great.
Everything was great.
"No such thing as BAD publicity" a truism or truth?
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I don't understand what the problem is that everyone is having with Cd baby in this situation.. the contest is for MUSIC distribution.. which is why the rules stated that there were some things that could keep the top seller from actually winning... a MUSIC distribution deal and MUSIC promotions by a MUSIC promoter will not help a spoken word project, the only thing that Cdbaby may be obliged to do in this situation is award the $3,000 and call it a day, and thats only because people had to read between the lines to understand this was about music, and we all know that reading between the lines or even in plain site for that matter is not mankind's strong point...
Derek and staff i must commend you.. i believe you have been and continue to do a great job!!
oh and everybody saying stuff about removing the download sales thing, you do realize that if they keep the download sales in there would be lots of differences because the digital sales outlets report late and at various times, so what would happen if they wait a month later report that someone else won, and then find out that some random artist that sold no cds, sold a million downloads in May but don't find that out until October, do you expect them to take back the prize from the original winner and reward it to this guy? lol
quit whining and promote your music, this contest or whatever you would like to call it is something that cdbaby doesn't even have to offer, its money out of their pockets , artists need to stop worrying about everybody else and work hard on what they are supposed to be working hard on.. THEIR MUSIC
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I defy you to find one court of law that would exclude his sales based on the fact it was spoken word and not music. That was not on any condition of the contest. Since your argument is irrelevent, if you try to bring up this point again, it will also point up blatant dishonesty.
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Actually, I think it hurts us and the whole idea of the contest to not
count Digital or Credit Card Swiper sales. To really promote our
music effectively, we must promote to all avenues. In fact, CD Baby
is all about this! Getting sales info from different, trackable
sources gives a well rounded picture of an albums potential. There
would be nothing wrong with saying "the winner for September will
be announced December 1, would there? If we just have a little
patience, then we have a better chance of proving we are worth the
risk in brick and mortar stores. Is tracking only the online CD sales
really the best way to determine this?
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It appears to me your service doesn't mind taking money for products it does not like or think will 'fit in' to a vision of a 'hip' music service. If you don't want to promote these type of products, then don't offer them (and take the money) at all.
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What a bunch of crap I am hearing. Okay, Derek's idea backfired because he got blindsided by a CD that didn't fit in. Still, the "winner" sold a lot of CDs (he wins from that) and the prize is inappropriate. Has this been handled badly? Probably. But that doesn't make it dishonest. No one paid to enter this. It is a freebie. Is it a contest? yes and no. A competition, but the only entry fee is selling your CD on the best and most reputable site. Do things go wrong sometimes? Hell yes. That is life, folks. Dumping on Derek at this point makes no sense. Let the principals sort out some resolution, and let Derek get back to running his business. This dust up has little or nothing to do with the rest of us.
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Ed,
You are wrong. There may not have been an entrance fee, but CD Baby isn't free. They are the ones that benefited from work they didn't do. They benefited because of the contest they set up. I think they charge either $4 per CD or 9% (I can't figure out which).
James didn't benefit from Derek promoting his CD to make sales. It is entirely the other way around. Derek made money on every CD that JAMES sold. He made that money because James decided to use CD Baby for distribution in August in order to win the contest.
Had the contest not existed, James would have sold CDs through another distributor that charges much less (such as Kunaki.com).
So CD Baby set up the contest to increase the sales through their distribution outlet (and therefore increase their revenues). It wasn't free to enter at all. It cost a lot of money per CD to have sales counted towards the contest. We're talking thousands of dollars that CD Baby made from James' effort. James made absolutely nothing from CD Baby's efforts.
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Ed - you are right. We made $1435 off of James' CD sales.
And because of his false accusations and call-to-arms of his mailing list, we have now lost easily 10 times that amount.
Why?
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James didn't benefit from Derek promoting his CD to make sales. It is entirely the other way around.
Huh? Of course, James benefitted. Did he give away his CD's or did he charge a normal price? If he gave them away and let Derek take $4, that's James' choice. If he charged $12, he made $8, or whatever. It was James' decision to set whatever price point he wanted to. If he sold, 1100 CDs in August, he made many thousands in return.
Derek made money on every CD that JAMES sold.
Well, yeah. That's how it works. CD Baby has a warehouse to pay for and staff to pay. And, after a days works, they want to be able to put food on the table.
He made that money because James decided to use CD Baby for distribution in August in order to win the contest.
HUH? Are you telling me that James Brausch joined CD Baby in August just so he could win the contest? A contest the prize of which doesn't even benefit a spoken-word project?? Why would a guy who is so successful in so many markets have to also try to win a contest that would be of little to no benefit to him? Just to tell everyone how great he is because he was successful yet again? Sick.
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"James and I have already worked everything out by email, and he has won the contest by far"
Hmmmm, Seems strange that James himself has received no word at all about winning anything.
Also, a complete software rewrite in the middle of a contest?
Maybe its time to step up to the plate & come clean.
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> James himself has received no word at all about winning anything.
He and I emailed back-and-forth and I explained that at the time he was far-and-ahead in sales and looked like the winner. This will probably be the case, but as I've explained on this page a few times now, we always have a few weeks where we need to make sure there are no returns and no credit fraud, to make sure the winner is really the winner.
> a complete software rewrite in the middle of a contest?
I have explained this multiple times on multiple blogs linked off of James' site. The software rewrite was 2.5 years in the making, and the contest is an ongoing-for-all-future-time thing.
Telling me I should not launch a software rewrite "during the contest" means that CD Baby would never ever be able to change a single line of code for all future time.
I updated the site one night and there was 30 minutes of downtime for the entire site. That's all.
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Derek,
I went back and read everything James Brausch posted. Never does he even use the word "scam" and he never even implies that you scammed him.
He merely points out some factual things that you did and asked a question "Is the CD Baby contest rigged?"
Asking a question isn't making a statement. A rigged contest isn't the same this as a scam.
Reasonable people can certainly come to the conclusion that you did both, but James never claimed that.
So it does appear that you did defame him in your post. Unless you have a link to share with us, it appears that your post is full of lies about what James said. That is defamation and you owe James at least an apology for that.
Melinda
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> Asking a question isn't making a statement.
It's conceptually the same, yes. Though changing a period to a question mark may satisfy a lawyer, all common sense knows the point is the same.
> A rigged contest isn't the same as a scam.
It's synonymous, yes.
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It does appear that you have some serious challenges with the very concept of honesty.
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> you have some serious challenges with the very concept of honesty.
Please back up your accusation with any example of where I've been anything less that completely honest about everything.
