CDbaby.com: A Mecca for Independent Musicians

Ever since my first exposure to recording, I've wanted make records at whatever level and in whatever way that took. I was hooked on writing and recording. Let me be one of many people to say that CDbaby.com is a musician and songwriter's dream come true.

I can't even remember how I exactly found CDbaby.com. It was a number of years ago when I happened to be surfing around looking for music or something. I think a band I had just seen had a disc in there. I figured with a name like cdbaby.com I didn't think that this place was to be taken seriously.

Slowly, as the years went by, I would be doing recording projects off and on, and happened upon CDBABY again. I took a second look and was very happy to discover that this site offers everything the indie musician needs. CDBABY offers so many features, and their services are so nice, while their staff is very personable and helpful.

CDBaby was founded in New York by Derek Sievers and is now based out of Portland Oregon. Sievers was a working musician who needed a web outlet to sell a CD of his. He was soon also selling CDs by his friends as well. The business steadily grew and is today a huge business and web presence.

Sievers' vision was to have an online venue that would cater to the needs of the local, unsigned musicians. Local control is retained by each artist, whereby they are paid weekly and always guaranteed to be on CDbaby's roster regardless of how many uints they actually moved. CDBaby has also branched out into digital distribution. They have deals with all of the major online music providers, and provide licensing through ITunes, Napster and many more such outlets.

For years, the average musician would have to work themselves sick trying to promote their recorded product. (to say nothing of the fact, that it takes a lot of hours and money just to get a recorded product to disseminate). Now with CDbaby, the indie artist can press up an batch of discs, register on CDbaby, and have instant promotion across the web. CDbaby definitely has the local musician in mind. Musicians get paid every week for their CDs. Plus, their music is disseminated through digital downloads, which increases the payout and exposure exponentially. Some figures:

• 156,599 artists sell their CD at CD Baby.
• 2,797,906 CDs sold online to customers.
• $35,720,951.33 paid to artists.

If you're a struggling independent musician, you owe it to yourself to check out CDbaby.com. If you're not a musician, still go to the site and browse the titles and check out some samples. You'll discover a nice, quaint little web music store that has quietly become one of the biggest on the web, and a champion for small-scale independent musicians.