| CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast |
 Nov. 13,
2008
Ep.38 : Pandora Radio
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| Important News About CD Baby & SNOCAP |
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There is an important update to our Digital Distribution partnership that we want you to be aware of. CD Baby is no longer working directly with SNOCAP. From this point on, Artists and labels who want a SNOCAP store will need to work directly with them.
Through SNOCAP, Artists and labels can promote and sell their music through digital retailers and through the SNOCAP MyStore.
We have found that it is better for our Artists if they work directly with SNOCAP rather than using CD Baby as the intermediary.
If you already have a SNOCAP account that was set up through CD Baby, SNOCAP will transfer that information into a direct account with SNOCAP. You should have received an email from SNOCAP with the subject as: “ACTION REQUIRED: CHANGES TO CDBABY & SNOCAP MYSTORES”. To transfer your existing store to a direct account, you must follow the steps outlined in the email by October 11, 2007. If you don't follow the steps in the email by this date, your account will be canceled.
If you have any questions about your SNOCAP account or setting up a new account, they can now be directed to SNOCAP at cdbaby@snocap.com or support@snocap.com. Their web address is http://www.snocap.com/
NOTE: Snocap lays off 60 percent of workforce
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9796327-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
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So what happened? Mnay of us chose to go through CD Baby out of loyalty, in return, how about a head's up?
Colie Brice
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Wow ... I went through CD baby out of loyalty as well. It took me forever to get that set up and then to get the snocap cancalled. I recived no notice and had to look this up on site.
What would be great is if CD baby offered a remote track-by-track store that I could put on my site. Any word?
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There was that slightly higher royalty through CDBaby, too... are they gonna honor that.
Not that it's a deal-breaker or anything.
But I did like that it made CDBaby even more of a one-stop-shop. But no biggie. And you're working with Amazon now, correct? That's HUGE. :)
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| by JZ
on Friday September 28 2007 @ 02:23PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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I, for one, have received NO email from Snocap OR cdBaby re. this new twist. Had I not peeked in here, I'd remain totally uninformed of this "action requiring" event. So I've now emailed snocap (as suggested above) wondering how to proceed. At the usual rate of forthcoming information, I suspect that the dreadline of October 11 will pass well before I receive information as to how to proceed. What is the "required action" and why is it so difficult to stay informed? What an inflated drag.
JZ
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ditto here.
As far as I'm ware, the only email details Snocxap have for me is the one @cdbaby we were given to register with.
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The e-mail will go to the e-mail address attached to your CD Baby
member's account just like any other correspondence from
SNOCAP. Unfortunately, the formatting of this particular e-mail
seems to be causing spam blockers to put it in the junk mail
folder. Be sure to check there as well. If you have any questions,
feelfree to e-mail cdbaby@snocap.com or support@snocap.com.
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| by
on Friday September 28 2007 @ 03:42PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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Nope, i've checked my junk mail too. nothing there. I've emailed cdbaby@snocap.com and support@snocap.com.
What a drag. I've had a snocap store up for almost a month and was looking forward to a hassle free experience due to the kind and caring interface of cdbaby. I'm not sure I'd continue with snocap were it not for the association with cdbaby... although, having heard no hard information about what the new situation would be is also part of the problem
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Hopefully they get back to you quickly. Each e-mail has a unique
link to migrate your account to a direct account, so we can't just
post instructions again.
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I have two accounts with CDBaby, for distinctly different projects. I received an email for one, but not the other, the first day this all was announced. I emailed SNOCAP about the other and, days later, have heard nothing. I know it's not a spam-blocking thing on my end. Checked that already.
As time is running out, this is disconcerting.
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Do you think anybody will reply?
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No, honestly, I don't.
"Chris" from SNOCAP (see way down below) hit and run a comment here, and hasn't been back to clarify an obvious conflict about the annual fee. His comment of "indefinitely" vs the mass email "waived for the first year"...
I got that email from them regarding the switchover - which I only got at one account, and I have two different SNOCAP entities, by the way..!
So, no, faith is low.
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no email from SnoCap either, no junkmail either, I sent previously emails to their support - never got an answer. i don't know if it's worth the hassel?
I haven't heard anyone saying anything good about SnoCap. Very strange indeed...
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I'm not going for this bait and switch..the reason I waited this long to go through cdbaby is because I don't want to get hit with yet another annual fee.
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It was in my spam folder too this AM
Usually I just dump it, but for whatever reason I looked, so keep your eyes peeled.
They are waiving the first years $30 fee, but after that I'm not sure it will be worth it.