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James didn't benefit from Derek promoting his CD to make sales. It is entirely the other way around. Derek made money on every CD that JAMES sold. He made that money because James decided to use CD Baby for distribution in August in order to win the contest.
I don't buy this. the guy signed up with CD Baby because he thought he would win? And he is supposed to understand marketing? I see this "contest" as an add-on that came up to help the customers (us). I can't imagine how anyone could see this as a come on. But obviously James and his many friends have a different view. If Derek had done this as a scam, I think he is smart enough to come up with one that would make him more money than this would--not to mention he clearly saw that he was going to catch some flack. At any rate, all this "come clean" screaming is counterproductive and rather pointless. You'd think DS stole his winning lottery ticket.
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CD Baby:
1. Are you going to announce the real final winner of the August 2007 contest?
2. If you are going to do so, please post an estimated date for that announcement.
3. If you decide to stick to your claim that Mr. S.'s announcement of the winner was premature, the sooner you announce the real winner, the better.
Thanks,
Matthew
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> 1. Are you going to announce the real final winner of the August 2007 contest?
Yes, of course.
> 2. If you are going to do so, please post an estimated date for that announcement.
This week.
> the sooner you announce the real winner, the better.
I agree. Over the past 5 years when we've done these contests, we've never had any problem waiting a few weeks to make sure there were no returns or fraud. To make sure that the winner is really the winner, and that 1000 customers aren't going to return their CDs the day after it's announced.
But this time, because of James' accusations, we're being called a fraud just for doing this last valid step.
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I wrote:
> the sooner you announce the real winner, the
>better.
Mr. S. wrote:
>I agree.
I'm glad we agree about something.
Mr. S. also wrote:
>Over the past 5 years when we've done these
>contests, we've never had any problem waiting a
>few weeks to make sure there were no returns or
>fraud. To make sure that the winner is really the
>winner, and that 1000 customers aren't going to
>return their CDs the day after it's announced.
As a reason for postponing the announcement of a
winner, this does not make sense.
The same day you announce the winner, everyone
who purchased the CD could return it.
This would be true if the announcement was three
days after the ending of the month of the contest.
This would also be true if the announcement was
three years after ending of the month of the
contest.
I wouldn't be surprised if you have a plausible
reason for the delay. The reason you gave in you
reply to me does not appear to be one.
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I 100% understand and stand for Derek. I see nothing wrong with the rule changes and what happened with James in Aug. CD Baby does right things, and does things right. They did not change their CD Baby rule to bann non-music CDs (they could if they want to bann audio book type of CDs) but just changed the rule for the future "MUSIC DEAL" contest. And I am sure Derek will Announce the Aug winner soon, eventually, as he said.
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First, in case anyone is wondering why all the aggressive posts are here, James Brausch sent out an email to his entire list ASKING them to "comment" on this post as a favor to him.
I'm commenting here, but NOT as a favor to him.
I'm a FORMER customer of James Brausch, the self-described former drug addict.
Derek, you are definitely in an unpleasant situation. You did not foresee someone like James Brausch showing up and with minimal effort and no mass promotion selling large numbers of CDs to a small number of people. (Clearly you wanted to help your main customers solidify their skills in really promoting to the masses.) James Brausch's CD did not fit your primary business model (music). It is a shame that you did not exclude "spoken word" or "specialty" cd's in your guidelines. As a businessman, I understand your predicament. His CD clearly would not fit in at typical retail, and in fact I think it would be a huge dud. (Just listening to the track samples, I thought, "You'd have to be a third grader to think this drivel has any depth to it." Just terrible in my book.) I would probably give James what was agreed, but remember, you don't have to bend over backwards and include a massage as well. Just the minimum. And he certainly hasn't earned any enthusiasm from you, so whatever promotion you give him would be without a smile if it were me. Then cut him loose and be happy to see him go.
As for James, he is one individual that I cannot respect. I don't respect his tactics, and I don't respect him.
James uses "gaming" tactics to accomplish his objectives. I don't consider that marketing. I consider it akin to cheating (trying to find loopholes). In fact, if you sign up for his unpaid "intern" program, it tells you to put posts on people's blogs directing them to HIS sites. In other words, it is not a value for value proposition. He also sells software that scrambles articles so you can submit the same article (with mixed up paragraphs) so it looks (to search engines) like a different article. Very dicey stuff. I wouldn't touch any of that with a ten foot pole.
Regardless of how anyone feels about this specific situation, don't you find James a little too condescending? Is what he says really that brilliant or revolutionary? What is the REAL background of this person who has only really become visible as a self-proclaimed "guru" over the past year? At first I found his "self confident" pronouncements to be interesting, but in time the sugar coating wore off and all I see now is pompous, arrogant ego. It really isn't pretty.
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I find this humorous. Someone defending a wrong over a personality conflict.
I wonder how many REALLY SUCCESSFUL musicians YOU would defend who are really nasty people personally.
I can hear it now, "Hey guys, lets not keep our word with __________ because we think s(he)'s mean-spirited.
Stick with the issue. This has nothing to do with personality. It has to do with keeping your word.
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What Wrong? James has "suggested" that the contest was
rigged, providing ZERO evidence, and only his own paranoid
suspicions and impatience as the reasons. He has clearly
demonstrated that he did not even understand the original post
about the contest, because he demanded that Derek UNFAIRLY
announce him the winner before all the sales information could
possibly even have been counted. Yet, so many of you are quick
to jump on the bandwagon that Derek has somehow behaved in
a shady manner, based solely on the word of someone who has
provided no proof whatsoever to back up his "suggestion" that
the contest was rigged. You demand that Derek do the right
thing.. well, all the evidence I can see demonstrates that Derek
has done the right thing from the beginning. You people who
keep telling CD Baby to be "honest" to "do the right thing" or
otherwise imply that CD Baby has done anything shady, or
wronged anyone... NOT ONE OF YOU has provided any proof of
dishonesty. Your implications amount to nothing more than
slander. Derek has a proven track record that demonstrates
honesty and integrity for the better part of a decade. And yet,
you jump on the conspiracy bandwagon of a self-proclaimed
"guru", who simply "implied" the contest was rigged, provided
absolutely ZERO proof to back it up. You people scare me.
What's next, burning people at the stake for allegedly practicing
witchcraft?
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Look.
The way this contest was handled by CD Baby and it's employees was less than fair.
You guys were wrong.
Admit it and fix it.
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> The way this contest was handled by CD Baby and it's employees was less than fair. You guys were wrong.
In what way have we been less-than-fair, and it what way were we wrong?
