| 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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| Sell More Music Through CD Baby |
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| posted by Tony Van Veen on Tuesday September 23 2008 @ 11:03AM PDT |
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You may have already heard that Derek Sivers recently handed over the reins of CD Baby. (If this is news to you,
you can read the announcement on Derek's blog.)
As you can probably imagine, we've gotten plenty of questions about what's going to happen next with CD Baby, and whether it'll change. I promise you that CD Baby's philosophy of "artists first" will NEVER change. Click here to see my post on the CD Baby forum with my pledge to CD Baby artists.
Rest assured, the same friendly, capable CD Baby crew remains in place, working as hard as ever to help you sell as many CDs and downloads as possible. Here's how we intend to make this happen:
- We'll focus on getting CD Baby titles in front of more buyers by working with iTunes, Amazon, and other retailers, as well as less traditional music channels, like MySpace, to promote CD Baby content and make it more prominently available.
- We will make it easier for artists to sell their CD Baby titles, through easy-to-use links and widgets that can be dropped into any web page, single song downloads on cdbaby.com, and more.
- We strive to make the cdbaby.com store the premier new music discovery destination on the web, with "best of" lists, staff recommendations, and other features that encourage music buyers to stay and browse.
In fact, we've already made a couple of changes I think you'll like:
SELL MORE MUSIC (EASILY) WITH OUR "BUY NOW" BUTTON
Check out our new and improved “Buy Now” buttons which direct fans right to your CD Baby page, making it incredibly easy for you to sell more CDs and downloads. It is so easy to add a button to your web site, MySpace page, or any other web page that allows visitors to click and buy your album. These buttons come in a variety of styles, including a small thumbnail of your album art! Go http://cdbaby.com/link, start adding these links, and sell more music!
Here's a tip: Put your fan network to work by emailing your fans and asking them to go to http://cdbaby.com/link and add the link to their web pages and blogs. The more people recommend your music, the more music you'll sell (and we all know that personal recommendations are the strongest sales drivers there are).
ALBUM DOWNLOADS NOW SELL FOR $9.99!
As of yesterday we've changed all album download prices to $9.99. The old system, where the download cost as much as your CD, was too expensive for fans, and it made CD Baby uncompetitive with sites like iTunes. We think this will increase your download sales. However, you can always change your download price to any price you want. Click here to log in and change it.
So go ahead, sell more music. Thank you for your support of CD Baby, and I look forward to doing great things - together.
Sincerely,
Tony van Veen
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Tony,
I love the new product links. Is there any way to provide whole catalog HTML links/widgets?
I have numerous sites where I'd love to post my whole catalog and save time from posting 10 different bits of code.
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At present, there's no way to do it. Functionally, one widget with multiple titles will work the same way as multiple widgets with one title. It still gives site visitors the option to buy any one of your titles. The main difference is that for 10 titles you'll have to drop 10 bits of html code into each site, instead of one bit. So, for now you'll have to use that elbow grease...
It's an interesting suggestion, and as we develop more fully functional widgets it's something we'll consider implementing.
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Do you have an update on the accounting software upgrade? Thanks.
-Dave
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new widget: the link goes to cdbaby record page.
why not link to the group/gallery like: http://cdbaby.com/group/base. its also just one page. could help until someone finds a better way.
greetings Wolfgang
(base records)
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Awesome buy now buttons! too cute!
-Sheba
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Peace, what's good...thanx for informing me on all tha new strategies you guys are doing to sell my CD's...Im still amazed by seeing my work digitally distributed...When I first started this music stuff (aside from me being well known Illustrator)...I kinda started to get frustrated from recording material and not getting tha right resources for exposure...so it's good to see tha ball rollin....I still got work to do, but it's nice to know Im getting more and more exposure for my art....thanx again guys......PEACE.
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Hey Tony, and congrats as the new CD Baby Boss! I like the widgets and will be using them on melindagospel.com.
Question, will disc makers make special provision for CDBabys to use their studio to not only master, but also record material at discount rates? If so thanks in advance.
Terrell
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Hey Tony,
Thank you for taking the time to ease some concerns. I do have
one really big request. I know competitors are starting to offer
weekly trending sales reports from iTunes. Will CDBaby be offering
anything like that? We need to be able to view iTunes sales sooner
than 6 weeks after the fact! Please make this a priority!
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LOVE LOVE LOVE the new buttons!!! Fabulous :-D
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Tony,
Thanks for the news and for the terrific way that you are maintaining and building upon what Derek started. I am curious whether CDBaby might consider finding a way to also sell other forms of band merchandise. My band has a terrific t-shirt, plus we sell egg shakers and stickers at shows. Is there a way that other forms of merch could be sold via CDBaby?
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We'd like to add other products like merch, and maybe posters, books, and other items. It'll require some reorganization in our warehouse and changes to the software code, so it'll be sometime next year. I'll be sure to let you know (along with everyone else on CD Baby).
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I'm glad things are continuing at CD Baby much as Derek started them, but it's hard to continue an idea without the idea man. No offense, Tony -- but Derek wouldn't have ever sent out an email from email@cdbaby.messages4.com. That's a cultural thing that's hard to transfer. So, I'm glad we'll be selling more CDs. Gonna miss ol' Derek though.
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I hear you, Desemac. As much as it pains me to do this, I feel we had no other choice. Let me tell you how we came to this decision.
On August 4th, the first day I was at CD Baby, I had asked members of the team to send me some emails with suggestions. By 2 p.m. I thought it strange that I had gotten zero suggestion emails. By 4 p.m I still had gotten none. I investigated, and it turned out that the in-house email server was still busy sending out Derek's mass email from Friday the 1st, and all the internal emails by CD Baby folks were stuck in queue behind the mass email! So, all the emails the customer service team had been happily sending to clients all day had never gotten delivered.
Clearly, the old mail server didn't have the capacity to manage large bulk emails. Yet, one of the ways I want to add value for CD Baby artists is to let you know when there's new developments that will help you sell more product. Therefore, mass emails will be happening from time to time. The quickest way to do that was to go to a 3rd party email provider that could accommodate us immediately for our mass emailings.
So, when faced with the choice of "cute email handle with poor customer service" vs. "slightly less personal email handle and uninterrupted great customer service" we opted for the minor compromise of the latter. I ain't thrilled about it, but my customer service team is...
Thanks for noticing.
Oh, and I'd like to think I've had the occasional good idea myself. :)
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Hi tony,
I think your ideas about making cdbaby downloading competitive
pricing with other major companies is a great one. I have hired
Discmakers to manufacture my CDS in the past. I have a question-
how long do you think that selling the physical CDS is going to
last? I teach flute at Cal State University in Sacramento, and all the
students download their music. I still prefer CDs but I am of a
different generation.
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That's the (multi)million dollar question I keep asking myself.
Ivin Ballen, the original founder of Disc Makers 62 years ago, had a theory that a product (or format) takes as long to decline as it did to grow. The growth and decline trajectory forms a perfect bell curve. That would mean (if he's right) that CDs took 25 year to reach their apex, and will take another 25 years to die completely. (Well, we're a solid 3-5 years into the decline already.)
