Members LGillam Posted July 26, 2009 Members Share Posted July 26, 2009 Does anyone have any positive experiences to share about alternatives to CDBaby for digital distribution? I have paid for the CDBaby album submit service and have been unable to upload any music. I have contacted technical support twice and have received no response. It's been more than a week. Perhaps it's time to try another service! Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members germanicus2112 Posted July 26, 2009 Members Share Posted July 26, 2009 Distribute it yourself.Use Joomla (free open source content distribution) to create a website and use the 'Maian Music for Joomla' script which works with paypal. Set it up for micropayments and if you sell an mp3 for 99 cents, you keep roughly 93 cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted July 26, 2009 Members Share Posted July 26, 2009 You can also use bandcamp. Get a PayPal acct set up for micropayments, as mentioned above, and sign up for a free bandcamp account. Extremely easy to use. The problem is that they don't handle physical CD sales. Tunecore is other big option. With Tunecore, you pay a free per year to have them digitally distribute your stuff to iTunes, etc. You stop paying the fee, your stuff comes down. But they don't take a cut of your action, so if you're going to sell a ton of music, they'll give you more money. I do not know if they handle physical sales. CDBaby is going through a period right now where they've revamped their website and a lot of the ways they're doing stuff, and the reason they didn't respond to your e-mail is that they're getting buried with web site complaints right now. I e-mailed them a complaint that they didn't answer me, either. CDBaby under Derek was never like this. They've got to get all of their problems fixed fast or they're going to start losing customers. They definitely f-ed up the transition from old web site to new... it took them a week to get the past financial records in, and the site is still not 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bostonwal Posted July 26, 2009 Members Share Posted July 26, 2009 Distribute it yourself.Use Joomla (free open source content distribution) to create a website and use the 'Maian Music for Joomla' script which works with paypal. Set it up for micropayments and if you sell an mp3 for 99 cents, you keep roughly 93 cents. Holy crap I've been wondering how to do something like this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members germanicus2112 Posted July 27, 2009 Members Share Posted July 27, 2009 Holy crap I've been wondering how to do something like this! Its an option and im not sure why more folks arent pursuing it. Why pay services like tunecore to get your material on sites like iTunes and Rhapsody when you can simply host it yourself. Your not losing a large chunk of each transaction to a middle man with DIY. I think unless you are moving a SIGNIFICANT amount of downloads and eating tremendous bandwidth, you are better hosting it yourself. The only really good argument I can imagine against DIY is if by having your music in Rhapsody/iTunes you are given a level of additional exposure by way of it just being hosted on those sites. In other words, are people stumbling upon it by it just being there. If not, then it really is an issue of the work and time (advertising, gigging, viral, airplay, other means) YOU put in to get folks to listen/download, and in that case you may as well be in complete control and host it yourself. Do folks scan through iTunes looking for new music? How are people typically introduced to new music in your genre? Whats your target audience and how are you reaching them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LGillam Posted July 27, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 27, 2009 Germanicus...you make some very good points. I do host my own store on my site and I use Bandcamp as well. I guess for me it's simply about the additional exposure that I MAY receive by being listed on those sites. I have also noticed that many of my fans have been quite impressed by the fact that my album will be on iTunes. WE know that being on iTunes is not necessarily a big deal, but not every listener/web visitor realizes that. If having the iTunes logo on my web site impresses people, then that's just another plus in my opinion. I appreciate the thoughts and opinions of all the folks who responded to my question. It's nice to "speak" to other like-minded individuals! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stratfan7 Posted July 27, 2009 Members Share Posted July 27, 2009 Check out CDUniverse. That's where I get all of my CD's now. I used to buy from the sellers on amazon, but they charge ridiculous shipping prices. CDUNiverse's CD's are cheaper than amazon's CD's but a little more expensive than the sellers, but their low shipping costs more than make up for it. Never dealt w? customer service, but delivery is very fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted July 27, 2009 Members Share Posted July 27, 2009 Regarding Joomla... My first thought would be that most people aren't web programmers. Joomla is not something a novice learns in 5 minutes. Even using someone else's code, it takes a lot of web savvy to pull it off. And then you have to keep it updated (the software, I mean.) People do discover music on CDBaby and iTunes, actually. Not a lot, but it's nice. Moreso on CDBaby - I've sold a