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I've followed this contest from the beginning. I want to win... It would be a dream come true. I've come a long way to get here (i was deaf as a child for pete's sake- read more on my site if you please). I pray that this deal doesn't end because it's what I've hoped for- a way in for the little guy.
Derek- know that there are tens of thousands of musicians on cd baby loving what you are doing, and only 70 posts in this forum. Whatever you have to do to assure that you can still offer this deal to artists for the months to come - do it. It's what this site is about.
I've busted my but playing shows and promoting like crazy to sell 34cds from http://cdbaby.com/raymondgregory since Sept. 1st. The month is only 1/2 over. It's time to grab my dream by the nuts and sell 100's more.
Thank you Derek and CDbaby,
Raymond Gregory
future Ryko/Warner signee
http://raymondgregory.com
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It appears that there never was a contest. The winner didn't get the record deal. No one did.
Now, CD Baby has changed the rules and they now say they'll pick anyone they want regardless of their sales.
So why are you busting your butt to sell CDs at CD Baby? Why do you think you would be any different? The new rules clearly admit that they will give the record deal to whomever they want, not necessarily the artist with the most sales.
Why beg to keep this make-believe game going? It's like buying thousands of lottery tickets knowing that there will never be a drawing. The odds of winning are zero.
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> It appears that there never was a contest. The winner didn't get the record deal. No one did.
Ray - I explained above that we are still tallying the results to allow for returns. The winner will be announced soon.
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>"This opportunity will be offered to one of our CD Baby top selling artists per month over the next year. NOT necessarily THE top seller each month"
There is still a reason to bust my butt to sell cds, becuse you still need to be a top seller.
Raymond Gregory
future Ryko/Warner signee
http://raymondgregory.com
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CD Baby has stood it's ground with this school yard bully. BRAVO!!!
I was thinking the same thing
Talk about no good deed going unpunished.
I can't believe the same people are back on this forum ganging up to rake this over the coals.
I saw all the nasty, whiny little blogs too.
CDbaby rocks
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Isn't CD Baby the bully here?
James never broke his word. CD Baby did.
Why would you call the victim of the CD Baby bully a bully?
That makes about as much sense as the contradictory statements constantly made by Derek and staff.
I still don't know where they stand. It seems like they don't want to stand anywhere.
The winner was announce. It hasn't yet been announced. There is a contest. There isn't a contest. The owner saying he's sorry he lied. The owner saying he never lied.
Who's the bully? It seems to me that it is CD Baby trying to bully everyone around and thinks they own the world and have no accountability for what they promised.
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> James never broke his word. CD Baby did.
Can you please show any example of how/where/when we broke our word?
> There is a contest. There isn't a contest. The owner saying he's sorry he lied. The owner saying he never lied.
Where did we ever say there was not a contest, and where did I ever lie or say I lied about anything?
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Your apology for lying isn't much of an apology if you don't even admit that you lied anymore.
A lie is a distortion of the truth. Above you posted a different story than what you posted before. I think a lot of us viewed that as your attempt to apologize for your deliberate disinformation before. It looked like an attempt to finally be honest.
If it wasn't, then you have larger problems. You don't even seem to understand that your statements aren't consistent. That's the sign of a pathological liar or possibly even a psychopath.
If CD Baby is run by a psychopath who doesn't even understand what honesty means, then there is an even bigger problem than you previously admitted.
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Tim - please give ANY example of where I have lied, claim to have lied, or have distorted the truth in any way.
I sincerely don't know where you're getting this.
The top story (at the top of this page) is an updated description of our SEPTEMBER CONTEST. This has nothing to do with the AUGUST CONTEST whose rules have never changed and whose winner is about to be announced. We updated the September contest rules because of James' fiasco, as described many times above.
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Derek,
My advice to CDBaby would be to keep away brausch.
Get away from him as far away as possible (metaphorically speaking, of course).
And, don't bother to reply to his complaining cronies who, by the way, sound just like him.
If they're not him, then they've got their heads so far up his backside that they can't see reality.
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If it ain't country...if it ain't gospel...if it ain't light jazz...then maybe it just aint.
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Sheesh..."no good deed goes unpunished" indeed.
I for one am thrilled that CDBaby is here, and helping me get my music out to people. I'm not a top seller, and I am not bitter about that, nor do I blame Derek and crew for depriving me of any fame and fortune. If what I put out there doesn't stand on its own, then I deserve the deafening silence I would get back.
I would like to see everyone who doesn't have a direct personal or financial interest in this consider taking an hour to step away from the keyboard and go outside into the Big Blue Room. The one with the blue ceiling and the big yellow light, except at night, when it's a bunch of tiny white lights. Take a walk. Have a latte or a margarita. Then go create something positive for yourself and the world, rather than jacking yourselves off in here.
Of course, everyone is free to ignore my advice and continue doing the silly things you're doing. Won't spoil my day in the slightest.
Cheers,
Loren
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Look, dudes:
It's Derek's store, and he can do WHATEVER he wants. In Derek's position, I'd probably have to reluctantly exclude a person so aggressive as James Brausch altogether (by paying him whatever is fair, maybe a bit more to be sure). Whether or not that's legal, I don't know, and I would need to find out. This would definitely not CD Baby's style, but it seems as if people keep banging on "Derek's honesty" etc, it will be every single CD Baby artist who will lose, since Derek and the CD Baby team will have so much less time to work on our stuff. So one trouble-maker may need to be kicked if that's in the interest of all the other artists.
Sure, CD Baby makes money, a lot of money, and so should they. But hey, is that away from us? Look, what was there before CD Baby for all "the rest of us" ? Nothing! CD Baby is the paradise, when you think about it.
Before accusing CD Baby and Derek about anything, go through this thought process: What if YOU were the one that made CD Baby close its doors? (and everyone knew it was YOU!). If you think the world would be better without CD Baby, then criticize. Otherwise, just shut up.
Finally, again, it's Derek's store, and he can do whatever he wants, whether it's fair or not. And I can't see what's unfair about this whole thing. He's overly generous, and that may cause him more trouble than anything else.
I'm glad I'm not a big seller, so there's no need or risk on getting greedy.
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If CDBaby is shut down, then it is clearly Derek's fault for the lying, hiding, and other dishonesty.
You don't blame the whistleblower for pointing out that the emperor isn't wearing any clothes. The fault lies with the emperor.
That's true even when the emperor admits he isn't wearing any clothes one minute, claims he is wearing clothes the next minute and then claims that his claims have never changed the next minute without even taking a stand on what he currently claims.
Derek needs to admit that he wasn't wearing any clothes, that he lied about wearing clothes when he wasn't and most importantly he needs to put some clothes on.
