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The Times is broken
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It gives me no satisfaction to say this — indeed it fills me with
trepidation for the nation — but The Times is broken. I know some of you
are thinking,...
20 minutes ago
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Hey everyone, I've started this independent forum for those who wish to post on the latest of CDBaby.com's travails since their much-hyped but disappointing website "relaunch" of July 11-12.
ReplyDeleteI supposed anyone could have started a blog called CDBabySucks, or whatever, but I'm one of many long-time satisfied artists/customers, and one who has had two CDs for sale on their pages since August 2004, so I have a vested interest in their continued success.
I'm not ready to say CDBaby sucks just yet, but I've been following the comments on CDBbaby's own internal forums, and I've made some occasional contributions to those posts. Thus far, the debate has been restricted mostly to CDBaby's own "virtual house," so to speak. With this blog, I hope to extend the debate to a space outside of CDBaby's own "walled garden," as someone on their forum so eloquently stated it a week or so ago.
Now three nearly three weeks into a somewhat disastrous and embarassing unveiling of its "new" website, CDBaby.com has been plagued with numerous technical glitches and assorted difficulties both for the buyer and seller of its catalogue of CDs by independent musicians. Founded and developed by musician/entrepreneur Derek Sivers about 10 years ago, originally as a way for him to help his fellow musicians & friends sell their CDs directly to the fan, Sivers helped CDBaby grow into one of the biggest companies of its type, leading the way in an ever-changing music industry. While the major record labels struggled with a flattening or declining CD sales market and companies like Apple iTunes profited from a booming business in MP3 downloads, CDBaby emerged as an almost perfect, virtual middleman between today's Do-it-yourself "niche" musicians and their many diverse fans.
Earlier this year, Derek, as he is affectionately known to his customers, sold the company to behemoth CD manufacturer Discmakers. Some say that "the Baby" hasn't been the same since.
For the most part, CDBaby's forums have, until now, been free of flaming and other gratuitous negativity. And while it's been fascinating, in a way, to watch this company seemingly implode overnight, and completely because of its own missteps, for me it's also really sad somehow. For a company that was born and raised on the internet, this ill-conceived, incompetently-executed relaunching of itself is beginning to attract some of the most derisive criticism I've seen of one of the coolest companies I've ever known! Maybe it's really true: the world IS ending, and a lot sooner than we'd thought.
In the good spirit of CDBaby's own forums, I hope to keep the debate here just as civilised, mostly polite, constructive, and free of flame. They (and we) are having a fairly rocky and wild ride right now, but let's continue the debate!
Discmakers (aka Audio & Video Labs aka CDBaby.com aka Corinthian Capital Partners LLC) is a manufacturer and they are not used to paying artists.
ReplyDeleteThey make their money from people and companies that need to produce optical discs.
You, the CD Baby Artist, are now just another accounts payable to them. They don't care about you personally at all. You are just a number and a negative dollar sign to them. (they'll keep the money your music generates for them, however)
They have already begun nickle and diming everyone of their "new" clients. First with the lack of payments, second with the non-negotiable contract alterations, third with cheap web programming, next... who the hell knows.
Really, don't be fooled. They've hired a few customer service people (somewhat skilled at acting sincere) who really don't know or can't say anything more than what they are being told by upper management to say. Otherwise, they are fired.
Some of the people on the forum at cdbaby are ignorant enough to buy into it and they are actually defending the so-called great work of the new management. This is pathetic.
CDBaby has already breeched their own new contract by holding back payments more than 15 days from the time they received the money.
They have also breeched the contract by not providing ALL details of the accounting, updated daily.
To quiet the complainants they've put out a couple of really misleading excuses on their forum thread about mysterious goings on behind the scenes -- it probably is chaos back there -- in between their 3-hour lunches at the head office, but I'm sure they are basically laughing at the little artists chirping at them. Judging by the arrogant, pompous, and confusing statements made by the new "President of CD Baby" -- a college grad who has never been the president of anything resembling cdbaby. Compared to the zen like approach of Derek, this other jackass is really annoying - and a phony.
He's just someone who worked at Discmakers. He went to Wharton college -- NOT Wharton School of Business, which is a top MBA school. I'm sure his degree was in partying.