few CD's there to people who discovered my CD, because CDBaby lets you search for music that "sounds like" other artists. And to echo what Lisa said, lots of people are impressed with being on iTunes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members germanicus2112 Posted July 28, 2009 Members Share Posted July 28, 2009 Regarding Joomla...My first thought would be that most people aren't web programmers. Joomla is not something a novice learns in 5 minutes. Even using someone else's code, it takes a lot of web savvy to pull it off. And then you have to keep it updated (the software, I mean.)People do discover music on CDBaby and iTunes, actually. Not a lot, but it's nice. Moreso on CDBaby - I've sold a few CD's there to people who discovered my CD, because CDBaby lets you search for music that "sounds like" other artists. And to echo what Lisa said, lots of people are impressed with being on iTunes. Right on. If you are getting exposure on them than thats great. Maybe one option is to simply have both. Have your own store wheree you get a much larger take of each sale, but still have your stuff on itunes/rhapsody etc. for exposure and potentially reaching new folks. FWIW, i've almost completed a full fledged band page using joomla. It has photos, gig schedules, blog/news entries, forums, integrated newletter/mailing list, can stream videos and songs and has a store which can take credit cards through paypal and provides direct downloads of songs once people pay. I know ZIPPO about html and web programming. I had a friend introduce me to joomla and spent about 40 minutes showing me the basics. To get a handle on it has taken a few weeks of working with it on the side a little bit each day (say about 10-14 hours of learning total). Something that had really good tips and advice was a book im reading called the Indie Band Survival Guide. Lots of good tips on alot of aspects of the DIY band. Theres a website for it also at indieguide.com with alot of info and helpful resources. The music store script im using on the joomla site just came out with a new version which allows you to use two paypal accounts, one micro-payments, one regular to maximize your returns. It also lets you give discounts for buying an entire album, or lets you give away tunes for free in return for an email address. Its a free script called Maian Music for Joomla available at Aretimes.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bostonwal Posted July 28, 2009 Members Share Posted July 28, 2009 I don't think retail outlets should be considered channels for discovery. Channels that are far more effective at discovery are local radio airplay (if you live in a town/city with that opportunity), online radio, and reviews in magazines (online or physical) and blogs. All of this leads to the primary discovery channel which is the almighty word of mouth. Now, when someone does hear about the recording/band (via radio, reviews, etc) they should be able to go their favorite way of purchasing music and be able to buy it. That means you should be present in all retail outlets (within reason, i.e. all those available through Tunecore, etc) and you should even have a stack of CDs available at Amazon in case that's your new fan's pleasure. When it comes to your own site, where you make the biggest cut of a sale (if you use the Joomla stuff) you should attract your fans to the site and provide them an incentive to browse your site often and hopefully buy from there. That means you want to offer a number of things that would be interesting to fans (provide downloads of demos of songs you've released, outtakes, live recordings) and certainly sell stuff which is only available on your site. For example, limited edition t-shirts, live albums, golf clubs with your name on it! Whatever floats your boat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mavy Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 I recently recorded an album worth of original fingerstyle guitar tunes and asked around about distribution. CD Baby checked out OK from a couple of people using it, so I signed up. After 3 weeks the album was set up -- on the day they went offline for the web retooling. So all those people I contacted about the release couldn't get to it, and as with such things, the moment passed -- hard to retrieve those customers after a bad experience. 1 person stuck to it and they took his money, but he couldn't download the tunes. Complaints go unanswered. It is work enough to try getting the word out, I can't set up sales alone too. They need to get fixed FAST, or refund fees, AND publicly apologize to their clients for screwing up so bad! It has been long enough that my stuff should have been on iTunes by now, but that hasn't happened either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 I recently recorded an album worth of original fingerstyle guitar tunes and asked around about distribution. CD Baby checked out OK from a couple of people using it, so I signed up. After 3 weeks the album was set up -- on the day they went offline for the web retooling. So all those people I contacted about the release couldn't get to it, and as with such things, the moment passed -- hard to retrieve those customers after a bad experience. 