Alternatives to CDBaby?

[richardmac]

 

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?

 

 

I'm really struggling with it right now. I have a new CD coming out and I want it on iTunes, and I want a barcode, and I want to have someone else sell physical copies and handle credit card sales, and I don't want to pay a lot of money OR pay a set amount each year (sorry Tunecore.) The ONLY company I can find that will do all of this is CDBaby. I'm open to alternatives but I can't find any. I'm sort of stuck with CDBaby unless there's another company that can do ALL of that, not just some of that.

[richardmac]

I went ahead and submitted my info to CDBaby for my new CD. Had ALL kinds of trouble with their website. Finally got everything straightened out, with the help of someone who works there. At least I've got my bar code. Now to finish mixing and mastering, then upload my files to discmakers, um, who ironically own CDBaby.

 

I sent CDBaby several e-mails detailing the problems I had, but they all point to one thing - their web design team sucks. They should be fired. Lord knows how many customers this has cost them. A year from now it won't make a difference but right now it makes a huge difference.

[meandthecity]

 

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?

 

 

I dont think people are searching itunes for new music but i do believe they feel more comfortable buying songs from a big name like itunes etc..

[Nearthemusic]

It's a shame that CDbaby has taken such a turn for the worse. They were my number one choice for distributing my next album, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe we should email them links to some of these threads here at HC to show how many people are struggling with their new site...

[richardmac]

 

I dont think people are searching itunes for new music

 

 

They are.

[richardmac]

 

It's a shame that CDbaby has taken such a turn for the worse. They were my number one choice for distributing my next album, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe we should email them links to some of these threads here at HC to show how many people are struggling with their new site...

 

 

They've got huge threads of problems on their own site. They've got some very nice, polite patient people working damage control. I was posting all of my woes on the thread and then mentioned that I'd gone ahead and ordered anyway but was not optimistic about how long it would take to get my barcode. Katie from CDBaby e-mailed me back shortly thereafter and attached a copy of my barcode - their system didn't have it ready yet so she went in and got it and e-mailed it to me.

 

There are good people working at that company. Unfortunately it's not the web programming team.

[Nearthemusic]

So it sounds like there's still hope. Might just take a little time for them to work out all the kinks. That's reassuring

[richardmac]

If you want to pimp a service, do not copy/paste the marketing pitch in multiple places - come in like a human and discuss it. Right now you're spamming and spam gets deleted around here.

[natjones15]

gimmesound anyone? free music, artist still gets paid.

[Styrofoam]

Copied from another one of my posts...

 

What I find funny is that independent artists think they need CD Baby for distribution. With PayPal and Google Checkout, artists can sell stuff themselves, and just package the merch themselves. Most independent artists aren't selling that much anyway, so it really wouldn't take too much time out of their day.

[dmunro]

Hey guys, I'm trying to launch an mp3 store at http://bonmp3.com

 

It's a very simple app that lets musicians create albums, upload content, set prices, and distribute links that go to purchase pages for the albums. It's kind of the same concept as Snocap, except I'm aiming to return 90% of the album price to the artist.

 

Anyway... it's still in its early stages, but any comments would be greatly appreciated!

[StevenGurg]

I have to agree. I have about 40+CDs listed with CDBaby. I started with CDBAby when Derek Sivers was creating and running it. Since he sold it to DiscMakers... well, it seemed OK until they did the redesign. It is almost impossible to get an effective response to fix the things that got screwed up on my pages there. And they now only accept small limited numbers of CDs to replenish what you have sold. I had been doing great business there... over $60,000 in sales to date. But since their redesign the sales have markedly fallen for me.

I guess I will join the ranks in searching for alternatives to CDBABY as well.

Too bad... they purchased a supreme operation from Derek Sivers, and now screwed it up.

SG

[Poker99]

Hey guys, I'm trying to launch an mp3 store at http://bonmp3.com It's a very simple app that lets musicians create albums, upload content, set prices, and distribute links that go to purchase pages for the albums. It's kind of the same concept as Snocap, except I'm aiming to return 90% of the album price to the artist. Anyway... it's still in its early stages, but any comments would be greatly appreciated!

 

Hum I don't want to be the party breaker, but do you know about bandcamp?

 

They do everything you say and more.

 

Their cut = 0$ You keep all the money.

[Congoman]

 

Hum I don't want to be the party breaker, but do you know about bandcamp? They do everything you say and more. Their cut = 0$ You keep all the money.

 

 

So how do they make any money? I can't figure their biz model.

 

EDIT: Oh, from FAQs I see they don't really have one yet. Their plan is to get the site going, make it work, then figure out what's appropriate to charge. I don't have a problem with that.

[bigcatrik]

 

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.

 

 

I submitted an album to iTunes and Amazon through ReverbNation. It was very straightforward. Tunecore, however, has the weekly iTunes guesstimate available, if that's important. With ReverbNation it took months before I found out I'd made $17.84!

