CD Baby
Encyclopedia
CD Baby is an online music store
specializing in the sale of CDs and digital music downloads
from independent musician
s to consumers. The company is also a digital aggregator of independent music recordings, distributing content to several online digital music retailers.
CD Baby has achieved recent value as one of the few sources of information on physical CD sales in the independent music industry, surprising analysts by reporting continued increases in independent CD sales all the way through its most recent report at the end of 2008, apparently showing that independent CD sales move separately from the major label sales reported in the press.
CD Baby was the trading name of Hit Media, Inc., a Nevada Corporation founded by Derek Sivers
in 1997. Sivers sold CD Baby to Disc Makers
in 2008 for $22 million, bequeathing the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education
in an arrangement that provides him with 5% per year of the company's sale price in income (annually $1,100,000 pretax, based on the sale price of $22 million reported by Sivers ) until death, while upon death the remainder if any will ultimately go into the trust.
The firm currently operates out of Portland, Oregon
. CD Baby allows artists to set their price point for selling physical compact discs – CD Baby retains $4 of every sale, the remainder gets paid out to the artist on a weekly basis. They also charge a one-time $39 setup fee per CD.
. Sivers was a musician and scion of a wealthy real estate
family, who created the website to sell his own music. As a hobby, he also began to sell the CDs of local bands and friends. He chose to make CD Baby a "utopian" online store for independent musicians. To do this, Sivers followed four main principles based on his personal preferences:
In addition, Sivers made sure to listen to every CD he sold (currently several people are employed to do this). The operation was run mainly in Sivers' bedroom.
Sivers, eventually hired John Steup
as his vice president and first employee. In an interview, Sivers recalls saying to Steup: "This thing might get huge one day. I mean, we might have 100 artists here."
Steadily, CD Baby grew as more artists wanted to sell their music through the website. Sivers and his employees always dealt with the artists directly.
Beginning around 1999, Sivers oversaw expansions of his roster with such collaborations as the one with Oasis Disc Manufacturing President Micah Solomon, where Sivers partnered with Oasis Disc Manufacturing http://oasisCD.com to distribute the complete Oasis artist roster at the CD Baby store (an arrangement still valid currently).http://www.oasiscd.com/top/
CD Baby was somewhat inspired by a website named Songs.com founded by Paul Schatzkin, Tom Kimmel, and Michael Camp. Songs.com, though not having the nonexclusive policy CD Baby does, was also a website that sold primarily independent music. However, ten months after Songs.com was sold to Gaylord Entertainment for $3-million, Gaylord folded all its digital initiatives, including Songs.com. Schatzkin would then send an email to members of Songs.com, recommending CD Baby. Schatzkin was also the instigator of CD Baby's toll-free phone line, "1-800-BUY-MY-CD."
Sivers never accepted money to advertise a CD
more than any other CD and didn't negotiate with investors or display advertisements. Currently, there are one hundred or so employees of CD Baby whose work ranges from warehouse work to programming to business development to customer service to listening to CDs.
Although the majority of artists who use CD Baby are North American, about thirty percent of orders for CD Baby are overseas.
In 2003, Sivers won a World Technology Award
for Entertainment.
In 2004, CD Baby began offering a digital distribution service. By opting in to their digital distribution service, artists can authorize CD Baby to act on their behalf to submit music for digital sale to online retailers such as Apple's iTunes
, Emusic
, Real Network's Rhapsody
, Napster
, Amazon MP3
, MusicMatch, Didiom
, and MusicNet among others. Songs on CD Baby are now also available on Spotify
.
In August 2008 it was announced that Disc Makers, a CD and DVD manufacturer, bought CD Baby (and Host Baby) for 22 million dollars following a 7-year partnership between the two companies, according to Sivers.
and MySQL
. It gained brief notoriety when Sivers announced publicly in early 2005 that he was rewriting all the systems in Ruby on Rails
and PostgreSQL
. After about 2 years of work, he felt that the rewrite was still less than half done, and he threw the new code away and rewrote it again in his original programming language, PHP, and database, MySQL. He said it took him only two months to finish. This was a widely discussed move, because some saw it as a demonstration that Ruby on Rails was overhyped and not up to the task of solving large problems. Sivers himself summed it up by saying that "Rails was an amazing teacher" but that PHP was perfectly up to the task once he had learned the lessons Ruby and Rails taught him.