For independent artists, CDs are still growing, believe it or not. Independents typically can't get traditional distribution, radio airplay, promotion, or retail placement. They rely on gig sales for their music revenues, and gig sales = CDs.
Even if CDs start declining for independent artists in the next 3-5 years, they'll still be a big part of the overall sales mix. And, they'll decline gradually. They won't die out instantly. A CD is still a remarkably cost-efficient way to distribute content.
So, back to your point. Sure, all your students download music. My kids, in their early teens, do too. And so do I (though I buy CDs too.) However, think about how we find out about new music. Much of it is discovered in clubs and at concerts. And when you're there, a CD is a great medium (dare I say the greatest?) to take home some of that cool new music you just heard.
So, yes, CDs will begin declining gradually. But they'll be around for another 10 to 20 years.
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I completely agree with you. The one thing we love about CD Baby is its personal, intimate feeling. Obviously Tony has to handle a mass mailing, but there are ways to use some makeup on it... specially I would really love if you guys keep all email as "text only", as HTML feels too corporate...
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Great news on the updates with CD Baby.....
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Hello Tony, this is just to wish you all the very best of luck with your acquisition of CDBaby & long may it prosper in the best indie tradition!
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Thanks for the update, Tony.
Best of luck with this new transition.
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Tony - it all sounds very promising. i long ago changed my mp3 download price to $10 to make it iTunes competitive. with this across the board change to $9.99 for mp3 albums, and the coming availability of single song downloads, will CD Baby's well-deserved cut on those digital items remain at 9%?
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This is a tough one, Deirdre. I know everyone's watching like a hawk to see when prices are going to change. My hope is to keep the current rate structure the same as much as possible.
However, I'm a straight shooter, so I'm not going to lie about this: for single song downloads the credit card processing fee alone is greater than 9%. So, in order for us to do single song downloads something's gotta give. It's one reason why we so far only offer album downloads.
We haven't resolved this matter yet, and the whole team here is jazzed about new features we're working on, including single song downloads, the ability to do free promo downloads, and download cards for gig sales. These will all take some time to implement, and I promise that we'll strike a deal that's fair - to both the artist and to CD Baby.
Stay tuned...
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It's always refreshing to see how CDbaby retains its personal touch,by mailing each musician individually,
informing them of updates, and always new ideas, angles to help us sell more music.
Well done, cdbaby.
Tom Acton
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Tony
It is nice to see that Cd Baby is in good hands. I trusted my first
solo album China Ranch to Disc Makers not only for duplication
but mastering as well and you knocked it out of the
park...seriously.
Looking forward to working with you again.
All the best
Frank Briggs
http://frankbriggs.com
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one more thing - the new buy now buttons TOTALLY ROCK!
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Great & Good Luck Tony Van Veen,...
Content, not image, & a level playing field.
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"About MP3 downloads at CD Baby"
Why no single song-purchase?
This is not a hit-song store. No corporate filler-tracks. These artists poured their life (and personal bank accounts) into every song on that album, and you're going to love it.
I may not be corporate, filler tracks? Who's to judge.
Anyway it's stupid you can't buy single songs.
Change it now, you're going to eventually.
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See my post a bit higher up about single song downloads. We're going to do it, we're just working on HOW we're going to do it.
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| by
on Thursday September 25 2008 @ 04:52PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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I don't want single song downloads. Really liked CD Baby's original
stance on this matter! I know some people want it, but please make
it optional!
Would opt for album only on all the services if it were possible. If I
am selling an album it is an album, not several singles that just
happen to be on a CD. It is a complete work of art.
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I believe the plan is to give artists the option to choose between single song downloads, or full album downloads. I've always
liked that we had the album only option, and we have many people selling through us where it makes sense to have an album
only option(Audiobooks and meditation CDs to name a few). Unfortunately, with all our digital retail partners, they do not
allow us to designate albums as "Album Only." A little tip: With iTunes, any track over 10 minutes becomes an album only
download, so if you are planning on releasing something like an audiobook or meditation CD, you can break up the audio
into 10 minute tracks, and it should only be available as a complete album download.
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| by
on Tuesday September 30 2008 @ 09:38AM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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Great! That is good to know!
Another major trouble with iTunes though is when you have an
album with a low track count (but long tracks, so the same actual
length and amount of content as the typical 12 song album) and no
option to set the price. The whole system is unfortunately set up for
pop singles. Very glad CD Baby is trying to accommodate both
sides on their site anyway!
Hope that worldwide licensing will follow very soon.
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Fine by me. Just keep on doing it.
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Hi Tony
The plans for Cd baby is very exciting and i look forward to some sales. All the best for this venture.
Paulina odongo
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Tony,
I don't think most artists would object to a fair rate increase if there was tangible value added. Understandably, the costs on micro credit transactions are so obnoxious that you'd need to take a bigger cut to cover expanded costs and still make a profit, pay the crack staff, etc.
Maybe you could do an exploratory digisingle betatest for a small group of volunteers.
Thus far I applaud your leadership and diplomacy amidst some cheap and self deluded, grandiose remarks.
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Thanks Colie. Tangible value add is what it's all about. Today's announcement has just some tiny, easy things. We're looking to do much more to enable CD Baby artists to sell more of their music.
And BTW, I've noticed your posts on numerous forums, where you're speaking up and supporting CD Baby and what it stands for. I really appreciate your vocal support, and so does everyone on the CD Baby team. I hope to meet and shake your hand one day.
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One reason I like to deal with CDbaby is the convenience of signing up one place to distribute through so many others.
Any chance that cdbaby will have digital distribution deal with emusic again? They picked up one of my (now 6 and counting) albums before they stopped taking new material. Even so, they're 2nd only to iTunes for digital sales.
Or any thoughts on new distribution companies, revisiting a distribution with others from the past (snocap, etc.), or others?
Thanks,
Kevin
http://www.debone.com
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Kevin,
We are still delivering music to eMusic. One thing to double check
is the "How Much Digital Distribution" setting for your new album.
We only deliver albums to eMusic where that is set at 75 or higher.
Just login to your CD Baby member account to double check that. If
you do have the album set at that level, feel free to email us at
cdbaby@cdbaby.com and we'll make sure your music gets there
asap!
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While we deliver to eMusic, it sometimes takes our partners a
while to ingest all the content we send them. There is a lot of
new content added every month, and it takes some effort to
process all that content and add it to some of our partners'
libraries. I don't know off the top of my head if eMusic is current
on our content, but I do know that some of our partners can't
process it quite as fast as we deliver that. Unfortunately, it's a
situation beyond our control.
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Thanks for the assurances Tony, we musicians really do appreciate the opportunities that CD Baby opens for us. Keep up the good work that Derek started.