They've taken what was turning out to be a real "White Knight" gold mine for artist/musicians and turned it into a munitions testing range. All artists prepare to duck and cover.
Thanks to others on the forum, I learned a lot this week. One thing is that their are a number of companies doing the same thing as CDBaby now. That's a change for the better.
I'm definitely going to check out Tunecore, Reverbnation, iMusiciandigital, theOrchard and others for future releases and diversify the risk of putting all my releases in the greedy grasp of a mediocre to lousy company.
It's becoming evident now, after three weeks of cascading glitches, that bad programming has broken CD Baby.
ReplyDeleteIt's the Humpty Dumpty of site relaunches. All the customer service agents and all the rest of the staff cannot put the pieces back together. The badly designed new system does not work.
It's simple as that. On the cdbaby.org forums you can read posts from IT knowledgeable people explaining what's going wrong with search functions, sales reports etc. The tragedy is watching a business and bonds established over the years dissolving as management steadfastly fails to accept that the only answer is to restore the previous, functional, site.
It is sad for all those who've been a part of CD Baby and it's a great loss for the independent music community. It's not simple changing digital distributors.
Good posts. This 'relaunch' has been terrible. Still no end in site to the problems. Music uploader still not fully working. Still stuck to their '$55 + 25% cut' blanket fee on any type of release (from full album down to single track - talk about not giving a fuck)...
ReplyDeleteI give them just ONE MORE WEEK. And then I'm bailing and releasing my stuff via TuneCore etc...
I asked Derek Sivers on twitter if he was annoyed by what DM had done to 'his' company and he said
"A little, but I emotionaly disconnected 2 years ago and I just couldn't stay any longer, so that's the best I could do"
By 'the best I could do' he means selling to DiskMakers - He was aware that the company he was selling to was utter shit but in his words he HAD to go and took the best offer, he seems to hint that he knows/knew that DM are a bunch of idiots with no idea on how to treat 'artists'.
I'm still not convinced that money hasn't been misplaced during this transition (Artists DD income) as the accounting section is very dodgy looking, and it was delayed from going 'live' maybe for those reasons and more... hmmm
November 7–14, 1996 city beat
ReplyDeleteBrian's Song
Rogue pamphlet accuses Philadelphia Music Conference honcho Brian Felsen of being an all-around bad guy.
By Frank Lewis
Brian Felsen is no stranger to criticism. As director of the Philadelphia Music Conference (PMC), which held its fourth annual gathering last weekend, he's endured complaints about disorganization and the $125-per-minute charge for inclusion on the PMC's promotional CDs, among other things.
But the document handed out Saturday at the Doubletree Hotel, the conference's meeting site, marked a whole new level of anger aimed at Felsen.
© Copyright 1995 – 2009 Philadelphia City Paper. All rights reserved.
The rest of the article cited above is highly defamatory and doesn't bear repeating as it consists of personal attacks that have nothing to do with music business matters.
What is relevant is the news stories about Brian Felsen and the Philadelphia Music Conference and disorganization and artist-unfriendly practices:
NEW LEADER, FIFTH YEAR FOR MUSIC CONFERENCE
Source: Dan DeLuca, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Fred Beckley and Nick Cristiano also contributed.
The Philadelphia Music Conference - the annual confab that brings hundreds of aspiring artists and industry hopefuls to town for four days of schmoozing and showcasing - begins Wednesday.
But wait. Don't start snickering yet.
This year, the fifth PMC is under new ownership - much-derided former head Brian Felsen has been supplanted by industry vet Alan Rubens. And the current regime promises more big-name panelists and poobahs at the conference's daytime events,
Published on 1997-10-31, Page 15, Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
who has good info on other sites?
ReplyDeleteIt really is sad. CD Baby used to be a great place. Well-run, prompt with payments, easy to use. The longer this relaunch festers, the more damage is done to CD Baby's credibility and reputation. There's a certain point at which all will be lost. Are they there yet? I think they just might be...
ReplyDeleteWe've been with CDBaby since early 2001. I never thought we'd be thinking of leaving, but... I think Ed may be right.
ReplyDeleteAs for "where do we go?" I'm still stuck with that one as far as physical sales go. I've had a look at www.earbuzz.com but can't find any real backup information or recommendations for them. Maybe it's time to bring the physical sales in-house.