CD Baby relaunched the website with major infrastructure changes (using ASPX) to support future growth, including redundancy that protects the original material on the site in a way that initially was not available to the artists and incurred significant risk to them. The website is no longer being run with the original or revised PHP of Sivers. The new site experienced significant glitches initially, but this did not prevent the company from continuing to pay its artists as sales were reported to CD Baby by digital partners and others, monies received and artist-chosen payment points reached.
CD Baby has also continued to invest heavily both in technology and people, doubling the support staff during the system transition and adding a support team with a significant presence on the Forum, while maintaining existing email and phone technical support.
, Tom Russell
and Anndrea Naidu, Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe
, instrumental musician Michael Aguilar, UK duo Nizlopi
, and, Italian-born, American classical violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
, Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra
, American rock and alternative band Beyond the Element, Russian American opera singer Elena Zoubareva
, and Big Sur, CA based reggae band RastaFarOUT. Grammy Award
-winning artist Janis Ian
, a pioneer among independent musicians marketing online, sells her CDs on the website as well as through her own website.
at different points in their careers. These include 60's legend Marty Balin
, 80's icon Tiffany
, Europe's Lory Bianco
, and newer American acts such as The Low Anthem
, Regina Spektor
and Jack Johnson
(who sold his music at CD Baby prior to signing with a mainstream major label). The catalog also includes an album with early demo songs by Madonna
being sold by her former producer Stephen Bray
. Gary Jules
first released his debut album containing the hit song Mad World on CD Baby. American Idol
winner Jordin Sparks
' EP
For Now was sold via CD Baby as was Soulja Boy's album Unsigned & Still Major.
Online music store
An online music store is an online business which sells audio files, usually music, on a per-song and/or subscription basis. It may be differentiated from music streaming services in that the music store offers the actual music file, while streaming services offer partial or full listening without...
specializing in the sale of CDs and digital music downloads
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
from independent musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
s to consumers. The company is also a digital aggregator of independent music recordings, distributing content to several online digital music retailers.
CD Baby has achieved recent value as one of the few sources of information on physical CD sales in the independent music industry, surprising analysts by reporting continued increases in independent CD sales all the way through its most recent report at the end of 2008, apparently showing that independent CD sales move separately from the major label sales reported in the press.
CD Baby was the trading name of Hit Media, Inc., a Nevada Corporation founded by Derek Sivers
Derek Sivers
Derek Sivers is best known for being the founder and former president of CD Baby, an online CD store for independent musicians....
in 1997. Sivers sold CD Baby to Disc Makers
Disc Makers
Disc Makers is primarily a CD and DVD manufacturer that caters to independent musicians, filmmakers, and small businesses. Disc Makers competes with many established CD and DVD replicators in North America including , , , , , and ....
in 2008 for $22 million, bequeathing the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education
Music education
Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain , the cognitive domain , and, in particular and significant ways,the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity...
in an arrangement that provides him with 5% per year of the company's sale price in income (annually $1,100,000 pretax, based on the sale price of $22 million reported by Sivers ) until death, while upon death the remainder if any will ultimately go into the trust.
The firm currently operates out of Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. CD Baby allows artists to set their price point for selling physical compact discs – CD Baby retains $4 of every sale, the remainder gets paid out to the artist on a weekly basis. They also charge a one-time $39 setup fee per CD.
History
CD Baby began with its founder, Derek Sivers in Woodstock, New YorkWoodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county...