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Hello Tony,
Thank you for the introduction, and the information. I'm looking forward to working with you. Question: Would you consider doing a thing like Amazon is starting with createspace, where you can do one off CDR's to support sales, instead of you or me holding inventory? Obviously, the pricing thing would be different, but as an option, I like the idea, and with your connection to DiscMakers, it seems like a natural to me. Food for thought... In any case, my best to you, and all at CDBaby.
Alex Kash
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We'd like to offer this at some point in the not too distant future.
Like most of our new initiatives, it'll take some time to develop
and won't be this year. Looks like 2009 is shaping up to be a big
year for new CD Baby initiatives!
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I think of this like a Farmer's Market. So I believe that the content owners should be asked to set their own price for their products. THere should be no "default price". Let the "growers" determine the value proposition they want to offer and to have the economic feedback that will let them know if it works for customers.
Cheers,
Carl Saffira
ASCAP composer/ musician
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Carl,
We always encourage artists to sell their albums for whatever
price they choose, but we had to add a default price several
years ago due to the fact that too many artists were skipping
that step in the sign up process. This in turn caused a delay in
their music being available for purchase. Before the recent
change, the default price for downloads was the same as the
album price, which in some cases was way too high. We simply
standardized the default price for mp3's at $9.99, but like
mentioned, you can login to your account and change that at any
time.
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I would love to see single song downloads from CD baby. Ant chance this will happen, soon?
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Joe,
See Tony's reply above for the details on single song downloads.
We're working on the issue as fast as we can. Believe me, we're as
anxious as you are to get this going!
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WOW, Thanks Tony for the BUY NOW links, they are perfect. I just got rid of the Snocap store (it never worked)on our MySpace page. It was so easy to pop the new links on to the page. They look great! Thank you, thank you.
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Hey, I appreciate it, but don't thank me. The team at CD Baby did all that - Kevin B (who posted above), Kevin K, Kate, the programmers, customer service... It's a team effort. All I did was tell you about it. And like this link project, all the new initiatives I'm writing about in these posts will be executed by the great team at CD Baby as well. I'm just the figurehead for the folks doing the hard work. The kudos go to them.
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Hi Tony,
Thanks for your email and for introducing the BUY NOW buttons. They look very sleek !
I have a question : will you introduce a 'CD on demand feature' in the future where CD's are produced by CD Baby when customers order ?
At the moment we have to ship our CD's to your warehouse. Shipping CD's from Europe is very slow and expensive and consequently the profit in CD sales is non existant.
Having a 'CD on demand' option would be an attractive option to a lot of overseas artists provided they have a profit margin in it, of course.
Is this a possibility ?
I look forward to hearing from you,
Margaux
http://www.margauxmusic.com
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Oui. See my comment above.
Great website, Margaux. Very impressive.
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Hi Tony
Welcome to the hotseat and thanks for your patient replies.
Regarding single downloads. I wouldn't mind getting less percentage if it helped make the system more viable. For example, I get around 66 cents for an iTunes download but to have the freedom of a delivery system where I can put my own buy button anywhere and have singles available on CD Baby I'd be happy to get less.
I think it is also important to look at a single as an advert for an album. The more singles we sell the more possible customers we have for our albums. Why not sacrifice a bit on the front end sale to get a chance at a profitable upsell to the album?
Is an affiliate system possible? I tried it last year with a beta software but the Paypal processing fees were a killer on 99 cent songs.
If we can give fans an affiliate tracking link and say "you sell our album for $9.99 on your site or blog and get $3 per sale" that will reward loyal fan and increase sales. Digital sales have no inventory so we are losing nothing really.
Another (selfish) idea.
Once the single downloads are possible could you do thematic promotions? (Guess who's got a Christmas song he wants to promote?) This would get more traffic to the CD Baby site and more exposure for the artists.
Going to stop now before I overload you :-)
Please say thank you to Derek for all the work he's done and if he chose you then I'm sure you're the right man for the job.
Martin
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The affiliate idea is interesting. We'll look into it. For now fans
who really love you and are willing to spread the word for you
for free can use the "buy CD" links I wrote about in my email.
Thematic promotions are also in the works. Our editors are hard
at work coming up with cool themes, and we'll start featuring
them on the front page. But don't tell anyone. It's still a secret.
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Great stuff here! Have you guys given any thought to digital
music sales only? Possibly you could take direct MP3 uploads in
folders (to represent the album) allow an image to be uploaded
(for the cover art) and then push those files to your digital
distribution.
I know I'd be putting a LOT more music out there through CD
Baby if I could cut out the "Send us 5 CDs" set.
Thanks!
Andrew
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Tony--
Thanks for carrying on Derek's great work.
A question/idea: Do you/can you develop a method for making songs available for download that aren't yet on a CD? I'm working on a project for a series of children's books that are using music I've written. The book author and I want to give readers a link where they can download the songs that are in the books. Two of the songs are already on my CD's being sold on CD Baby; another song is not on a CD. Is it possible to create a new page on my site which lists those songs so readers can download the songs?
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We've given a lot of thought to digital-only distribution. It's technically possible now, but we haven't rolled it out for a few reasons, most prominently among them:
1) We don't yet have a slick, easy to use uploader, and
2) Most folks would upload MP3s. And while that's fine for most applications, we deliver files to all sorts of sites who need all kinds of file formats, including files larger and with more audio fidelity than MP3s. So there would be some degradation to the sound quality of the average CD Baby file, and we're hesitant to do that. And uploading full CD-size files is not practical at this time.
I guess it's starting to sound like a refrain by now if you've read the comments to this letter and my answer: we want to do it, and are working on it.
2009, baby. Patience.
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Tony,
Our artist page along with CD Baby artist's log in page has been down since August. Everyone else on here seem to have no problem with it, but we're located in Japan, and I wonder if that has something to do with my not being able to log in or see our artist page and so on. Do you know of this situation or is this just us that's having a trouble??? Let me know what we should do to solve this. We do not want to get astray from CD Baby and its wonderful features!! Help.
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Hiro, please send an email to cdbaby@cdbaby.com with your artist name, album name, and any information that will help us identify your account, and one of our customer service reps will look into it and get back to you personally. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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Tony, I think you're on the right track. A while back it occurred to me that I should be charging less for a download than for a CD, and I cut the cost of an album download to $10.
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Hi Tony --
can we use tgese buttons on MySpace?
cheers dude
Jay
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You mean you haven't tried it yet? You bet they work on MySpace!
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Very nice! yup they sure do! Thanks TvV!
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Hey Tony, I see the things are already starting to shape in the horizon... Congrats again and I'm glad about what's happening...
My 2 requests would be:
1/ Making more digital distribution deals with stores outside the US, like in countries like Brazil or South Africa or France with Airtist.com or fnacmusic. I make 80% of the income out of itunes, but it's not present in some countries where my music is popular...
2/ And yes, being able to upload the music directly for digital distribution and at the same time using the discmakers assets so that we can also prints cdrs directly from the same upload would be a must...
Much love
http://www.kaysha.com/kaysha
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Dear Tony.
Harmony Sound Design is proud to work together with CDBaby.