 

I have other projects that I'm not attempting to "monetize" and ReverbNation is not necessarily any better than SoundClick, where I've been for almost a decade, and the SoundClick charts are fun. I was #1 on the Classical/Baroque chart for quite some time in 2003! I also have a project on Bandcamp, just to check it out, and their visualization is nice, but none of the sites seem to have a good way to embed a youtube video. Strange.

 

I also have a project on Amiestreet, to throw out another possibility.

 

Rik

[dinnerpianist]

I have to jump in here. The syntax is plain awful by contributors. I wonder if most are as clueless or sloppy with their musical utterances? If a musician does not know the standard grammatical conventions I really would have no interest in hearing how they organize their music syntax.

[Congoman]

 

I have to jump in here. The syntax is plain awful by contributors. I wonder if most are as clueless or sloppy with their musical utterances? If a musician does not know the standard grammatical conventions I really would have no interest in hearing how they organize their music syntax.

 

 

I guess you REALLY hate hearing old Son House, Muddy Waters, or Huddie ("sometimes I lives in da country") Ledbetter. Agreed, "Internet English" is horrible, but it really doesn't have much to do with music.

[taintric]

curious to know if anyone has any success with CDbaby lately? A buddy's band had a good experience back in december, wondering if it's a blip...

[richardmac]

Well, I did go ahead and put my new CD up on CDBaby, it did eventually get on iTunes, and I have sold some. The customer service email support is still bad but not as bad as it was when they rolled out the new site and got buried. I had an issue getting my music onto iTunes and to their credit they did take care of it very quickly.

 

There are still some VERY good people working at CDBaby. I think the biggest problem they have is their customer service is either great or crap depending on who helps you and how. What they need is a ticketing system, available for customers. Just about every web service provider and other tech company does this. You report an issue, a number is assigned to you, and the whole thing is tracked.

[taintric]

How long did it take to get to itunes?

 

I guess what I'm worried about is setting a date for a CD release show, and making sure everything is up there when it's supposed to be.

[Petra76]

 

You report an issue, a number is assigned to you, and the whole thing is tracked.

 

 

I am not sure, if a ticket system would solve their problems. The customer service of cd baby is unresponsive, unfriendly and most of them don't know ANYthing (sorry, I know, this sounds not nice, but I'm desperate!!). I sell my music since three years there, in the first time e-mails were responded in 24-48 hours, now I have to wait more than 2 weeks to get an answer. The quality of answers from cd-baby's customer service plus the waiting time are totally unsatisfying.

I run an online shop as well including paypal, but as I'm from Europe (Germany) I cannot use paypal's most important merchandising options (accepting credit cards directly) nor google checkout, because both features are for US or UK citizens only. So I have to find a distributor for the U.S. like CD-Baby, which did a pretty good job in the past until Derek Sivers quit his baby.

Are there any alternatives to Cd-Baby?

I am looking for in-store AND digital distribution.....

 

Any help is VERY VERY VERY appreciated.

Thanks so much :-)

[lyquist]

www.tunecore.com That is how I distribute my music. Thanks.

[Petra76]

www.tunecore.com That is how I distribute my music. Thanks.

 

Thanks for the link, I just checked them out. But they do only digital distribution ;-(, nor physical or in-store distribution. And tunecore takes fees for each song AND each store plus an annual maintenance fee!! This might be a good opportunity for a few songs, but I have 16 albums with almost 300 songs. I'm afraid, that won't work for me.

But thanks anyway.

[Poker99]

bandcamp.com

[dB Mania]

Hmm I'm not sure but I think sites such as; Soundclick and other similar sites; Reverbnation to be musician's hangout for musicians, if you click on fans you find most of those fans are musicians too.

 

If you're serious? first off;

 

1: Get your own website! For web-hosting I recommend; Go-Daddy.

 

2: Twitter (Option to easily embed/display on your site) which is ideal for use as a compact blog to keep your followers up to date on recent activities, special offers/discounts, shows/events and whatever.

 

- on Twitter you'll also find record labels, follow the ones most suited to your music.

 

3: Register your works (songs) at a royalties collection agency (for the Aussies? that be; APRA).

 

4: Sign up with TuneCore, they basically cover most of the reputable/known online music retailers for CD and Downloads.

 

5: Join online radio sites such as; last.fm, they actually pay you royalties for playing your songs. Meanwhile you can build up your fan base on that site.

 

6: Get a good music video clip done:

- Video editing software's I recommend are; Final Cut (mac only), Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas (PC).

 

- You can pick up a fairly decent camcorder for around $500+ new or better (2nd-hand), maybe for less $$$. Shop around there are good deals out there.

 

- The trick is to learn how to use 'green-screen' and 'sync-to-audio'.

 

- Also learn how to use CG programs such as; Maya and 3DMax, and here's a tip: Blender is free ;-)

 

Come on, get rolling we ain't got all day, the deadline is now!