It would be great to be able to go direct to iTunes (basically all our digital sales are coming from there), but I doubt they'll deal with individual artists. I've been busy putting everything up on bandcamp.com It's very clean looking and easy to deal with, uploader works!
It's a very sad sad not to mention infuriating situation.
Hey Cath,
ReplyDeleteLet us know how things go with Bandcamp, will you? I've bookmarked the site and I'll be checking it out soon. I'd really hate to be the proverbial rat, but it's the captain's duty to go down with the ship, not mine. I haven't lost all confidence with CD Baby just yet, but I'm getting there, I regret to admit.
Hi Ed, yes I will. Still busy uploading tracks. If I'm not very much mistaken they are selling download cards for $20 per 100, I'll be trying that out too. CDBaby, again if I'm not mistaken is $99 per 100, or as they put it 99cents each, minimun quantity 100. Never been great at maths, but that means you can get 500 download cards from Bandcamp for the price of 100 from CDBaby. I've managed to check most of our physical sales accounts agains all my old dowloaded spread sheets, it's looking close to fine in there, but if anyone has worked out a way of pulling anything usefull from the digital accounting, please let us know..
ReplyDeleteCath and Ed, an alternative is to buy 200 codes (just codes, not cards) from Bandcamp for $3.00 and laser print your own cards. VERY cheap. They can look really nice if you have design skills or know somebody who does.
ReplyDeleteAlso an advantage with Bandcamp is you can use the codes to email your album or free tracks to people (even material that's not for sale to the public).
Hi guys, and thanks for starting an independent blog about the situation. I believe they would lock down or censor the cdbaby.org soon.
ReplyDeleteWho cares about slight design revamp, or download cards. Can't believe such minor alterations could take down the last left large independent music distributor.
It seems the situation has brought to light irregularities regarding payments. I was suspecting since while, but this implosion showed I was not alone.
I've just spent all day looking at our CDBaby account. And yes, I have found discrepencies between what's showing as owing and my figures. Finally worked out how to get some information out of the digital sales info. Don't filter it, sort it by Report Date, I had to get as far as page 24 to get to July 09, then had to take a screen shot of the first page, cause there are split months in it, then add up all page totals. Yes, there is a differene in $'s owing. I've emailed them and asked for a response today...
ReplyDeleteThe "new and improved" accounting area is an abomination. It makes me almost relieved that I'm a third-rate artist with mediocre sales. But there's no excuse for taking something that worked beautifully, that gave you information on one page, not fifty, and turning it into a nightmare of filtering and fishing and button-pushing, just so you can find your iTunes sales for last March. What a mess. This will become a textbook case on how not to redesign a site.
ReplyDeleteFEE-ASS-CO !!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe fact of the matter is that DM did NOT realize how complicated CD Baby actually is. They gave themselves a deadline for the website relaunch, got all excited about it, and then no one wanted to be the one to say that it wasn't ready.
ReplyDeleteSo what happened? They relaunched a half-done website. What you're seeing now is CD Baby actually developing the new website in front of your eyes.
Yes, it is embarrassing.
I'm fairly sure that there's nothing nefarious going on. The corporate business-dudes are scared shitless of doing anything that could even SEEM to be VAGUELY illegal. Hence the 29 second sound clips, the tax information, all this crap that Derek never did, regardless of legalities.
Nope, nothing illegal, just a massive screw-up.
Trust me, around here (as chaotic as it is) things are getting fixed as fast as possible. I'm guessing that in a few months everything will be fully functional, and they're actually designing things according to what people are asking for. (yes, this is what should have happened in the first place, duh)
Unfortunately, all this has to happen WHILE people need to use it. Y'know, as opposed to actually making sure it works, making it fully developed, and THEN launching it.
The core values of CD Baby are intact (as far as I can tell as an employee). Just think of us as a friend that's going through some hard times. We really need you all now more than ever.
-Pony
Bring back the old system/site. Then fix the new one before relaunching it.
ReplyDeleteEven if you're right and there's nothing nefarious going on, artists are losing their incomes because of the screw-up. Customers can't find and buy their music. And, what little does sell is no longer being clearly recorded.