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The $30 fee that they are "waiving" for CDBaby artists and labels is something they offer to anyone who signs up for a new SNOCAP account (http://www.snocap.com/)
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Oh, they're not waiving the annual fee after the first year for those of us who signed up with them with CDBaby?
I surely will find it not worth it to stay with them if there's a fee after the first year.
Looks like it might be bye-bye SNOCAP for me.
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How do I remove that stupid SNOCAP store from my Myspace? It's never sold a sinlge download. Blah.
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In account settings on MySpace, there is an option to not show the store.
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Why should SNOCAP sell your music? Typical artist whine.. Its a store.. YOU are the label.. YOU sell your music.
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It isn't 'typical artist whine' when the artist is promoting their work, and seeing good results through some channels, but none through others.
Especially on MySpace, where artists often are really active in self-promotion, it would be logical to assume that SNOCAP would be a great way to sell music - right there at the point of promotion. Personally, I know no one who has sold more than a couple of tracks there though, while other outlets like iTunes, Rhapsody, eMusic and so on have done well for them.
Personally, I suspect that the buying public hasn't really adopted SNOCAP as an outlet.
But I do agree that there is a semantic issue here. It's best not to say "SNOCAP didn't sell anything for me". It's better to say "I didn't have any sales through SNOCAP". If people put it that way, it wouldn't come across as entitlement or whining.
Just sayin'. :)
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think about it most people have the snocap store directly under the free myspace player. lol.
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This snocap deal does bare further investigation.
Can anyone remember Mp3.com before they sold us all out? The $30.00 annual snocap fee on it's own is certainly alot of cash for little known artists that rarely sell digital downloads anyway, artists can sell downloads via the Paypal shopping cart by pasting Paypal buy links into their Myspace page. The other question is the very hefty FIFTY SIX (56) percent cut for Myspace, Snocap and Paypal.
Apple Itunes only keeps like thirty three (33) percent and CDbaby.com only takes an additional NINE (9) percent cut of total income. leaving artists with about FIFTY EIGHT (58) percent. I totally trust in the direction Derek Sivers is going with CDbaby.com, and at the moment he is completely walking away from Snocap. We all have seen many of these music download companies come and go, most of these defunct companies had questionable business models. Perhaps this is just business as usual, only time will tell, HOWZAT!
Derek Sivers is the man, remember that folks!
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I want the deal we've been waiting so long for and that I just signed up for, no back-peddleing...
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| by
on Friday September 28 2007 @ 08:11PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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Someone mentioned that the Amazon deal is finally happening. Is this true?
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I suppose (just a guess) that we can start to see when we are on amazon by searching our own artist names on the new http://amazonmp3.com site.
For example this search of my own name shows me I'm still currently (only) on amazon for CD sales, something I had set up years ago direct with amazon.com/advantage and recently with amazon.com/marketplace
but not yet any mp3s available.
Meanwhile I just got my first album MP3 sale direct on one of my CDbaby page, and that was very cool. (Thank you for setting this up, Derek!)
-Steven
http://www.stevencravis.com
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don't keep us in suspense - whats thappening with amazon ??? i'd love it to be like the old tower records deal with audio clips...
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No suspense. We'll let everyone know the minute we know. :-)
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| by JZ
on Friday September 28 2007 @ 09:56PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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The only way I would consider snocap is via cdbaby. It isn't the fee and the cut that break the deal, it is that I have come to rely on the integrity, honesty, ability and reliability of cdbaby.CdBaby seems to really care. Without that interface between me and the digital distributor, I'm not really interested.
~JZ
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I agree. I always trust that with any new "marketing" endeavor
for my music, cdbaby has already done the research for me. I
don't have time to do it myself and I have no interest in
managing multiple accounts and keeping my eye on multiple
'yearly fees'. I'm sticking with cdbaby --- afterall, this is Derek's
"baby" so I'm sure he's cookin' up another opportunity that we'll
know about soon enough.
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I agree... I kinda liked having that sell box there... but I too only agreed to this partnership because CD Baby was involved... dont know if I trust anyones accounting without the "babys" being involved though.
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| by
on Saturday September 29 2007 @ 09:48AM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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Kudos for Derek and Cdbaby.... although it is nice having the snocap store embeded in my websites, I can live without it. lord knows there is enough so called "services" like snocap, sonicbids,etc that are just set up to make money off aspiring artists. It seems like a whole new "industry" has been created, and were the targets, while they take the money and run. I believe CdBaby is the only one that offers a valuable service at a fair price, remembering this is basically a distribution service. There always gonna new companies jumping on this bandwagon, lots of money to be made here - off us! But Derek was an innovator,who got there first, so you gotta respect and support that. I doubt snocap will last... lets face it, most digital $ come from iTunes anyway.