As we implemented many CDBaby idea's in the past, for the album "Atlantiz" and the digital single " Mars X".
We will continue to work with your new idea's in the future.
Compliments to the CDBaby team.
http://cdbaby.com/all/svenhansen
Sven Hansen
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Hi Tony,
Thanks for your reply - yes, you did answer my question in a previous post. I should get some glasses. LOL !
Thanks for your comment about my website. I am pleased you like it. This leads me to ask you whether you have tried the MXP4 player by flicking through the different skins ? What did you think?
The reason I am asking you this is because this player showcases my music in MXP4, which is a new interactive music format.
The MXP4 format enables recorded music to be unpredictable each time it is played and therefore it will always be refreshing and dynamic to the listeners. Artists in this scenario have endless possibilities to create MXP4's of their existing songs by allowing equally endless permutations using tracks and unused takes (vocals tracks, guitar tracks etc...) they have recorded. It is also possible to create different 'skins' in different styles (acoustic, rock, dance ...) and give any particular song a different feel and genre each time. These different MXP4 skins can be played intermittently in the free MXP4 player thus again offering a greater listening experience.
Tony, I believe that this new format will enable our fellow musicians on CD Baby to explore different avenues and also provide a new dimension to their existing catalogue whilst multiplying their potential revenue stream by selling MXP4's as well as MP3's and CD's.
I believe this could be an excellent additional distribution opportunity for independent artists and I assume that you will feel likewise.
Is this something you would be happy to investigate ?
If you are interested, do not hesitate to contact me and I will put you in touch with the company behind the MXP4.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Margaux
http://www.margauxmusic.com
Here are some press articles regarding the MXP4 format:
http://www.laptoprockers.eu/technology/p1/new-audio-format-mxp4/
http://www.netimperative.com/news/2008/september/02/new-music-file-format-is-expected-to-make-waves/view
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Our first CD was done by DiscMakers and we are absolutely happy with the product you guys provided. My question is that our package included our CD to be on Digstation.
With this new affiliation with CD Baby, will there be any changes made to Digstation??
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No changes to Digstation in the short run. In fact we just rolled out a new store design. Eventually, who knows?
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Along those same lines, do you see any new features being offered from the DiskMaker side of this affiliation? New package deals??
Are you also in charge of Host Baby as well???
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Before I buy more of anything I would like to know the response and sales of the CD Speck of Light marketed by you already. Please respond clients name is Perry Mitchell/gypsy plus. Thank You! Faye Marie
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Hi Tony, I,am using the Buy Buttons on My space page they are dressie and look great. My mayjoy concen is about getting my cover songs into ITUNES again I did have them in for over 3 years and did quite well.But had to take them off for fear of a law suite. So I pulled them out. It wasn,t the money so much which was good,It was the fact that people bought the cover songs ,and I felt appreciated for doing the cover songs. But now thats gone.And it always dove me nuts to try to get composer producer and all that red tape stuff.
Thats why I,am looking forward to that new serive you mention for the cover songs.Would like to know when that might happen.I have more covers that I peform often.Keep up the great work Tony it is looking real good for all of us musians at CDBABY. Thank You for do a great job. walter goulet
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Mechanical licenses are a big deal. One of the first things I did at CD Baby was sign a deal with a company called RightsFlow for them to offer mechanical license administration to our artists. We are in the process of handling the technical aspects of this service, i.e. making sure we can do a data export to them with song and composer and publisher info so that they can do the license administration. I'm hoping to roll this out in the next month or so.
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Well knock me over with a feather... There's new surprises everyday at the Baby.
As far as last.fm, I don't know. Maybe one of the other CD Baby peeps can chime in...
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Tony, welcome to CDBaby.
One thing I'd love to see, which would help me to transfer CD
sales completely away from my own website to CDBaby (I'd
rather have you guys bother with shipping everything out!),
would be if we could somehow group all of our CDs together
and offer deals based on buying more than one CD from our
catalog. As it is now, people get a discount if they buy more
than one of a single CD, and that's fine, but I like to offer deals
for people to get a special price if they buy all 4 of my different
CDs at once (or even just 2 or 3 of the different ones). We
already have all of our different CDs connected together in terms
of accounting and being able to display them together on a
"cdbaby.com/all/" page, so I'm not sure what it would take to
get some kind of pricing deal connected between anything, but
that would be really nice.
Best,
Eric Herman
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Eric,
We're definitely looking at more options that we can make available
to help you sell more of your music. Album bundling and such are
all being talked about, and we hope to start making them a reality
soon. Your feedback is truly appreciated!
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Tony: I would hope in the future some emphasis can be placed on music that is not in the mainstream as of yet.
My artistis like myself have created new genres (Musical Poetry) and are seeking a partnership to promote that initiative.
Thanks for reaching out.
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What about a link to the page that shows all of my albums? Why do
i have to point fans to just one?
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Saul,
The "all" link demonstrated by Bill is the way to go for now. The
refreshed links available at http://cdbaby.com/link are just the
beginning. If you know someone who knows a little hmtl, they
could make a button link right to your "all" page.
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Good riddance. And thanks much for the new "Unsubscribe link!" I could never get Derek to implement one, and as a result I started using my "spam catcher" email for my account, and stopped using or referring people to CDBaby. Self-centered businesspeople like Derek, no matter what your opinion of him, who don't respect privacy concerns, are a black spot on today's business landscape. And on a separate, more positive note, if you'd like my heartfelt advice, reesdesign the site: these days people prefer MP3 downloads to actual CDs, so every edge you can get will benefit your artists. Cheers and good wishes going forward.
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Paul,
We are working very hard on design upgrades to the site, especially
with respects to selling mp3's. Be looking for that soon! I would
say not to disregard the CD as a format though. We're still selling
thousands of CDs everyday to people all over the world. MP3's are
definitely getting a larger chunk of the market, but the CDs is still
the outselling mp3s by a long shot. Especially when it comes to
indie music.
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Now that we added the unsubscribe link, will you stay subscribed? Please?
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TOO ME THE CD BABY FAMILY'S JUST TRYING TO IMPROUVE THE MARKETING OF PROMOTING MORE EFFECTIVELY BY MERGING WITH DICS MAKERS...
LUKO ADJAFFI
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Tony, thanks for the update. I like your new ideas. It would be great to have a widget that played the samples on my cdbaby page. Is that possible? I'm still trying to find the perfect widget where people can hear my music and also buy it easily.
Keep up the good work.
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Suzanne,
We are looking at options for a widget. Not sure of a timeline or
the functionality it might have at this point. If you don't have a
myspace page, I would recommend you get one. You can load lots
of sound clips of your music there, which makes it easy for your
fans to sample tracks.
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Thanks, Tony!
Welcome aboard! We are going to miss Derek, of course, he's become part of the band and the family! We hope and expect that you'll keep that hands-on feeling that broguth us to and kept us with CDBaby all these years!
We look forward to all the innovations you're implementing to make our job of making and releasing music easier and more fun, like Derek did!