Blaming the crowd that is laughing at him isn't the solution. The solution is where the problem was created. That is with Derek.
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What lying? What hiding? What dishoesty? You can't make those
accusations without proof. That's callad slander my friend.
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I stand behind Derek/CDBaby on this. Seems patently obvious that someone jumped on this contest as a marketing ploy, and is now rabble-rousing their troops to harass CDBaby.
No one need to respond in opposition to this comment, as I simply don't care.
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I'm routing for the self-help wack job and his army of barely
literate lunatics.
This is one of the strangest flame wars I've ever seen - honestly, I
don't even understand why Brausch wants to win this contest.
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There sure are a lot of nasty people who blindly worship James Brausch. I'd want to know more first hand before I became a mouthpiece for someone like that. Not just from postings, or what HE says.
First, it was never said that the winner wasn't going to get what was due them. They just aren't getting it "instantly." As Derek noted, they must factor in returns. I'd do the same if I were them. Matter of fact, if you have won anything from a company (I have several times) you know it often takes several months for the dust to settle and for them to award your prize. It's only been 2 weeks here. So the naysayers are utterly ridiculous, and just plain rude. (And if you are one of them, why don't you post your REAL name, like I have? Only lowlifes take anonymous potshots.)
It sure looks like this James Brausch character is jumping the gun. Clearly he's a real winner in more ways than one. Or maybe not.
Most companies have it within their right to disqualify someone who attempts to injure or unduly influence a competition, or otherwise harm or interfere with the producer. Based on James behavior, and the various nasty people he directed to come here who then fling their antisocial venom, a disqualification may very well be in order.
To those of you mindless ranters who blindly follow him (only knowing some of the story), shame on you. Really. Clearly he appeals to the ignorant masses. I'd be embarrassed to say I was one of them.
Did anyone even listen to that crappy CD he has? Who on earth thinks that is wisdom? It made me squirm to listen to the samples online. Anybody who needs that kind of advice should still be in high school. On second thought, I apologize to all high school students, because even they aren't that dumb.
There are 2 sides to every coin. If there is such a thing as karma, then one day there will be some of it for James Brausch.
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Amen to that art, it's good to see a voice of reason on here :-)
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"WOW" Thanks for the laugh!
Your quote:
"the self-help wack job and his army of barely
literate lunatics."
Really hit the nail on the head. What a bunch of neanderthals. Does he communicate with them through grunts? I wonder if they know that in the era they are mentally living in, many of the followers were eaten during winter? I wonder if Brausch would prefer them in Tobasco.
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James is the Bully in this arena and in any realm that he steps into.
Try to make a comment on James blog. Make an attempt to give a review on one of his product. Just try and disagree with this self-made idiot.
He saw a way to take advantage of a new contest. Anyone with any common sense or scruples would have known that the real purpose was to help fellow musicians. This mean spirited dumb ass will look for any daylight to complete his plans no matter who he hurts. It’s the way he works his business and $10,000 seminars. He is a crook and a low life that plans to destroy CD-Baby because he is use to playing by the BRAUSCH rules of hurting anyone who does not drink his kool-aide.
CD-Baby is up-front and personal. Hell, they even allow you to post openly on their blog. That comes from being an honest to goodness business that is trying to do the right thing and help its patrons in the best manner possible.
Now go buy one of James products. This slob hides behind unpaid interns while he takes your money for inferior products. He is great at shooting the bull on his blog and hyping up his products and over priced services. Anyone can duplicate what he does but most people prefer to sleep well at night.
James knew what he was doing from the get go. It was planned and calculated.
He found the loop hole and a way to screw up a contest and musicians along the way. James has no need to do the right thing he stays focused on having the right to do something. He will never stay around to clean up the mess nor does he care. Yeah, he is a bully in ever aspect of his business life.
He can’t blame his demeanor on his drugs this time.
I would love to see his ASS in front of someone like Judge Judy someday.
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This guy is a genius marketer. Here, a blog about a great opportunity for all indie artist, and it's nothing but posts about this guy James. I vote for a change of topic, starting now. I'll help:
What will you use the $3000 dollars for if you win?
Love you CD Baby.
Raymond Gregory
http://raymondgregory.com
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This whole thing distresses me . I would like to see Derek's energies freed up to break down all the barriers we face in the business. Like cdbaby. hostbaby, listbaby, downloads @iTUNES, ETC.
Forcing myself to read all this is a challenge. I do it to understand what's occuppying our leaders time. Wont you all please let him go and move on to the things that really affect most of us in a real way. This whole thing is a bunch of crap and would have been resolved anyway.
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Thanks, Derek, and the whole CDBaby enterprise for your marvelous, ethical, sincere, creative, capable, dedicated work in so many ways. You did good. More than good -- great. Nothing out there is comparable in ease of use, responsiveness, customer service, and transparency and thoroughness of recordkeeping. Please don't let these idiotic manipulators devalue what you've done. I recommend you to musicians and listeners (and website owners!) whenever I can. THANKS and don't let this tempest in a teacup get you down.
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This thread is awesome. Maybe we can get those BurnLounge folks to start posting here too and we'll have CD Baby Thunderdome 2007!
They can chase each other round and round until they melt into butter. And then we'll have a big pancake breakfast.
Mmmm, pancakes.
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It's sad to see bully tactics being used again CD Baby in such a manner.
To those sycophants who have heeded the call to join the lynch mob, take a step back into reality and look hard at what you're doing.
Most of you think you are doing this to support someone you look up to, but this is not your concern and you should, respectfully, chime out to allow the parties involved make some progress on the matter.
Ask yourself whether what you're doing is really helping matters or whether you're just jumping on the bandwagon on someone desperately hell bent on proving something.
To the person who keeps writing the same styled posts under different names, your way of writing indicates that you have some issues especially when it comes to dealing with people in the real world. You most likely have to live quite isolated in your own world in order to get by. You really should seek counselling before you do someone (including yourself) harm.
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Those quickest to mistrust are often found to be least trustworthy themselves ...
.... for one must know and understand trust in one's own heart in order to fully be comfortable enough to trust others.
So judge not, lest ...
Best,
Kev-
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I too have purchased several products from James, most via Kunaki.
A few months back I got a DVD that wouldn't play past the first chapter. Could've been his fault, or Kunaki's, I'll never know.
No way to contact Mr. Brausch.
No support ticket system whatsoever.
Luckily, Kunaki stands behind their product and gave me a refund.
So, earlier in this thread, some words were written by either James or a coolaid drinking fan of his that said
"Oh yeah; but you wanted support for the CD you never received. Here's your support:
1. Put the CD that you never received into the drive.
2. Click the play button.
3. Stop being an idiot. "
M'kay... what do you do when the f'n thing won't play?