Right now, it's a lose-lose situation.
We can't afford to wait months while this not-ready-for-prime-time site gets fixed.
Incompetence is as dangerous to a business as is dishonesty.
ReplyDeleteThe motivation doesn't matter. Bottom line is they've broken CD Baby.
I got emails from them last year telling me that a the redesign was coming in July. So they've had plenty of time. It really does seem like not only did they not do any user testing...but they actually didn't do testing of any kind. And, they killed the working site in order to launch the new one? I've never seen such an ass-backwards launch. Its almost unbelievable. If they were a tech company they'd be done.
ReplyDeleteI just calculated that CDBaby's 9% of my digital distribution sales amounts to $8400.
ReplyDeleteWhat do I get for that sum? At least in the past I could get some kind of accounting picture, now I can't even get monthly sales totals and have to scroll through page after page and add it up myself on a calculator.
TuneCore here I come.
Thanks, Pony, for shedding some light on what's really going on with the relaunch.
ReplyDeleteBased on what we're all experiencing, why not rollback to the old site?
Getting all the problems tested and fixed before going public is surely the way to go. Right now, it's artists and audience as guinea pigs. And our relationships are dying through the experiment.
Would Pony please identify himself? We won't tell, promise (collective promise)
ReplyDeleteSounds like Pony is actually called Pony. Kevin of CD Baby has called him that on the cdbaby.org site
ReplyDeleteHopefully the new management doesn't fire him.
If Pony is an employee, he sounds credible to me, which can be reassuring for all of us. If we accept that "The core values of CDBaby are intact" then I'm inclined to give CD Baby the benefit of the doubt until we see concrete evidence to the contrary. Despite everything we've seen this month, I believe most artists won't jump ship. . .unless or until!
ReplyDeleteThe evidence so far seems to indicate that everyone there is doing their best in a difficult situation. But their communication has been sorely lacking from long before day one. And though I haven't seen any sign that cdbaby.org will "lock" or censor the forums, I felt the need to start this blog so that there would be a place for us to gather elsewhere--so that we could have a central clearing house for info such as links to the competition and so forth.
After all, who has time to scroll thru 1000 posts over there to find out what people have been doing?
And here, of course, there aren't any of these tedious "Katie, help, it's an emergency" type communications. Let them get on with their business over there, and here we can observe things from a bit outside all the fog.
hi, i know pretty much how the musician feels about this overhaul,how do the general folks feel--the buyers--i have done really well with physical cds--europe has been really good for me--i feel i have lost all contact with the folks---the "hit" thing made me feel there were people out there looking-surfing-the accounting is naked and generic-nothing there-i hate it-- mark
ReplyDeleteI'd feel safer if Pony was the boss. As it is he and the rest of the CD Baby team that hold the "core values" have to follow the orders of management who have created this disaster.
ReplyDeletePony is indeed an employee, he speaks the truth and does very genuinely care about the artists and customers. Everyone calls him Pony.
ReplyDelete- Random coworker.
I wasn't getting answers to emails since Derek left and noticed figures in my accounting going up and down well before the launch. No one retuned my calls or emails. Pony , good intentions , maybe. The truth for me is in cd babys actions. Everyone wants the old accounting back and many are making valid suggestions for improving. If cd baby cares and wants to do the right thing they need to act and make the changes now. Many including myself have made huge efforts to get cd baby to do the right thing. If they don't do something now to turn thing s around , show some sign that they care and are listening to the artist then I'll have trouble believing they care or intend to do the right thing.ACTIONS, talk is cheap.