Here's to the future!
Peace and Music, Ty Stephens
Ty Stephens & Romantasy
www.tystephensmusic.com
www.myspace.com/tystephensromantasy
www.cdbaby.com/cd/tystephens
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iTUNES/CD BABY Free Song Section
Why not contact iTunes and set up a free song give away section using approved tracks from CD baby artists? (by GENRE)
iTunes would increase sales by introducing people to new artists whose library they can sell the rest of their material from.
CDBaby artists will benefit from excellent exposure.
the listening audience would benefit from discovering great new stuff and getting to sample stuff for free till they find something new they like.
everybody wins.
Cheers
Sean Michael paddison
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| by
on Wednesday September 24 2008 @ 12:27PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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Sean,
Believe me we are in constant talks with iTunes about options for
our artists. At this point, I don't think iTunes will give away more
music than they already do(You never know though, things can
change). Occasionally, they do select a CD Baby artist as one of
their "free download of the week," but they also have everyone else
in the music industry fighting for those spots as well. If we work
out any free download deals, we'll notify all our artist ASAP!
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single song downloads ! YES ! when !?!?!?
i am writing songs now as i go, for fun, for films, for demos,
and yes eventually cd's but that seems like a dying market
is it now, or when will it be possible to upload single songs
and artwork so an artists' catalogue can evolve update
and grow in a more organic (digital) sense
when i was a kid, we ran to the store to buy singles,
i understand the and love the album concept, but
sometimes i just wanna get that song out there
thanks and keep up the good work
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Thankyou Tony...great work you are doing!
Look forward to uploading my next cd to CD BABY.I have always recieved great service from Derik,I consider him a good friend,and if he let you take the helm,then you must be ok.
Best regards......
Texas Jake
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I'm fairly new here on cdbaby and so far have enjoyed the experience...good luck to the new management and am looking forward to continuing the 'cdbaby' experience...Stan Cox
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Tony,
I've met you several times, including at the Taxi conference (I'm
in your DVD) and I have confidence that you're going to help the
outbound marketing here.
However, please try to expand and increase the reach of the
digital distribution, so it's more wide-ranging like The Orchard
or IODA. At this point, I've got songs from 5 years ago that still
aren't on a lot of the download sites, and it seems like the
partnerships there need to be expanded a bit -- frankly, I've
been considering moving the digital distribution of my titles for
that reason, but that's a big hassle and would require being
"offline" for a few months to avoid confusion, so I'd rather stay.
Keep up the good work, Steve Pasek.
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As far as I can tell, CD Baby distributes to more partners and resellers than IODA or the Orchard (though I may be wrong about that, since there's no easy way to get a tally from those companies). We provide content to somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 partners (yes, I know, we have to do a better job of letting you know what partners we work with).
Both IODA and the Orchard are good companies, but they don't focus much on the independent artist anymore. They mostly target record labels. CD Baby is your best bet as an individual artist.
One of the issues with the partners we work with is that we have SO much content, they sometimes can't ingest it all quickly, so not all songs show up on all sites. That's a factor outside our control.
If there are any sites where you'd like us to sell your music, let us know, and we'll see if we can make a deal with them for all CD Baby artists.
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Yes like I said just before, maybe more internationnal markets like local mp3 stores like fnac music & airtist in France or those ones in South Africa like MTN or all these mobile companies that offer digital downloads...
It's going to be a great year over at cbaby
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CDBaby's program for Itunes and other digital programs is very essential for the artist, and has and continues to yield great benefits for artist like myself, I represent the Christian/Gospel industry here, and its working!
CD: "ETERNAL, Vol.I: Fill Us Once Again"
www.cdbaby.com/ericspooner
www.ericspooner.com (The Official Website)
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Hi,
I was just curious to know if, at any point, we will artists be able
to pick and choose the digital download companies by whom
our product is released? In the past, many of these companies
have gone into business and failed without sending a penny for
the material they may have sold. My personal preference is to go
with those companies who have shown a willingness and ability
to pay. This is now more important to me as ever, especially now
that I am ready to release two new albums in the next year. I
know I'm not a big seller, by any stretch, but I feel most
comfortable in supporting those entities who respect the artists
who support them.
I appreciate your time.
Best wishes,
Erik
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We're contemplating whether to allow artists to opt in or out of any individual sites. Right now our code isn't written for that purpose, so it would have to be done manually, which is not an appealing proposition. If we decide to do this (and we may) we'll let you know.
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Thanks for the Email.!
I'm already a subscriber to discmakers and recently have order info and a stack 'o CD's from you guys. I sorry to hear about dereks Departure, but your word of keeping the philosophy alive, and having the outstanding service I've had from discmakers applied to where I shop my albums to well then, I KNOW I' won't be disappointed.
Thanks, Steve
p.s. For those of us that have only sold a few albums and a fistful of downloads, I suggest a new classification along the lines of Gold and Platinum records, the Naugahyde record for selling at least 3 albums and some downloads.
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Thank you Tony,
C'mon though, I dont know why CDbaby doesnt rule the world. Barack/Mccain? Vote CDbaby!!!.
Love you guys. The only no bulls*** site out for music.
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Are you planning on selling CDs on Amazon an other CD retailers? I'd love to not have to deal with Amazon directly. They really suck for Advantage folk
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Marc,
We've had several meetings with Amazon lately and are working to
maximize that relationship. Hopefully we'll have news for you
soon!
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You guys have been selling my solo CDs, as well as my Band's CDs for years. You've always done a great job. And I look forward to continuing working with you.
Mike Garner
www/myspace.com/garnermusic
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I had mixed emotions about Derek leaving CD Baby.
1. Happy for Derek to pursue his dreams. Go Ahead On!
2. Worried about the personal care going out of the business as soon as the boss leaves : )
I can see ya'll are just carrying on the tradition. God Bless You All for helping the Independent Musicians.
All The Best,
Nelsen Adelard
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Nelsen,
I've been working at CD Baby long before Disc Makers bought
CD Baby. I can assure you, there is no drop in our desire to take
care of the artists. In fact, if you read Derek's blog and several
of his post on this website, you'll see that he hasn't even been in
the office for a long time. Most of us here are musicians
ourselves, and the reason we love to come to work everyday, is
that we love helping other artists get their music out to the
world. I think you'll really like the changes that take place over
the coming months.
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Hey Tony
I'm sure we'll love working with you. Just a quick question: why the
logo change? I love the old logo a lot more than the new corporate
looking one! Oh well, just wondering what cause the change?
Thanks
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Kitty,
The logo change was actually in affect before Disc Makers purchased CD Baby. Believe it or not, we got
tons of e-mail asking us to update our logo and get rid of the baby face. We just thought it was time to
try something new. That being said, we're always trying to make sure CD Baby represents the indie
music community well, so it may be something that is look at again as the website undergoes changes.
Thanks for the feedback!
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| by TJR
on Wednesday September 24 2008 @ 02:58PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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Hi Tony
1 Love the new buttons!
2 I have 4 albums on CD baby. Can you provide us with some kind of html code that will allow us align these button from left to right, instead of vertically?