I know...
You weigh the short term cost of giving someone the finger versus having to respond to their request for a working copy of your DVD.
That's cool. Lesson learned.
Many of his products aren't worth the plastic they're printed on. And with no return policy and no after sales support, caveat emptor.
Want to see what he's all about? Go sign up for his "mentor" program. It should be called "How I'm going to convince you to spam the hell out of Digg, Stumble Upon, article directories, Download.com and every other website that could send me traffic. Oh, and you're going to make some products for me to sell too."
The one thing that has amazed me is how long this has been going on without any of his peers pointing out that the emperor has no clothes.
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"The one thing that has amazed me is how long this has been going on without any of his peers pointing out that the emperor has no clothes."
Not all marketers are like Big Bad James. In fact one of the most well known marketing groups on the internet has seen right through him and his bull.
He got his ass pounced on so fast that he left with his tail between his legs and has not made a post in over a year at the "Warrior Forum".
My guess is that many of the negative things said about James here comes from first hand experience from other marketers.
This guy is bad news. He is not a genius by a long shot. He is just very cold with his methods. Almost like a dictator if you are one of his followers. If he does anything that appears is a decent move then you can be sure that he will benefit from it in the long run.
His future looks as bad as his past. I see no real change in him or his behavior toward his fellow man. He will look for the advantage that he feels is due him and take it. If you get in his way then he will pull every trick in the book to win even if it costs "him" money. This all is done just to make a point.
No he is not a good person to deal with; be it drugs or marketing.
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Look at all the havoc and controversy that seem to follow this James Brausch. I found a number of web sites online that have horror stories about people not getting what they paid for from him. Being ignored by him after he has their money, etc. Of course, those web sites used MUCH stronger language to describe him and his activities.
Derek has obviously been VERY civil and patient with this so called "self help" guru who claims to be active in his church. Nothing like using God to get people to trust you with their money.
Every musician should be royally pissed at James Brausch for bringing his garbage here and asking his minions to throw up comments here. This hurts the music community and all the artists that are trying to work together. This is an important venue and there are good people here. James Brausch is harming us all.
We all have blogs too, so let's tell the world what we think of this so called "self help" guru. Maybe he will learn a new word called BACKLASH.
James Brausch: It's too bad your drug addict past didn't give you any humility. Maybe you can devote your energy to screwing up someone else's community. You have earned no friends here.
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All, take a good clear look at James D. Brasch:
http/www.weightlossdude.com/pics/beforefront.jpg
One must wonder which is larger, his belly or his ego?
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The tide turned in this thread towards rational, sane points. That this Brausch chump is a fraud. That he and his minions used a loophole to exploit CDBaby, who never, ever, has done anything but good for independent artists, musicians, and yes, spoken word performers. Thanks to all who actually speak the voice of sane reason. Brausch is no different than any other snake oil peddler. Do some self-help of your own if you're considering buying his products or going to one of his seminars: Don't. Save yourself the money, and the time. Best time management I can think of is to not waste it on this moron. And I agree with the above poster - don't bother with opposing or retaliatory posts to what I just wrote - I couldn't care less what you think.
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About halfway up this page I posted truthful comments about James f*cking Brausch and I got howled into oblivion... but now I see that the truth is shining through and the majority agree with me.
James Brausch is a scammer... period.
He claims to be a reformed druggie who became a man of God and got rich... but all he did was become a rich fat slob. Any time a salesman, marketer or MLMer starts talking God... start friggin' running!
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I would like to give a great big THUMBS UP to CD Baby. Thank you for helping artists.
Through all this engineered negativity from James Brausch, they patiently allowed even Jame's nuttiest followers to make comments here, no matter how mean or one sided. On the other hand I noticed James Brausch does not allow any comments on his web site. I wonder why?
What does James fear? Probably THE TRUTH.
That the world does not revolve around him or his pithy words of half baked wisdom.
Unfortunately for James, outside of his little one dimensional universe, a lot of people still think on their own.
Welcome to the real world James, where people see you for what you are: nothing.
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A huge thumbs up to CD Baby from me too!
It seems pretty obvious to me that the majority of the
anonymous (my, how brave!) posts above are from the same
person. Mr Brausch himself, it wouldn't surprise me.
Whoever said they couldn't understand why Mr Brausch wants to
win this contest, I couldn't agree more. Then it occurred to me.
I'm not saying it's a particularly clever or original thought -
publicity.
All I'm - we're - doing of course is inflate Mr Brausch's ego by
talking about him.
I sense this publicity is starting to backfire on Mr Brausch,
however, from what I've read here.
CD Baby aren't perfect. No-one is. Sure, maybe they make
mistakes from time to time. Who doesn't? But one thing I am
CONVINCED they are not is dishonest. This opinion of mine is
based on a couple of years of dealing with them. Mr Brausch
turns up and in the space of a few days goes from someone I'd
never heard of (so, I suspect, from his point of view this is some
kind of a result) to someone I simply do not and would not trust.
And this is all from the way he/his supporters have conducted
themselves here. Anonymous posts? Laughable.
It seems there are one or two people on here (or quite possibly
the ONE anonymous poster) trying to make whatever they can
out of this for their own gain.
This is getting seriously tedious and - speaking for myself here
only, obviously - there is no goodwill left with me for Mr
Brausch.
Maybe time to learn how to deal with these matters in a more
professional (i.e. private) manner?
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P.S. Just before an anonymous poster 'cleverly' points out I didn't
leave my full name, it's Richard Sinclair and my band's CDs are at
www.cdbaby.com/all/aubreylemmon
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I'm glad Derek and company at CDBABY have thick skins and I'm sure they realize they are dealing with a real weasle with James B.
I think it is smart to change the contest for Sept. and just move on. I will keep trying to get my CD's out there and the contest is a good motivator but realistically I know that it is a long shot.
Oh Yeah HAPPY CONSTITUTION DAY
Professor Presley History Rocks
http://cdbaby.com/cd/professorpresley
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Wow!
I feel compelled to say something about this, it’s only the second time ever for me to post here. This whole thing just shows what’s wrong about populism as a concept. I think if CD Baby is to be blamed for anything, then that would be for letting anybody and everybody sell CDs through them. I’ve never imagined that there were so many whiny bitches among my fellow musicians (I won’t talk about self-help gurus here cause they don’t belong here anyway).