ReplyDeleteI'm posting a comment here because I can't seem to post at cdbaby.org which concerns me because I've had no problem posting there until starting last night. I have 5 cds with cdbaby and would like very much to see them get things worked out .I consider these forums vital in keeping them honest. My post for cdbaby:
ReplyDeleteBefore this relaunch I don't think I've seen unhappy people on cd baby.I don't have a problem at all with the people that are trying to fix things, but also don't have any problem with the people that are speaking up about whats wrong.I think its important to speak up.I want cd baby to be the company I joined and expect cd baby to listen to our complaints, there valid.Most of these complaints are at who is making the decisions not the people on this forum who work for cd baby.I like the new artist pages, I don't like the front page to the site its generic looking and does not reflect the talented artist that make up cd baby.Many here would be happy to contribute artwork towards a new front page, then make a t-shirt with the new front page artwork and we'll wear them to our gigs and help generate sales. I would prefer the old accounting system and the section that told us how many visitors we had and where on the web they came from.Many of us had figured ways to actually see what marketing ideas worked by seeing who visited and where they came from.Many hours have been spent making it all work for ourselves and for cd baby.Everyone knows how nice it is to come to your site and see a sale even when its only $.14. Just that little bit could make my day. How brilliant it would be if someone would make the decision to give us back the old accounting and a few bits of the old site and the best of the new site.If i hear those words then I'll no that someone cares and is listening and prepared to maintain the high level of integrity and quality that Derek started and made cd baby the company that it has been till now.OR you can ignore us and power on ,but if it doesn't work remember those of us spread out around the U.S. and beyond who watch from a totally different perspective and have taken the time to write these emails and try with all our hearts and skills to help out and keep the high standards and save cd baby from taking a dive into the cosmic unknown.
feel free to repost my comment above at cdbaby.org if you feel like it, thanks Richy
ReplyDeletehi Richy - your message is now posted on the latest cdbaby.org forum. Bizarrely, it kept getting rejected when I tried to post there - until I realized it didn't like the word "generic" that's in your post. That was blocking the message from being posted - so, I made it "gen*ric" with an asterisk in place of one e, and, voila, it's now there!
ReplyDeleteand, here's my own overview:
Rollback - will there be one?
That's the question on the mind of this particular canary in the coalmine.
While I've seen an artist/member or two speculate on this question, it'd be much appreciated to get an answer from CD Baby as to whether or not a rollback is in the offing.
Like other canaries singing here, we've been here for years - since 2002 - and until now, have never had a reason to consider leaving. We all come to things at different points, and, it's now such a threshold.
I see staff working extremely hard to plug all the leaks in the dykes. (Sorry, tapped out of mining metaphors.) And, Cd Baby staffers who care just as much as we, on the artist (and customer), side do about this very special place. Passions run high because, for many of us, CD Baby, represents more than just a site to sell CDs and downloads.
Since 2002, it's enabled us to successfully live as completely independent music-makers and music-lovers.
Unfortunately, how CD Baby operates fundamentally for artist and audience, seems broken - by the programming, if that's the right IT word. All the system-wide fixes, all the one-on-one attention, hasn't made our accounting pages any more useable or reliable. And so on, for countless CD Baby artist/members, there's a different glitch that needs tending.
I'd like to believe the promises that in a few weeks time, or, as is being said more frequently now, in a few months time, things will be back to normal working around here.
The calendar dates, we're promised, will be returned to the digital distribution sales and reporting columns/data, the "hits" feature will be returned etc. etc. etc. Hopefully these things will return.
Why were such essential and helpful tools removed in the first place?! How could anyone with an understanding of what artists, and, even, accountants, need at CD Baby have made these changes for the worse?
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" has appeared in numerous threads. And for good reason!
Tech people have discussed how the programming is responsible for the lack of searchability, the accounting wonkiness etc. etc. And, we all hope the IT team can fix these problems. But why a site with such problems would be public is a bigger, managerially directed, question.
Pony has candidly told us that this site was relaunched before it was ready. Understandably, there's enthusiasm and desire to get the new show on the road. But, when launched prematurely, well, we are witnessing the result.
The same management that made the executive decision to launch this site when it was faulty and bug-ridden, is still here. The problems cannot be hung on staff who are doing their jobs, and, as Pony puts it, maintain the "core values" of CD Baby.
What worries me, going forward, is how things are managed. Just as I may support the troops, but not George W or Dick Cheney, I find that CD Baby staff have been unfailingly helpful and good in all our dealings. But, do the managers of CD Baby have our same best interests at heart?
The relaunch may be a colossal programming failure, precipitated by a self-imposed deadline for roll-out. Whatever. It's done.
What's next? A rollback is one thing that I can believe in...
I don't have a planned release until next spring so there's plenty of time. My concern is if the whole thing implodes what kinda a nightmare it would be to pull my catalog and go with someone else to deliver DD to the different stores. Unless a product has been pulled i'm sure a redelivery will be rejected.