3 Off all the suggestions I have read on this post so far....the possibility that we can take of liscence fees for cover songs through CD baby is probably one of the greatest things you could offer us. Not having to go through Harry Fox would be a godsend.
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1. Thank you. We thought you'd like it.
2. Right now it's not available, and with all the initiatives we're
working on to drive additional sales for you (which all require
programming and design resources) I can't see how we'll get
around to this any time soon.
3. Actually, it would still go through Harry Fox, but we'd do it on
your behalf, so it would be easier.
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Am very pleased that you will continue the great assistance for all independent artists. Thankyou,Randy
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Thanks for all your great work for all independent artists. Keep it up,Randy
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Tony,
Welcome
I welcome any help you may give Me.
My sales on CDbaby have not been what I have
hoped they would be.
I can't even get airplay here in My home town
of Albuquerque .
One think I assked Derrick to do was to give Me His personnel review of My 2 CD's which He never got around to doing.
Now I am asking you to review My 2 CD's.
Thank You ,
Isaac Castle
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I'd love to be able to review your CDs, but I can't. There are just
not enough hours in the day to review CDs that people ask me
to. And what would you do with my feedback anyway? I was just
a mediocre punk rock songwriter back in the day, not a hit
songwriter. :)
As far as your CD Baby sales being disappointing, this gives me
an opportunity to get on my soap box:
At its most basic, CD Baby is a store and a distributor. As such,
our job is to fulfill the demand that YOU as artist create. Case in
point, Amazon didn't create the demand for the new Metallica
CD - Metallica did. Pushing your product is hard work, requiring
serious effort. It envolves pestering radio program directors,
performing regularly, building a mailing list, communicating
with your fans, putting on a professional show, doing PR, and
much more. It's like a full time job...after your full time job is
done. Many artists don't do that work.
CD Baby doesn't have enough space on its front page to push
every CD title. Neither does Amazon, or iTunes, or anybody else.
We just give you the widest range of tools, and the biggest
network of resellers, to allow you to sell your product AFTER you
create demand for it.
It helps, of course, if your songs are great. I'm not the person to
help with that, but my friend Michael Laskow, who runs Taxi
www.taxi.com, does. His company does independent A&R, lets
members know of opportunities to get your music placed at
labels, in film, and in commercials and games, and they critique
each submission they get. He gets flak for charging a
membership fee of about $300, but it's a great service, and he
organizes the BEST songwriters' conference in the US, the Taxi
Road Rally, which is free to members. Check it out.
In short, work on your songwriting, and then work your music.
I hope you take my comments in the spirit they are intended: to
help you sell more music. I'm by no means insinuating that your
songs are bad, nor that you don't work your music as hard as
you can.
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Dear Tony,
Thank you for the email. Really good to hear
that you want to maintain the CDBaby way of doing
things.
Keep up the good works.
Take care, all the very best
Ray
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Hi Tony - you've got a big job in front of you to fill Derek's shoes, he did such a great job setting up the company and all. You've got a huge job in front of you just reading all these posts. But this forum is an excellent idea, I hope you keep it. Very handy to see what other CDBaby artists are thinking. Regards, Ed.
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Hello Tony; Thanks for the updated information and congradulations on your new position. It is truly good to hear that functionally CD Baby will remain the same. I have done extremely well with the organization. The new moves to sell more cd's sounds great. Your work to link in with Amazon and other huge marketing venues and still keep the indie artist first and foremost is a good one. Please don't lose sight of that. Thank you so much.
Tony Fields
SmoooveMusic
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Congratulations and good luck, Tony. I want to thank CD Baby,
again, for calling me recently to offer me the opportunity to sell
directly to a prospective buyer who wanted to know about bulk
discounts because she was ordering a lot of CDs for a conference
giveaway. Most retailers would have tried to make a buck on that;
CD Baby used the occasion to win my undying loyalty.
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Hey Tony,
Thanks for the update. In a world where both the ibternet and the industry become increasingly unworthy of anyone's trust, CD Baby continues to be trustworthy. Mavericks!
Salem from Jones
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Email, what email? I never got an email from Tony.
Tony, it's good to see that y'all are investigating new features and opportunities, but I just wonder if sometimes companies do themselves in by trying to do too much. I hope that CD Baby will remain fundamentally simple and efficient. Too many features can sometimes seem gimmicky.
For example, the call for widgets and the ability for artists to personalize their artist pages is just too MySpace. We already have MySpace. CD Baby is set apart because it is more like a serious retail outlet. It is more professional.
And, no offense, but I'd rather sell CDs on my own website. I get to keep more of the money. I use CD Baby primarily to sell downloads at iTunes. There are plenty of other sites out there that focus on interaction (MySpace), streaming (last.fm), etc. It would be a sad day when CD Baby spreads itself too thin, trying to be all things to all people.
We pay $35 to get a project on here. For that, I get an artist page, digital distribution, and a middleman for other retail stores. Great! I can't help but think that more widgets and features will necessitate a hike in the initial set-up fee. That would be a shame.
Tony, thanks for the opportunity to rant. Now if I could be sure that your next email will reach my inbox, that would be good... :)
~tonya
http://www.tonyabetz.com
http://cdbaby.com/all/tonyabetz
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Dear CD Baby,
I enjoyed reading all the positive feedback about the new "Buy Now" buttons. It also pointed out how technically challanged I must be, as I tried a few times unsuccessfully to follow the instructions. If there is a next step after pasting the information next to the browser info in the little box of the form, I am not seeing it...
I also tried to paste it into my Yahoo website: www.aridane.biz by using the "Sitebuilder" program...that didn't work either...I really, really like your new buttons...ya' think maybe somebody could come on over and make this stuff work?...I'll even serve milk and cookies!
Thanks,
With Comedy, Rhyme & Reason,
Ari Dane
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If you call our customer service team they'll try to help you out with it. 503-595-3000.
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Cheers Tony,
I'm excited to see what the new era will bring.
Start off by cutting out the $35 per title registration fee and we'll be
on the right track.
Sincerely,
Luke Jackson
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C'mon, Luke. There's real work that's involved with adding a title: we have to unpack it, rip the audio content and convert it to about a dozen different file formats, scan the cover art, add it to our database, have an editor listen to it and write a descriptive sentence or two (and they sometimes edit the typos in the info the artist supplied during sign up), and then file the discs. $35 is mighty cheap. It barely covers the cost. And since there's no guarantee that a title will sell (and no one wants us to start focusing just on hit material, right?) it's important that the cost of adding a new title is covered up front.
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$35 is nothing when submitting a dream... there are other platforms that want WAY more than that, and want an annuity payment to continually list your product, and then bury you behind VIP artists... $35 is a great way to prevent people from just hap-hazzardly sending whatever may to CDBaby.
http://www.phloide.com
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Hi CDBaby,
I think the change CDBaby made to charging only $9.99 per
album download is a very good move, since as you've stated, will
make CDBaby more competetive.