. Sivers was a musician and scion of a wealthy real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
family, who created the website to sell his own music. As a hobby, he also began to sell the CDs of local bands and friends. He chose to make CD Baby a "utopian" online store for independent musicians. To do this, Sivers followed four main principles based on his personal preferences:
- The musician will be paid every week
- The musician will get the full name and address of everyone who purchases their music (unless they opt out)
- The musician will never be removed from the system for not selling enough
- The site will never accept advertising or paid-placement
In addition, Sivers made sure to listen to every CD he sold (currently several people are employed to do this). The operation was run mainly in Sivers' bedroom.
Sivers, eventually hired John Steup
John Steup
John Steup is an American businessman. He served as Vice President of the online indie music giant, CD Baby, from 1998 to 2006.He served on the panel of judges for the in 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2010....
as his vice president and first employee. In an interview, Sivers recalls saying to Steup: "This thing might get huge one day. I mean, we might have 100 artists here."
Steadily, CD Baby grew as more artists wanted to sell their music through the website. Sivers and his employees always dealt with the artists directly.
Beginning around 1999, Sivers oversaw expansions of his roster with such collaborations as the one with Oasis Disc Manufacturing President Micah Solomon, where Sivers partnered with Oasis Disc Manufacturing http://oasisCD.com to distribute the complete Oasis artist roster at the CD Baby store (an arrangement still valid currently).http://www.oasiscd.com/top/
CD Baby was somewhat inspired by a website named Songs.com founded by Paul Schatzkin, Tom Kimmel, and Michael Camp. Songs.com, though not having the nonexclusive policy CD Baby does, was also a website that sold primarily independent music. However, ten months after Songs.com was sold to Gaylord Entertainment for $3-million, Gaylord folded all its digital initiatives, including Songs.com. Schatzkin would then send an email to members of Songs.com, recommending CD Baby. Schatzkin was also the instigator of CD Baby's toll-free phone line, "1-800-BUY-MY-CD."
Sivers never accepted money to advertise a CD
Payola
Payola, in the American music industry, is the illegal practice of payment or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio, in which the song is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast. Under U.S...
more than any other CD and didn't negotiate with investors or display advertisements. Currently, there are one hundred or so employees of CD Baby whose work ranges from warehouse work to programming to business development to customer service to listening to CDs.
Although the majority of artists who use CD Baby are North American, about thirty percent of orders for CD Baby are overseas.
In 2003, Sivers won a World Technology Award
World Technology Award
The World Technology Awards are presented annually by The World Technology Network at its World Technology Summit to individuals and corporations achieving significant, lasting progress in categories pertaining to science, technology, the arts, and design...
for Entertainment.
In 2004, CD Baby began offering a digital distribution service. By opting in to their digital distribution service, artists can authorize CD Baby to act on their behalf to submit music for digital sale to online retailers such as Apple's iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
, Emusic
EMusic
eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. It is headquartered in New York City with an office in London and owned by Dimensional Associates. As of September 2008 eMusic has over 400,000 subscribers....
, Real Network's Rhapsody
Rhapsody (online music service)
Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...
, Napster
Napster
Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
, Amazon MP3
Amazon MP3
Amazon MP3 is an online music store owned and operated by Amazon.com. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights management from the four major music labels , as well as many independents...
, MusicMatch, Didiom
Didiom
Didiom was a mobile media company that specialized in the development of streaming media applications and wireless content delivery platforms. Built on peer-to-peer placeshifting technology, the company’s flagship product allowed customers to stream their home computer’s audio collection to their...
, and MusicNet among others. Songs on CD Baby are now also available on Spotify
Spotify
Spotify is a Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered DRM-based music streaming service offering streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal. Launched in October 2008 by Swedish startup Spotify AB, the service had...
.
In August 2008 it was announced that Disc Makers, a CD and DVD manufacturer, bought CD Baby (and Host Baby) for 22 million dollars following a 7-year partnership between the two companies, according to Sivers.
Technical history
Up until 2009, CD Baby ran on PHPPHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
and MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
. It gained brief notoriety when Sivers announced publicly in early 2005 that he was rewriting all the systems in Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails, often shortened to Rails or RoR, is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.-History:...
and PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software...