ReplyDeleteI would be helpful to hear from someone who already jumped ship.
As noted near the top, a few of us have tried out bandcamp.com and I'm happy to report that the place is as near a perfect spot for promoting my music and selling it as any I've used. It's free, all profits go to me (except PayPal's cut), all songs are previewed full-length at 128k, there are no creepy Match.com ads (or any ads); with just one click your prospective clients can listen to your whole album without interruption...I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that there's a kind of genius at work there. Give it a shot if you have a new album in the can and you're afraid to put it on CD Baby at present...
ReplyDeleteEd, everyone, best wishes.
ReplyDeleteBandcamp looks interesting and I've seen some comments on the cdbaby.org forums that sound positive. Still, I have looked at PayPal's page explaining "micropayments" and don't understand how it works.
Let's say you're selling single downloads at $0.99 and your albums at $8.99. Which PayPal option do you go for? And, if someone buys three single downloads - does that mean you pay three PayPal charges, or, do these all aggregate, and you pay one PayPal charge based on a sale of $2.97 (3 X $0.99).
Sorry to get into such details, but, I'm trying to grasp if it's viable and how sales are approached.
Thanks for any insight!
Adrian,
ReplyDeleteFrom bandcamp's "Sell Your Music" page:
PayPal's standard transaction fee works out to about 33 cents for a $1 payment and 45 cents for a $5 payment (in U.S. dollars). Luckily, they provide an alternative designed for lower-priced items called the "micropayments rate." Using micropayments, the fee is 10 cents for a $1 payment and 30 cents for a $5 payment. If you anticipate that most of your sales will be $12 USD and below, we highly recommend you sign up for micropayments.
I myself anticipate sales (if any) of $12 and below, so I chose the micropayments. I'm sure each transaction is totalled, regardless of the number of items in the transaction. So three downloads of $.99 would indeed be a transaction of $2.97, for a fee of less than $.30. Making $.90 on the dollar seems pretty good to me, as bandcamp doesn't take a cut. Hope this helps.
Pony, or anyone, can you explain this to me or help me find an answer. Regarding the 30 second sound clip (or less). What I'm finding is that it's a myth. I contact MCPS (we're with them in the UK), they said they'd never look for a royalty in this situation (selling CD's or downloads) as it comes under "Invitation to Trade". Added to this is the question, how come bandcamp, broadjam, ReverbNation etc. have full streams? Is it because we gave clearance for full streams as artists / managers. Is this more about bandwith rather than royalties? If anyone can shed any light on the U.S. side of this please let me know.
ReplyDeleteCath,
ReplyDeleteThe 30-second clips, in my view, were a way for CD Baby to cover all potential legal contingencies that might arise. They did not take into account, apparently, that many or most "indies" do not belong to any royalty collection agencies like ASCAP, BMI, SESAC. CD Baby could have covered themselves simply by adding a disclaimer to the artist agreement, allowing artists to waive any royalty payments due them. Thousands of music sites use this approach. I'm not aware of a single legal legal threat that arose when CD Baby was featuring the 2-minute previews, but they would know better than I, of course.
On a purely aesthetic level, the 30-second previews are an abomination. I've likened it to making a decision on whether to purchase a painting while being allowed to see only one square inch of it. It's a great disservice--and frankly an insult--to the integrity of the artist and his work. How can anyone possibly judge the worth of a song after only 30 seconds? We artists are losing sales because of this misguided decision.
Hey guys,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Kevin Rivers, CEO of WaTunes. I'd like to introduce you to a much more unique approach to digital distribution. With WaTunes, we've created the world's first every free online music distribution. This means that you can gain entry into the iTunes Store completely free (without any upfront charges + you keep 100% of your royalties!).
For an even bigger dish, WaTunes also works with other music store services like eMusic, Amazon, Rhapsody, Wal-Mart, and other music store services for just an additional store fee per album. Also if you guys really want to experience the best of both worlds, join the WaTunes VIP service for just $29.95 per year, where you'll be able to sell unlimited music & music videos to any music store + keep 100% of your royalties. If you guys would like to learn more about WaTunes, give us a buzz at: info@watunes.com. See ya there!