However, I think that CDBaby should not take a $4 cut on these
downloads. See, a $4 cut on a retail CD is very low and very
artist friendly, which is what CDBaby is all about and why artists
love you. But if you take $4 for every album download, this is
more that the industry standard, not less, so CDBaby should stay
consistent here and only take $2 or $3 for album downloads.
Thank you for listening!
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No worries, Kevin. We don't take $4 on an album download. We only take 9%. That's 90 cents. Cheap enough for ya?
Though, now that you mention it, $2 or $3 on an album download sounds pretty good. Hmmmm...
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I love the new buttons. It is true it would be great it somehow we hit the buttons and all the tracks appeared. I trust that CDbaby - which was always the best is going to keep on getting better and better.
You guys have an amazing team spirit and a wonderful attitude. I am excited to continue to use you as my home town:)
greetings from Berlin,
Kara Johnstad
singer/songwriter
Host of THE ESSENCE SHOW
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New buttons look great. Will upgrade soon. Keep It Up!
Stephen John
www.iypdalbum.com
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I love the BUY and BUY NOW buttons which allow the CD artwork to be displayed. Just for your info, the HTML was wrong on one of the buttons on one of my albums. I knew just enough HTML to spot the mistake. The HTML for the black "BUY NOW" had the CD number and title for one of my other CD titles listed. So I just used the white "BUY NOW" button HTML and changed the color to "black". Don't know if anyone else has encountered that problem.
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KEEP GOIN! KEEP GOIN! KEEP GOIN! A growing blessing shout towards all you guys! Derek did an amazing thing here, as will you....Buena Suerte Y Saludos!
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Single song downloads sound great. How much will they be? can we set the price?
Cdbaby is tops.
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A strickly One Love Tony. I a look fi the best of time,and better times. So you must know I want the I fi run things an succeed. Be Bless, a whole yeap a Musican a wish you them best.
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Tony,
Welcome.I have been recording and releasing albums since 1965.I have been screwed,assured it wouldn't happen again,then screwed even worse for mentioning it to begin with.Capricorn Records,Bold ,Malaco,anybody else heard of these guys.
My finding y'all was like finding water in the desert.I would say you're assistance is almost a miricle.PLEASE keep it up.
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Thanks Tony,
It all sounds great. I'm glad to be a part of cdbaby. keep up the good work.
: )
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Mr. van Veen,
Congratulations! My album (How Lucy Can You Get) and artwork was made by Disc Makers in 2005. I was extremely pleased with it and the work your staff did on my behalf. I have received wonderful feedback from friends and strangers.
As far as going digital, I do not understand the licensing requirements regarding this. I only have one original song on my album. I certainly would be interested (and willing to pay) for CD Baby/Disc Makers to offer licensing services. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kathy Kelly
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Dropping the mp3 price to $9.99 is a good idea. I still wish however that these CDBaby mp3 sales were reported along with the digital sales instead of the CD sales, for easier accounting on our end. I also REALLY still wish that digital payments would be reported as a per-album basis rather than 1 lump sum. For people like me who use CDBaby for a record label, having to decipher where the digital sales were actually allocated to makes it extra difficult and painful. Those are my two cents.
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great Tony
well done on keeping up the same "artist oriented" philosophies intact.
thanks for the update
kind regards
tim wells
www.wells.co.za
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Hope CDbaby goes from strength to strength - I wish I could find someone to help me promote my album - I believe in it and have had great reviews but hate doing my own promotion!! Any ideas?
Thanks (I'm in the UK)
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Hi Tony,
MySpace has a new streamlined music player with "buy now"
links and advanced playlist features. The much disliked Snocap
store plug-in is no longer needed.
Are there any plans for CDBaby to link up with MySpace to take
advantage of this feature? This would eliminate the need for
more little html coded banners and ads on MySpace music
profiles.
Congratulations on the CDBaby acquisition!
Happy DM and CDBaby client,
Jonathan
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Jonathan,
Check out Tony's latest post on cdbaby.org. He started a thread
dedicated to the Myspace music question. Details are stil coming,
so you'll want to keep checking back for updates.
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Great looking new icon links. I posted mine right away. Glad to have you on our side Tony. God bless! Witness2Band
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Hey Tony - I have a Listbaby question. I'm still using the
service, but in these days of multi-media blogs and all the
visuals we're used to seeing now, I am hoping there can be an
upgrade to make Listbaby more competitive with email list
services like Emma, etc. I mentioned it to Derek once and he
said they were looking into it but I guess nothing ever
happened. I'm willing to pay for the bells and whistles - could
there be a Listbaby PLUS account version or something? Add an
appropriate fee so we can include images, etc. and make it look
all cool and nicey nicey?
Thanks,
Sam
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Tony
Everything is great with CDBaby and we appreciate that the ideologies haven't changed and there's some new stuff coming down the line. Since you, CDBaby have the artwork and the music for all the CDs for hundreds of thousands of musicians, and you also have DiscMakers ability to produce CDs for all those musicians, when do you suppose you'll be alble to marry the two and we'll be able to order our CDs from CDBaby instead of dealing with two separate entities?
And Beat of Luck with you new endeavors.
David
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Good news,I've been selling more from My Space (SnowCap)than what CD baby promised me.I play full time & however sales can be made better for me is what I talking.
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Tony, the changes sound great! We'll miss Derek. What an enormous good he has done through this site. Immeasurable. And now it is able to grow even more.
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Tony,
Matthew Harrison's disc "Charmed" was placed with you guys for digital distribution within the past year. As of March 2008 the only service listed via your site with the disc is Verizon. Here it is 6 months later and that is still the only service with the disc.
Are you guys really trying to sell music and put the artist first?
www.iodalliance.com
www.theorchard.com
www.irisdistribution.com
www.bdcdistribution.com
All do this very, very effectively.
What's up with that? How does CD Baby plan on competing?
Best Regards,
Jeff Robinson
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Jeff,
Sorry to hear about that! I have notified our tech department and they have fixed the issue. You
should see a bunch of digital deliveries (Including iTunes) this Thursday. In the future, if you ever see a
problem like this, please e-mail cdbaby@cdbaby.com, and we'll fix asap.
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"Are you guys really trying to sell music and put the artist first?"
Since we make more money when our artists sell more music, the answer to this question is an emphatic YES! I don't know what happened in your particular case, but I've asked our customer service team to look into this. In fact, you can follow up with our customer service manager at aheld@cdbaby.com.
The services you mention are all worthy companies, but there is one main difference between all of them and CD Baby: CD Baby is the only one who focuses like a laser on independent artists. The others will take an independent artist if you twist their arm, but they are focused on servicing labels with dozens of titles each. And for that they all take a bigger cut - usually between 15% and 25%, compared with our skinny 9%.
We plan on competing by offering great service, offering great value, and executing well. I have gone on the record before saying that we have to execute better: titles have to get into inventory quicker, they have to be delivered to our digital partners faster, our reporting has to be better. We're working on all of these, but even with some of those opportunities for improvement I know for a fact that CD Baby is the VERY BEST choice for independent artists.