It seems to me that the whole ‘contest’ thing just shows what a bunch wishful thinking crybabies these ‘participants’ are; I hate to break this to you, but winning this ‘contest’ does not guarantee you’ll get the fame and fortune you ‘deserve’. Yes, maybe your CD could get on the shelves in the stores, but people still need to want it, like it, admire it, in order to buy it off of those shelves. That’s all there is to it. Once your CDs start being returned unsold you practically have you fate sealed because those stores will never store anything from you in the future.
This is a business, nobody will help you out of the goodness of their heart, there has to be something in it for everybody involved, and here CD Baby is not alone, there is the whole Ryko Music thing, and they don’t care about what they can do for you, me and CD Baby, they care what they can sell. They don’t need our little ‘contest’ they could simply go through the list of best sellers on CD Baby and hand-pick who they think might sell and contact them directly. The ‘contest’ thing is one of many, many different things Derek tried over the years to help all of us independent musicians, he’s done an admirable job and became a real player in the biz, one of the very rare breed that did not sell out and still sticks to his principles. Kudos to Derek and everyone at CD Baby again and again! Yes, the handling of this contest was a bit clumsy on their part, but that’s all, there’s no malice there.
As for my fellow independent musicians, please quit bitching and go make some music.
As for self-help gurus, just get the f@#$ out of here, fortunately music stores don’t sell CD’s that don’t contain MUSIC (well, CD Baby tried and I think they learned their lesson).
All the best,
Voice of Reason
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You've got a great point here. A distribution deal doesn't
guarantee anything other than you CD being available for stores
to order. One thing that's good about this contest though, is
that CD Baby said they will work with the artist to promote the
CD to the stores, as well as to the bands audience. $3,000 is
really not enough to do this effectively, but its a start. Have the
guidance of an experienced music promoter would be even more
valuable. Still, none of this guarantees anything. It would take
an enormous effort on the part of the artist to make it
successful. Hence, the reason for the contest, we have a chance
to prove who is willing to do the work, promote their music
creatively and effectively, and so show there is truly a market for
it.
I will strive to be one of the artists chosen, but that doesn't
mean I won't continue to pursue a distribution deal on my own.
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| by
on Monday September 17 2007 @ 12:56PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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For those of us that have been on CDbaby for years, there is a pattern. Every few years someone starts a little war with Derek, based on some perceived slight. They post a whole lot of nasty things under psuedonyms, etc. Eventually the voices of reason and honesty win out, and we find out that the person in question has a history of bullying dishonesty. (Remember that "Moses Avalon" to-do a few years ago) For the record: CDbaby has been the most legitimately useful indie music oriented outfit I have worked with. I have been with them for five years, and there is no comparison. Everything has always been straightforward. When there is a (rare) mistake, they fix it and apologize. What more do you want. Perhaps CDbaby should not accept every artist, simply so they can avoid working with two-bit infomercial hucksters running weightloss schemes or get-rich-quick tapes
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wow what an unbelievable thread. Derek I'm behind you 100 percent. Your record speaks for itself.
You are brave to continue the contest though. I would have packed it in after this ridiculous abuse of the company you built.
props to you.
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All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
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Derek,
First, and foremost, thank you. Thank you for having such a passion for what you do for independent musicians on CDBaby. It is because of you that even obscure children's musicians like myself can experience the indescribable joy and overwhelming sense of accomplishment in knowing that someone in Japan, Australia, Canada, or here in the states, enjoyed my music enough to purchase it.
I'll never be a top 10% artist for you, but with you and your company Derek, I'd never know that I was barely making money for you because you and your company have always been remarkably responsive, kind and professional in all of my communications with you... always treating me like the 'rockstar' I'm not.
And Derek, thank you for caring so much about us 'little guys' that you put up with all the Brausch's in the world just so that we can have a small piece of the world's stage.
You and your company are so very appreciated and the work you do for us is exemplary. Change not a thing, but the words you care to listen to!
Warm regards,
Dan Smith
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Wow. I just went through all these posts and thought that I should say something.
Derek, you have always been a straight shooter with us (Anything Box) and my weekly checks prove that this company does its job. I don't know what we would do without you.
I totally understand your position, and will gladly stand behind CDBaby on this issue. I have not won the contest, but that doesn't mean anything to me. What matters most to me is that our fans get their goods on time. Everyone who orders from the company orders with confidence because of the support and service. It keeps the fans happy, and the artists paid. You are doing a good job. Don't let this stuff get you down.
Take a few days off. You deserve it! :)
-- Claude S.
Anything Box
www.anythingbox.com
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I'm so glad the thread has turned and everyone now agrees what a dishonest person James is (and i'm being very polite and understated when i use the word dishonest).
Derek and all at CDBaby - we support you! I hope you guys can get back to doing what you do best soon, rather than having to deal with such an individual and his destructive tactics.
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It looks to me like both parties had faults and misunderstandings. For anyone to attack James or attack Derek is just childish.
This is worse then a play ground full of three year olds that don't know it's bad to hit the other kids because they looked at them funny. Every one (both sides) needs to grow up and just be nice! Don't waste so much energy on some thing like this.
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DEREK---FORGET about ALL THESE IDIOTS that keep writing NOVELS FOR US and SIGN ME!!!! :) I WILL BE MUCH EASIER TO WORK WITH!!!! :)AND I MAKE MUUUUSIIIICCCCC!!!!!!!!!
-George
http://georgehartline.com
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Yep - just email cdbaby@cdbaby to let them know they're on their way.
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ooohhh someone should write a song about this whole drama! then sale the cd on cdbaby-INSTANT hit! haha
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You know, it's funny... in the first contest thread I got into a bit of an argument with James. I called him out on his B.S. (politely) and said he would win only because he's using underhanded marketing tactics and it's not really fair because he isn't selling music. No one seemed to pick up on that except me, and I started to think I might have been too hard on a 'genuinely nice guy'. I'm glad the popular opinion has changed :P
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One more vote for CDBaby. They are one of the last enterprises that actually care about the people involved.
Bravo!
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so they have announced the winner(s)
good move I believe, to add an actual music winner along with the spoken word album and be done with it. well done cdbaby
"We are pleased to announce the winners of our top sellers "contest"
for the month of August. Yes, we did say winners! Kenny Rankin's
album Like A Seed and James Brausch's Life Management 101 topped our
sales charts for August with a combined total of over $9,000 in CD
sales. These two artists were very close in sales and deserve to
share in the reward. Kenny and James will be given a promotional
budget and have their albums released in retail stores in early 2008."
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James is satisfied. He and his 'army' owe CDBaby in general and Derek in particular a HUGE PUBLIC APOLOGY. NOW.
Nice job, CDBaby. I think you're all the best, and you all prove it with every move you make.