. After about 2 years of work, he felt that the rewrite was still less than half done, and he threw the new code away and rewrote it again in his original programming language, PHP, and database, MySQL. He said it took him only two months to finish. This was a widely discussed move, because some saw it as a demonstration that Ruby on Rails was overhyped and not up to the task of solving large problems. Sivers himself summed it up by saying that "Rails was an amazing teacher" but that PHP was perfectly up to the task once he had learned the lessons Ruby and Rails taught him.
CD Baby relaunched the website with major infrastructure changes (using ASPX) to support future growth, including redundancy that protects the original material on the site in a way that initially was not available to the artists and incurred significant risk to them. The website is no longer being run with the original or revised PHP of Sivers. The new site experienced significant glitches initially, but this did not prevent the company from continuing to pay its artists as sales were reported to CD Baby by digital partners and others, monies received and artist-chosen payment points reached.
CD Baby has also continued to invest heavily both in technology and people, doubling the support staff during the system transition and adding a support team with a significant presence on the Forum, while maintaining existing email and phone technical support.
Independent artists at CD Baby
With a catalogue of more than 250,000 albums and over two million digital song tracks, CD Baby is home to the largest online community of independent recording artists. Music created by these acts, ranging from part-time hobbyists, to full-time musicians with successful careers, spans all genres from avant-garde to world music. Notable artists releasing their music via CD Baby include American country acts Gretchen PetersGretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters is a singer-songwriter in the folk/country genre. She was born in New York and raised in Boulder, Colorado, but moved to Nashville in the late 1980s...
, Tom Russell
Tom Russell
Thomas George "Tom" Russell is an American singer-songwriter. Although most strongly identified with the Texas Country music tradition, his music also incorporates elements of folk, Tex-Mex, and the cowboy music of the American West. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, including...
and Anndrea Naidu, Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe
Allison Crowe
Allison Louise Crowe is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist from Nanaimo, British Columbia who lives in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, communities spanning the breadth of Canada....
, instrumental musician Michael Aguilar, UK duo Nizlopi
Nizlopi
Nizlopi were a two-piece band, from 1993–2010, with Luke Concannon on vocals, guitar, and bodhrán, and John Parker on double bass, human beatbox, and providing backing vocals. They were based in Leamington Spa, England. Prior to attending Trinity Catholic Technology College, Luke and John...
, and, Italian-born, American classical violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
Nadja Rose Catherine Salerno-Sonnenberg is an Italian-born classical violinist, author, and teacher. She is a United States citizen.-Career:...
, Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra
New Century Chamber Orchestra
The New Century Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1992 by cellist, Miriam Perkoff, and violist, Wieslaw Pogorzelski. The goal of the founders was to present classical music in a fresh and unique way in the San Francisco Bay Area. The music director chooses the programs and guides the artistic...
, American rock and alternative band Beyond the Element, Russian American opera singer Elena Zoubareva
Elena Zoubareva
Elena Zoubareva is a Russian American soprano specializing in opera and classical crossover. Zoubareva is also a voice expert and a creator of the FitVoice program...
, and Big Sur, CA based reggae band RastaFarOUT. Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning artist Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author. Ian first entered the folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-sixties; most active musically in that decade and the 1970s, she has continued recording into the 21st century...
, a pioneer among independent musicians marketing online, sells her CDs on the website as well as through her own website.
Mainstream artists at CD Baby
In addition to the independent artists in the CD Baby catalog, many of whom are not well known to mainstream audiences, there are also artists signed to a major record labelRecord label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
at different points in their careers. These include 60's legend Marty Balin
Marty Balin
Marty Balin is an American musician. He is best known as the founder and one of the lead singers of the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane.-Early life:Martyn Buchwald was born in Cincinnati, Ohio...
, 80's icon Tiffany
Tiffany (singer)
Tiffany Renee Darwish , known popularly as Tiffany, is an American singer and former teen icon. She is most notable for her 1987 cover version of "I Think We're Alone Now", originally recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells in 1967. Released as the second single from her eponymous album, Tiffany,...