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Tony, I have a question??? I been with you guys for awhile now. But I have only made total CD's sales about $17.00 I just having a hard time believing this I know my CD is better than this. So what is going on with my sales and how can I do better in this area? Right now my CD is out to 32 online stores. But even with this my CD's sales are not doing to good. Or if they are where is my money going to?
So how can I make sure that infact my CD is in the 32 online music stores?
Please don't take this the wrong way I am not blaming anybody or accusing anybody of anything illegal okay!
I just wanted to make that clear upfront thanks!
Cause I am paying $20.00 a month for a website at HostBaby.Com and still my CD sales are really down. I havn't even made $20.00 bucks which is pretty sad I think!
Since May 2007.
Which breaks down to be $240.00 a year which I can not afford if this keeps going on.
But in closing I just wish that this situation could get better for me, I know there are many starving artists out there in the same boat as I am in too.
If you have any ideals or comments or suggestion or how I can do better in this area please feel free to contact me at the above e-mail address thank you very much for your time in this matter.
YOUR'S TRULY
JESSE ELVIS WALKER
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As I've said on a number of occasions, like any store or distributor, CD Baby has very little ability to drive sales for any artist's title. The way we help you is by opening up sales channels - the CD Baby story, iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, eMusic, and dozens more - for you to sell music.
In every industry it works the same way: the distributor does not create the demand, it is merely the channel to fulfill the demand YOU create! That's why much of the sales on cdbaby.com come from fans who were directed to our store by the artists who are selling product on CD Baby.
Promoting your CD is hard work. If you have a day job, promoting your music is like a full time second job. Many artists don't have the time or energy to do this hard work: touring, performing, building a mailing list, communicating with fans, having a great web site, calling radio stations to play their music, etc. It sounds like you're doing some of this work - from what I can tell at the very least you have a web site.
To drive more sales you need to perform, you need to communicate with your fans and let them know you have product for sale, you have to link folks to your CD Baby page. There are over 250,000 albums available on cdbaby.com, that's way too many for us to be able to promote each one. We'll promote our store, but we can't promote the vast majority of individual titles.
Remember, no one has at much at stake in your success as YOU do. As difficult as it may be to hear, the fundamentals of business apply here too: To be a success in music you have to spend every waking hour creating demand for your music.
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did you buy cd baby? or have been given the responsibility by derek? if purchased, what was the transaction price?
One more thing: have you given thought to the possibility of cdbaby! (internet) radio which streams nothing but new music?
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AVL, the parent company of Disc Makers, bought the assets of CD Baby. But actually, we were indeed chosen by Derek to take over the responsibility for CD Baby. He chose us because he felt that we would be the best stewards of the CD Baby brand going forward.
I won't reveal the purchase value because that is a private matter between two private entities, and it's immaterial to CD Baby's ongoing business.
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Hello Derek,
THANK YOU DEREK SILVERS FOR PROVING THAT ONE CAN HELP THE PUBLIC DIRECTLY WITHOUT CORPORATE MOTIVES. MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN PEOPLES LIFESTYLES, PROMOTING FINANICIAL AND ARTISTIC FREEDOMS IN OUR UNSTABLE ECONOMY, I TRUST YOUR DECISION REGARDING THE NEW LEADERSHIP OF CDBABY TONY VAN VEEN.
GOOD LUCK,
KIM
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Hello,
I noticed my last CD has been charged 4.90$ instead 4$ from
CDbaby. Nobody responds to my questions. Why?
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You have to provide a bit more info for us to look into this, Morning Joe. Please email our customer service manager Anna Held at aheld@cdbaby.com, and she'll make sure you get a speedy answer.
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I did and got no answer. All the digital vendors seem to be late
with payments, too.
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Tony, G'day thanks to you and all the crew at CD Baby. dealing with you is my only job with the band, apart from playing bass, and you guys make my life easy. Jeffs always sendin me stuff to look at and you guys are my bench mark and I can honestly say the others dont match up. More strength to you Tony keep up he good work. I know we're not settin the world on fire but its good to have your service. Thanks Gano
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Thanks Tony. CD baby is the best! Cant wait for my next check! It's always so satisfying to receive!
Peter Joly- For Pilots
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Hi Tony,
When Derek announced he was selling Cd Baby to Disc Makers I knew a good thing was only going to get better.
I like cutting the price to $9.99 for downloading a whole CD, should promote more sales.
One thing i would like to see is Streaming Video for 2 disc sets like my "Nobody's Born a Bigot". Sometimes the video images will sell the product.
Best regards Tom Tomoser Lone Eagle
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Video is a cool idea we've been thinking about. In fact, we'd like to make the whole album and artist page a richer customer experience.
Ahhh, so many ideas, how to choose the priorities.
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While its awesome to have a hit counter to see where my cdbaby traffic comes from, is there a way to have a conversion tracker?(A system that allows us to see which hits actually yield sales.)
This will allow us to give more support to people who link to us that actually create sales rather than empty hits.
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Tony. Will there be a specially-priced small order pressing package from DiscMakers for CDBaby artists who only print up 50 to a 100 copies so they can run to the mailbox with their money order, and their new music, and begin their next album sales on CDBaby? Please say yes. That would be the bomb to bomb the bomb. By the way, good luck, Dude. Daddy Hemingway
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Right on! The coolest thing about it? It worked! The widget adds a lot to my HostBaby page. Thanks!
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Tony,
Links and widgets that I can drop into my own website (www.whitedogmusic.com)is all well and good. What I really want, though, is a simple way to put a "store" on my website whereby visitors can download all six of my album titles on CD Baby, with CD Baby handling the entire transaction, while the visitor-customer remains on my website.
Is this possible?
Thanks.
Bobby BeauSoleil
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Now that Derek Has moved on maybe now cdbaby can move into the 21st century although much respect to derek but it was long overdue.hopefully cdbaby will now get into...
Advertising on major networks.
Radio ads..
Allowing artist to upload their music video.
for example like youtube..
But the biggest thing for me would be that cdbaby advertise this not only would generate sales for the artist but also for cdbaby...
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Tony,
I need a partner. All you hear on tv is middle class middle class. I have an album for sle on cdbaby called "Middle Class" The title song is called middle class america. It's not a great song but it's a good song and with all the publicity lately about the middle class I think it could have a chance to sell alot of records if someone has connections and the energy to promote it. Since you get 40% of the proceeds we are already partners. I am retired because of disability and I'm 62 years old so I thought you may want to help because I think the lord gave me this idea. I recorde this at home but we could even have it enhanced if we had to. If we sold 1 million it would make you $400,000. I've had it on garage band and it got a 2.8 rating before all this middle class things on tv, and 60% of the comments were positive and many thought it was great. Thank you for your time,
Roy E. Williams
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| NOTE: If you need a reply you should email CD Baby directly instead of posting here. We don't often read old message board postings, and have no way of replying to them!
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