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Never in a million years would I want to go with Snocap - $30 a year fee for having my music available at a site that has not yet proved ANY ability to match - much less exceed the "annual fee" (read "ripping off the artist and feeding the pockets of MySpace.) I will continue to have a page on MySpace - but I cannot believe I will make any real $ on MySpace/SnoCap - iTunes, yes, others to a lesser degree.
So... I will remove any involvement with SnoCap as soon as I figure out how to. My loyalty is with Derek - based solely on CD Baby's proven abilty to make me money digitally and sell my CD's to markets I would NEVER be able to reach.
Thank God for CD Baby - otherwise independent artists would be up to our ears in crap deals from self-serving monsters in suits who "only want to help us get our music out there."
Peace.
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I'll be going with snocap for the free year, but once that's over, I'll put a PayPlay widget on my MySpace page. The only benifit I see to not dealing with SnoCap through CDBaby does not go to the artists.
(http://www.myspace.com/ahdchild)
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The downfall for me is I'm international. I'm working as a musician in Japan and I'm from Canada. Only Americans will be able to use SNOCAP now. CD Baby was my link to fix that problem. Now I just have to say good-bye to SNOCAP. But to be honest, I never sold one song on there and have had some good success through iTunes and Rhapsody etc. I totally trust Derek and believe everything he does is for the better of us musicians.
www.myspace.com/kellypettit
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MySpace and specifically Snocap have not sold a thing for me. MySpace is a way to spread some awareness (but you really think everyone that accepts your friend request actually looks at your profile much less listens to music?) and maybe find some similar bands to trade shows, but it's not a platform to sell anything. Don't sweat it guys, it's better you post a link back to CD Baby or wherever you actually see some income from your sales. I won't be sticking with Snocap.
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YOU are your own label. It is YOUR job to sell YOUR music. Why would a distributor or a store like SNOCAP sell your music? Kill the entitlement attitude you have going on and wake up.
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I followed the directions and am waiting for the new logon info, but I have to say that I haven't seen any sales there either. If anything happens during the "free" year, I will consider it then, but so far I am not impressed. But I can't see the harm in trying it for a year--for free. If they figure out how to get the sales moving, they will hang around, but as mentioned in the other posts, there sure are a lot of options right now. Some will have to die.
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To remove SNOCAP go to your MySpace account settings and you'll find under the "Miscellaneous" heading the option to "not show store".
We've sold music through everything except MySpace/SNOCAP - which I find hard to believe.
www.hipwaders.net
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You have to be a United States resident to sign with Snocap so i guess i'll just remove it from my MySpace page. Not that it sold anything anyway...
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I don't think anyone here questions Derek or CDBaby's integrity, I'm just curious as hell to know what actually happened..
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I'll give a public and detailed account soon. For now, just know that the ending of the relationship between CD Baby and Snocap was our idea, and done for your benefit (as well as our sanity).
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| by
on Monday October 01 2007 @ 08:39AM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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Thank you Derek and all at cdbaby. I can't imagine dealing with the "industry" other than via cd baby and its integrity and knowhow.
~ JZ
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Thank you Derek, I assumed as much..
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Well... I thought i could go with SnoCap, but if they are gonna charge the annual fee after the year, i'm out too.
Also, i think i can't do it because I'm in Canada and not the US. Kinda liked the html store embed though...
Derek, if you could create a Baby Cd store html thingy like SNOCAP did, I would have everything with you!!! One stop shop. you the man!
Anyone else agree?
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| by
on Monday October 01 2007 @ 03:18PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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I agree. The best thing about snocap was that you could place an elegant "store" anywhere and that it was easy to preview samples at the store. Also, the idea that American acts could upload new product and price it immediately. Pretty cool to be able to offer a rough demo or live version at a reduced price. Unfortunately , that only worked for American acts and I don't even think Europeans could download music from the store.
I'd love it if i could put up such a store that was cdBaby backed and international in terms of the musician's and the customer's ability to participate.
~ In the meantime, Thanks Derek and CdBaby for all the help ~ JZ
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I agree. A Flash store like SNOCAP's driven by CDBaby instead? Lovely idea.
The more I think about this, the more I am definitely bailing from SNOCAP. Not worth it. It's been over a week with zero responses from their customer support people. Boo.
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