, Europe's Lory Bianco
Lory Bianco
Lory Bianco is an American singer and actor from the United States. She started her career in humble surroundings at the age of 10 performing in musicals, fairs, convalescent homes, hospitals, conventions, and beauty pageants...
, and newer American acts such as The Low Anthem
The Low Anthem
The Low Anthem is an American indie folk band from Providence, Rhode Island, formed in 2006. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Ben Knox Miller, Jeff Prystowsky and Jocie Adams, and rose to prominence with the re-release of its third studio album, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, in 2009.In...
, Regina Spektor
Regina Spektor
Regina Ilyinichna Spektor is a Russian American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered in New York City's East Village.-Early life:...
and Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson (musician)
Jack Johnson was born May 18, 1975 is an American folk rock singer-songwriter, surfer and musician known for his work in the soft rock and acoustic genres. In 2001, he achieved commercial success after the release of his debut album, Brushfire Fairytales. He has since released four more albums, a...
(who sold his music at CD Baby prior to signing with a mainstream major label). The catalog also includes an album with early demo songs by Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
being sold by her former producer Stephen Bray
Stephen Bray
Stephen Bray is an American songwriter, drummer, and record producer from Detroit. Bray is best known for his collaboration with Madonna.Bray began studying music through private instruction in Detroit, and continued his education at Berklee College of Music in Boston.Bray owns and operates Saturn...
. Gary Jules
Gary Jules
Gary Jules is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his cover of Tears for Fears' third single "Mad World", which he recorded together with friend Michael Andrews for the film Donnie Darko. It became the UK Christmas Number One single of 2003...
first released his debut album containing the hit song Mad World on CD Baby. American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
winner Jordin Sparks
Jordin Sparks
Jordin Brianna Sparks is an American pop / R&B singer-songwriter and actress. She hails from Glendale, Arizona who rose to fame as the winner of the sixth season of American Idol. Sparks won when she was 17 years old, making her the youngest winner in Idol history...
' EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
For Now was sold via CD Baby as was Soulja Boy's album Unsigned & Still Major.
Statistics
CD Baby statistics as of December 10, 2009:- 278,510 artists sell their music at CD Baby
- 5,339,025 CDs sold online to customers
- $157,000,000+ paid directly to the artists
In the news
- "CD Baby Finds Success in Online Music Niche", NPR's by Marcie Sillman Morning EditionMorning EditionMorning Edition is an American radio news program produced and distributed by National Public Radio . It airs weekday mornings and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 05:00 to 09:00 ET, with feeds and updates as required until noon...
, December 28, 2004 - "CD Baby's Unlikely Alliance with Best Buy" by Annie Baxter, NPR's Morning EditionMorning EditionMorning Edition is an American radio news program produced and distributed by National Public Radio . It airs weekday mornings and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 05:00 to 09:00 ET, with feeds and updates as required until noon...
, February 2, 2006 - "Baby Love" by Matt Welch, LA WeeklyLA WeeklyLA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
, June 9, 2005 - "Derek Sivers of CD Baby", Venture Voice, Show # 19
- "It's the future, baby: How CD Baby helps indie musicians with digital distribution" by Kristin Thomson, Future of Music CoalitionFuture of Music CoalitionFuture of Music Coalition is a U.S. 501 national non-profit organization specializing in education, research and advocacy for musicians with a focus on issues at the intersection of music technology, policy and law.- Background :...
, October 8, 2003 - The Future of the Music Business: How to Succeed with the New Digital Technologies, by Steve Gordon, Backbeat Books, 2005, ISBN 0-87930844-3, p. 213-225 ("An Interview with Derek Sivers, Founder and President of CD Baby")
External links
- CD Baby (retail store)
- CD Baby.net (information for musicians)
- Hostbaby (webhosting)
- CD BABY BLOG
- CD Baby Podcast (indie music business talk show)
- Oasis Disc Manufacturing
- CD Baby @ Oasis Tools of Promotion page
- CD Duplication