Kevin
I've been with CD Baby for about eight years. I hate to mention his name b/c I know with him it's personal, but didn't Moses Avalon warn us about exactly this sort of thing several years ago. His post from his site:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mosesavalon.com/mosessupposes/monthly.htm
<<<< In a public email response Sivers said, "I know a lot of this has to go on trust and my reputation as a moral dude." (see: http://www.musicthoughts.com/home) However, this premise pre-supposes that Derek Sivers (or some other "moral dude") will always be the owner of CD Baby!
One does not have to look back too far in time to remember the MP3.com debacle. At first, Michael Robertson was the champion of the indie. Many artists signed with MP3.com based on trust and perceived opportunity. And they were right for a while - until Vivendi Universal bought them and started changing the terms left and right, to their benefit, and not the artist's. A perfect example of what could happen with CD Baby.>>>>
They told me my uploads didn't match my song list, and that i have to mail a cd too them or use some completely different upload site to send it to them. 1. I never mess up and haven't on my last ten albums, so they are LIARS. 2. I gave them $35 for them to put my music on Apple's itunes and they can't even figure that out...very sad...bye bye awesome cd baby we will miss you...
ReplyDeleteI have a reputable record label and have all my releases with CD Baby and I've been completely satistfied throughout the years...until now. The accounting is absolutely horrible. I sent them a batch of CD's from one of my Artists and they never acknowledged receiving them or have updated the inventory on my account. I sent another batch of the same CD thinking maybe I was going crazy or something happened in their warehouse, but I needed this CD for sale a.s.a.p. 3 months later, it's still not listed. I had to send a threatening email message to CDBaby explaining the situation and demanding an answer to my previously ignored emails. They finally replied (funny how that works) and told me they acknowledged this and told me to go into my account and push this button and push that button. One problem...NO button! and still no inventory shows on the album! I'm so frustrated. Being a record label OR Artist, I'm sure you realize how important the release date is. It's especially important for me because I own a record label and have Artists on contract and this makes me look bad. I guess all we can do is wait it out now and also join sites like Tunecore, 101Distribution, and others. I'm very unpleased with the way things have become. It was almost a perfect system before. Why change it if it works? That's what I don't get. The way they had it before might have had a simple/plain look to it, but it worked and wasn't broken, so why fix it? They should just go back to the way things were. Give CDBaby.com a new look maybe, you know, to the general customers buying music, but for those of us selling music, give us our old accounting section back. It was great. It worked. I hold Derek Sivers somewhat responsible for selling us down the river.
ReplyDeletethe forums on cdbaby have been down since yesterday, i guess now there is absolutely no way to contact cdbaby unless you've got an entire day to spend on the phone on hold.
ReplyDeleteits really a bummer.
It's a real shame. I work for a small label, and we've had no end of trouble since the new launch. The old site was a bit tricky, and definitely had some quirks that needed to be addressed, but nothing on the scale of what it is now. The accounting section is a real hassle, and adding/editing albums is a perilous and bug-filled mess. I hate to speak bad about what was a great company, but I've been waiting all summer for things to improve, and it looks like it's never gonna happen.
ReplyDeleteThis is really messed up - I've been trying to get answers for months now with zero luck, meanwhile I am losing sales every day. (no digital downloading available, and they only let me know cds are out of stock when they already have a backload of orders which of course end up getting cancelled when the customer doesn't receive it for weeks on end)
ReplyDeleteThis is such a shame - I used to rave about this site, and Derek is a genuinely good guy - shame that him not being at the helm any longer seems to have triggered absolute implosion.
At the very least they could email you back or pick up the phone when you call. I am not really sure where to shift my stock too... damn it.
What attracted me to cdbaby in the beginning was the 2 minute music preview that allowed one to have a real taste of the music. Allowing only 30 seconds has stifled my desire to try new music. Who came up with this stupid change? Some MBA from Wharton.
ReplyDeleteno publishers who own the rigts to the music - 2 minutes as opposed to 30 seconds
ReplyDeleteartists who left cdbaby and find that their content music is still playing on payplay and stumble audio, I would like to hear from you at passagetohelena@yahoo.com...
ReplyDeletelet joel@cdbaby.com know about this...