What is CD Baby? How do digital music sales work?

This post for all those not in bands and those in bands but have not released any material yet.

The mp3 download has now replaced the compact disc just like the compact disc replaced cassettes.  As techonology advances stuff gets smaller and more and more intangible. For music collector this means no more walking the aisles of your favorite music store thumbing through the new releases, imports, singles, box sets, talking to snobby employees etc... Now it's more point and click with a mouse without the hassle of driving somewhere and clumsily removing shrink wrap with sticky labels.  Then the mp3 can be neatly added to your ipod or other mp3 device. How great is that! No more carrying cd binders or losing cd's under your car seat. Collectors argue that part of the ritual is the dewrapping to eventually pull out the booklet and really check out your new purchase in all its artistic glory.

At this time at least we have the best of both worlds somewhat.  The big difference really is that instead if going to your readily available giant music retailer to pick up a cd now you have to search for a small mom & pop which consists of 99% used cd's with limited inventory. There's always the internet also to shop for a physical cd but it's really not comparable to being at the store.  In summary the mp3 is covenient, fast, easy, practical, flexible and inexpensive for consumers.  The cd is bulky, tangible and collectible.  So what does this all mean for indie bands and their fans?

The best thing ever for bands that has happened is mp3 downloads.  Itunes has replaced Tower Records & Virgin Records.  For the first time any band can get their music in the store alongside major label acts, which is awesome.  What sucks for indie bands is that Itunes, Amazon & all other major download suppliers basically takes all the profits. The artist has zero control on how much Itunes sell your music for and what percentage the artist then receives. We have seen statements where we have sold hundreds of downloads and received 1 cent for each download. If we were a platinum selling artist that type of profit doesn't matter because we would be making all our money on guarantees, merchandise, endorsements etc... But for an indie band making it by one person at a time an extra couple hundred of dollars goes a long way.  Three dollars really doesn't cut it.

An indie band gets there music onto Itunes by submitting through CD Baby, Tunecore and a number of other companies.  These sites are where the indie artist can make some money to invest back into their band. What happens behind the scenes is this: a band opens up an account with cd baby/tunecore then pays a fee to upload an album/single, the band then sets price & keeps 85%-100% of the profits pending which service you choose.  At this point there's the option to have their music on Itunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, Spotify and all those other sites except Pandora you have to go to them separately. So each band is now faced with the question: Do we keep the music only available at cd baby where we can make some money or do we put it out to a million other popular outlets for exposure where we won't make any money. An indie will always take the hit for exposure because in the long run it may turn into money by hopefully having your name become more and more known, therefore, leading to some great opportunities.

When you're on the internet and you run into an unknown indie band whose music moves you take moment to see if they are available on cd baby or tunecore.  You'll pay pretty much the same maybe a few pennies difference but the band will see so much more in their pockets for all their hard work.  This money will help them to get out on tour, put out more material or maybe a new video. At the same time if you prefer Itunes it's totally cool. We appreciate all the love and the fact that you take the extra step to play us at the gym in the car or when you need a pick me up is more than enough. You can choose to put your money anywhere and you're using it to spread our name which is amazing. Thank you so much and we'll see you on tour!