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...on that apology from Mr. Brausch and his cohorts. Funny how they are completely absent from this thread now. Typical.
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i havent been to this blog in a month in a half!!i felt like it would be a cinch to win the contest "we being the hottest thing on cdbaby" we rep hardcore gangsta rap, hot from down south, crunk,screwed,and chopped. we go to this blog (when it was still new)and discovered musicians selling 200copies a day. "musical competitors" who we were up against, discouraged us completely,until we found out from andrews' comment, that jone wasnt a musician.with a proud sign of releif, still knowing we were the hottest thing on cdbaby, ebay, and on the web period, we went back to work, selling albums,downloads,and being content with life, on cdbabys payrole anyway.hey we bussing fatchecks once a week off cdbaby so sweet to where we didnt care if we won or not,we been living and breathing cdbaby for 13months. just hated the fact a musician is not only out selling us "big sellers" but skating rings around us. we were real proud there was a catch to that many albums a day.didnt comeback to the blog until tonight and decided to read first and couldnt beleive they/he wasnt ashamed of themselves/himself, sweating cdbaby like that. that non musical undisqualified contestant became the topic of the blog ,and im still dumbfounded or in shock,thinking that the 3 comments before mine cant be real. right? this jerk got my distribution deal? the next person that attempts to cheat cdbaby and my crew out of a deal is gonna have to be willing to straight out, knuckle up ,and fist fight!!the ryko deal is all mine..or to fair participants.i hope money never makes me stoop so low. ill remain humble with the deal,and i am a humble person but tha next person who enters our contest and cant sing is gonna have to be ready to fight literally there will be repercussions!! i try to figure out how i would streatch the 3gs to promote our cdbabycatalog worldwide cause we really big in the uk,and 3000 wont go as far as you think.youre gonna have to stretch it real wisely.the magazines we would like to appear in would cost at least 450.00 a peice, maybe cheaper.how many magazines? at least 4 that i know right off.perhaps i could bribe a few radio stations but ill always keep integrity bout myself,and never get greedy to a point to where it will cause me to stoop low and petty.people making bigmoves with cdbaby a lot of people they just hadnt bothered to stop by and check out this blog because they are happy selling under 100 cds a month and refuse to drop prices to compete with a cheat.while he cheating, we making profit our albums are going for nearly 30.00 a peice (shipping included) and we have sold hundreds of them.less then a 100 a month
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Thanks for the competition Derek... please focus on the fact that for every IP anonomised multiple posting critic there are thousands of real musicians that know what you are doing is just great.
Good luck to Kenny Rankin; I hope he makes the Billboard 100.
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WOW!!! I am new to CD Baby and this is the first time I've ever been to CD Baby talkback....I can't believe how crazy all of this is. One person can cause such an uproar. I've never heard of James Brausch until I read this. As I was reading all of the comments, the question kept coming to my mind, if this guy is such a marketing guru, selling whatever it is he is selling and doing seminars, "why does he need CD Baby at all?" Then it hit me, he's done just what he always does...Marketing....whether it's bad or good you have to give him credit...The goal of Marketing is to get people to know who you are and about your products. Good publicity or Bad publicity....it's all publicity. He certainly got it here. I now know more than I really care to know about him, so I guess his job is done. (As crazy as it is).
Ok now can someone please start a string of comments to help us new people get really going on CD Baby. It would be greatly appreciated.
www.cdbaby.com/carlatedford
www.myspace.com/carlamtedford
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Not all marketing is good marketing. In this case, even though I now know of him when I previously didn't, not only will I not ever buy anything of his, I will encourage others not to whenever possible.
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I totally agree with you....that's why I said good or bad...whether we like it or not it's all marketing and publicity. Some people will do whatever they can to get others attention. I will NEVER buy any of his products either.
www.cdbaby.com/carlatedford
www.myspace.com/carlamtedford
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| by
on Wednesday September 26 2007 @ 07:06AM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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I JUST CAME ACROSS THIS LINK ON THE NET AND RUSHED IN TO SEE WHAT CD BABY WAS TALKING ABOUT
WITH THIS PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION SITUATION, AND AFTER READING WHAT I CAN ONLY DESCRIBE AS A CIRCUS OF WORDS,IM NOT EVEN TRYING TO UNDERSTAND IT ALL,BUT FROM WHAT I AM GATHERING,SOMEBODY
WON THIS CONTEST AND DID NOT GET WHAT THEY DESERVED. THE MEAT OF THIS SITUATION IS NOT CLEAR TO ME,BUT WHAT IS CLEAR TO ME IS THAT NO ONE HERE HAS A RECORDING CONTRACT WITH CD BABY.
SO WHATEVER THEY THROW AT US IS AN ADDED BENEFIT TO WHAT THEY HAVE ALREADY DONE FOR EVERYBODY....
I THINK DEREK SIVERS IS THE BIGGEST THING TO HAPPEN TO AN INDIE ARTIST SINCE THERE IS NO CONTRACT,YOU CAN PRETTY MUCH DO WHATEVER ELSE YOU WANT IN ORDER TO FURTHER YOUR SUCCESS, THESE CONTESTS ARE AN ADDED BONUS, NOT A "DOGFIGHT", AS FAR AS THIS SITUATION IS CONCERNED,I THINK IT IS BETWEEN THE ARTIST INVOLVED AND CD BABY....THERE'S AN OLD SAYING " BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU GOT "....THINK ABOUT WHAT CD BABY HAS ALREADY DONE FOR ALL OF US,AND REMEMBER: YOUR FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS, BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOURSSELF !!!! IM OUTTA HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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i think digintal sales on itunes, rhapsody etc ...should count. i sell a few songs on there every month and it dwarfs my physical sales!
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| by
on Thursday October 04 2007 @ 09:43AM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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this is an added value
why bitch about it, you already have a great deal for your 35.00
it is designed to encourage
artists to make sales happen directly through cd baby. that helps cd baby make $ and we all want to see cd baby remain viable
unless everyone is ready to create their own websites and shopping carts and shipping systems, right?
any other sales /itunes, rhapsody, live sales at shows/ could take a month or more to tally up because of how the different companies report and make payments to cd baby, could get real confusing
I think, if you are hell bent on winning this, it's wise to just get busy and push sales through cd baby
the worse thing that could happen is you make a little more money
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Welcome to the jungle baby !!!!
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I think the person that sold the least CD's should get the deal. After all, they need the most encouragement......
I think I'm the winner....
Can't we all just get along?
I love CDBaby!
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We can all get along. The jungle is big enough for everybody as long as you have the money to buy your way in. You choose and pay to enter regardless of how good or bad your music is.
No body cares except yourself when you get lost.