1 person stuck to it and they took his money, but he couldn't download the tunes. Complaints go unanswered. It is work enough to try getting the word out, I can't set up sales alone too. They need to get fixed FAST, or refund fees, AND publicly apologize to their clients for screwing up so bad! It has been long enough that my stuff should have been on iTunes by now, but that hasn't happened either. Itunes can take a four or five months to get online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roy Brooks Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 I just added a couple of my CDs to Bandcamp. http://roybrooks.bandcamp.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mavy Posted August 7, 2009 Members Share Posted August 7, 2009 Tested things by purchasing my own album. Took my money, but for a week hasn't allowed download...and haven't responded to complaints. Smelling class action lawsuit if it's not turned around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MojoDog Posted August 7, 2009 Members Share Posted August 7, 2009 Holy crap I've been wondering how to do something like this! +1 ! Thanks for sharing this. I have been wanting to do something like this too. When I get a CD's worth of stuff together I will probably go through a service that gets me on ITunes, but until then would like to get some singles out there and available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted August 7, 2009 Members Share Posted August 7, 2009 Tested things by purchasing my own album. Took my money, but for a week hasn't allowed download...and haven't responded to complaints. Smelling class action lawsuit if it's not turned around. Wow! They've really gone and screwed the pooch! And they were SUCH a good company before. Damn. Come back, Derek!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fernabulax Posted August 9, 2009 Members Share Posted August 9, 2009 CD Baby is so incomprehensibly {censored}ed up it is beyond the pale of mere words to describe - been with them since 2004 and their re-launch has managed to lose me sales due to their site download taking my customers money and not allowing download - I have a review/interview currently running in a major Brit blues mag, Blues Matters and I'm getting emails from fans saying they saw the article but can't buy my music - if anyone knows of a class action suit brewing, please let me know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CalfeeJones Posted August 10, 2009 Members Share Posted August 10, 2009 I have been looking at nimbit.com lately, looks interesting. There are also some interesting looking sites that have links on nimbit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roy Brooks Posted August 11, 2009 Members Share Posted August 11, 2009 The last time I read the CD Baby spiel I got the impression that CD Baby wants $4.00 from every CD I sell through them. This would mean that I would absolutely have to sell my CDs for at least $10.00 so I would be making more than CD Baby is. They should not be making more off my music than I am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted August 11, 2009 Members Share Posted August 11, 2009 No, CDBaby has other options. You can sell your CD for $5 and you get $3 per sale. They do shipping, credit card sales, handle returns, etc. It's not a bad deal. You can also sell your music digitally where you don't send them any CD's. I am still optimistic that they will get their web site fixed. But boy have they shot themselves in the foot. I've never ever read bad things about CDBaby anywhere until now. I've always had a great relationship with them until this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted August 11, 2009 Members Share Posted August 11, 2009 Oh... I take that back. The $5 sale means that your CD goes into a bin where people can buy THREE CD's for $15. Sheesh. I didn't realize that. It's sort of like a bargain bin. Oh well. You should be charging $10 for your CD online anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sventvkg Posted August 11, 2009 Members Share Posted August 11, 2009 What about Reverbnation? Anyone check them out. Seems like they have Everything a musicain would need in one spot. I'm gonna check them out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bostonwal Posted August 12, 2009 Members Share Posted August 12, 2009 So what cut does bandcamp take on sales? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Senor Tuco Posted August 14, 2009 Members Share Posted August 14, 2009 As a former CD Baby customer, about all I have to say is that they completely blew it. With their re-design, my wish list disappeared, along with my order history, and customer service is unresponsive. They also made some really terrible design choices that make it difficult to find, then hear samples that are long enough to be meaningful. Their site search engine has always sucked. Do they understand there are plenty of other sources for music? There is no way in hell I would buy from them again. If customers are not well-served, then artists are certainly not well-served. We all know that most music can be downloaded for free, leaving artists holding an empty bag. That's not fair. But CD Baby's customer-hostile stance along with its crappy interface just encourages piracy. My view is that artists should not participate, and buyers should shop elsewhere. Would do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nearthemusic Posted August 14, 2009 Members Share Posted August 14, 2009 So what cut does bandcamp take on sales? Right now they don't take anything:thu: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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