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Wow. I'm sick reading all this malicious stuff.
Derek, I'm so sorry you have to waste so much of your time with this crap. When I think of all the cool creative things you might be dreaming up to help us all if you weren't embroiled in this slugfest... oooh..
Thanks for everything that you and all the wonderful folks at CDBaby do to help us all. I'm sending some light & love your way and hoping this all blows over.
CDBaby is a fabulous company. I'm sorry I didn't find them sooner, but for the past 5 years CDBaby has distinguished itself with me as the most ethical, competent and innovative company I've ever run into... (and my standards are pretty brutally high!!)
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| by
on Tuesday October 23 2007 @ 11:27AM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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is there a way that I can sell the music on MySpace.com? If so, how to go about it?
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Tring to find out about extra distrubution and posting video's to my account.
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CD Baby is making it possible for a lot of new artists to be heard. We all make mistakes. The biggest is to bite the hand that is feeding us.
Get on with making music, and being nice. They go together. As for me, I am new at this, but I do appreciate the CD baby organization. it is a lot of work keeping up with so many artists..and they have done a great job..keeping us informed, opening doors for distribution, making personal sites for each artist. Where is the gratitude? Has any one forced you to put your CD's on their site? How about a little hug..and get on with your life.
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I can't believe you all waste your time with this crap. I pay my own publicist and promoters and do just fine with it. CDbaby has given me just one more outlet for distribution. It's not about contests. It's about making a living doing what you love to do. So market your music, play your shows, and be thankful you're not punching a timeclock in some factory.
Mike Lawrence
www.mike-lawrence.com
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Damn...after reading all of this I didn't get the payoff...who won the August contest???
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I dont see what all the whinning and fuss is about. People just dont get it. Example: Let say (because I want to) I will give out $5. to 10 people randomly in a crowd of 100. (Sounds like one of those math problems) Somehow there will be people complaining of the remaining 90 that didn't get a hand out. Shut up already. Should I have not been nice and given out $5. to 10 people because 90 might complain? Hell no, too bad for them. How about YOU trying to establish a way for fellow musicians to get their music out there for such a small percentage. I see 2 kinds of people in the world, those who talk about doing things and those who Do Do things. Hat's off to Derek and the whole CD Baby Team for creating this site for musicians, the are Do-er's of things. Unfortunately most folks I see are just talkers of doing things. If they used that creative energy of learning how to be great talkers - to become the Do-er's of things, then there would be new opportunities all the time.
You most likely will fail a number of times before you will be sucessful. Boo Hoo, I didn't win, it's not fair, blah blah blah. Isn't it just cool that there was a contest even if all the "bugs" weren't worked out yet - so what. Be true to yourself, your fans and everything after that is a blessing. Now go write a song.
http://www.jeffxmusic.com
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So...Who won for September? October?
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Well, for me CDbaby hasnt done any wrong...in fact it inspires me and encourages me. What would so many of us do without CDbaby.com? it means a lot to me cuz as a female songwriter it's great to feel encouraged when I receive a cheque in the mail. I like that.
As for this John Brausch whatever guy..never heard of him here in Canada and from what I'm hereing I dont want to. He seems like a greedy pig bully and his mama should kick his ass and teach him some morals and manners. I'm a mama and so I should know. does he want me to do it for him? Wow if he is such a so and so then why does he come to CDbaby.com just to win a little contest? what a jerk. Tehre are always these types around who are huge egomaniacs and dont care about anyone else...you or me or anyone. They dont care if they tear down CDbaby.com and ruin it for anyone else...they just have their little diva tantrums and want everyone to bow to them. Of courese they always have their little entourages. Misery loves company. I'll never buy his CD in a million years. If he was a good guy I would...but hey you know the tree by its fruit...in this case rotten apples. Ugh!!!!!!
Hey Derek, you're okay by me. There are always people in the mass who want to drag anyone down who tries to rise above the average....its the field of poppies theory.
Well have a good day!
Peace
Christine xo
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Wow, the internet is populated by idiotic whiners.
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Derek and CD baby have treated me quite fairly. I don't know who this guy James is and from the looks of things, I don't want to.
Can't we all just get a long thread going?
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Wow, I just got checked out this blog, and to me personally, I feel that most of you guys are a bunch of idiots with no sense of how to make it in the music industry.
I run a record label, I only have one cd on cdbaby, we have real distribution now.
If you people hate cdbaby so much, then do what people that are serious about their music do, work hard, tour all the time, put in long hours, start your own website, sign with a reputable independent label, and secure distribution through them.
Trying to make it in the music world, is not putting a cd on cdbaby and hoping it will sell well, it is working your ass off and getting into every nook and cranny.
Most of you people are very ignorant, and talking about how you got scammed etc, is a bunch of crap.
Try really being involved in the music industry, you will get used to being scammed by distributors, magazine, publicist, ad agencies, promoters etc. On a much higher level than not winning a simple cdbaby contest.
I like Derek, and it seems he has great intentions, and obviously like we all do, he wants to make money as well.
This contest appears to have been perfectly legit. And I stand by him 100%.
All you people that are crying over this stupid crap, need to get off of the computer and go out and actually do something with your music besides relying on a website to turn you into some "star" or whatever.
Again,,, most of you people are just completely ignorant of any aspect of the music industry whatsoever.
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ha ha !!! that is so funny - "i've been scammed regularly and on a greater scale that you lot - and YOU lot are completely ignorant!"
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I honestly feel this is a great opportunity to get music heard and out there to a wider audience of listeners although ultimately it is also attributed to the song selling itself if is that good and well received. Happy to be a part of the cdbaby.com family.
G-mara
www.myspace.com/bigmusicdiva
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I'm having trouble understanding how anyone can call this contest a "scam" when there is no entry fee. Truth is, Derek does not have to do this at all, and if it causes him a lot of pain, he may choose not to. With or without the contest, CD Baby is doing a great job. Regarding the contest, I can't win a grape stomping contest against an elephant. It would be nice if the big promoters would opt out of it and let some of the little guys have a chance. Unfortunately, the real world does not work that way.
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I sell very few cds because I just don't perform live anymore. I have been performing forever and I chose to just play at home now. Having said that, for some reason, I sell lots of downloads and an occasional cd. I think it is wonderful to do nothing and still have new fans. I owe everything to Derek and his team. I think cdbaby is the best thing that ever happened to artists like myself. I just can't imagine anyone having negative things to say about these guys. If you are not promoting your artist page at your gigs, you are really missing out. If anyone wants to hear how us "old-times" do it, I am at cd/georgiestar. Thanks for the opportunity to post.
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