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Saturday, November 7, 2009

Is Hostbaby a Rip-off?

Let me just preempt Derek and his apologists by pointing out that this is a 3 1/2 year old criticism of Hostbaby, so possibly it's not relevant to today's relaunch debates, but I'm linking to this because I'm curious and want to know more:

1.) Did Derek sell Hostbaby to Discmakers as part of his sale of CDBaby.com?

2.) Is Hostbaby a subsidiary of CDBaby or is it a completely separate entity?

3.) Compared to other web hosting services, is Hostbaby--at $20 per month or $200 per year--a rip-off?

Leave your questions & comments here. . .

Discussion at Cubase.net

Click the link above to see comments including some apparently from Derek. . .

Friday, November 6, 2009

Are Things Back to "Normal" at CD Baby?

With no updates from Brian Felsen since way back on October 13, and with a highly notable decline in complaints and posts at cdbaby.org (around 250 in almost three weeks), have things finally got back to "normal", however we might define that, nearly four months into this bug-plagued website relaunch?

Most of us would hope so! There are definite signs that DD sales are back on track, and I've heard rumors that CD Baby has resumed email notification of artist payments. Can anyone reading here confirm this?

While the frontline staff seems to have addressed the hundreds of individual glitches of complaining artists in a satisfactory manner, I can personally attest that, since Derek sold the company to Discmakers in 2008, sales of physical discs have flattened or plummeted. Is this because the new search functionalities are apparently useless to us? Is it more difficult for the casual browsing customer to find, and therefore buy, our music? Based upon no scientific evidence but plenty of anecdotal comment, my guess to that is yes.

If CD Baby is now back to "normal" for most or all of us, then I'm happy for the company and its couple hundred thousand artists. But now I am faced with the problem I had back in July: mustering up the energy & will to visit my account and relearn to navigate its confusing myriad of virtual hallways and rooms. I didn't like what was offered in July, and I doubt that I will like it much better today. As I have often stated before, it's tons easier (and more fun!) to administer this blog than it is to visit my artist account. Before July 2009 I visited CD Baby everyday for just a few minutes. Now I visit this blog every day, again just for a few minutes.

Given the choice, I'd still rather be visiting CD Baby than running this blog. But the pessimist in me suggests that it's far too soon to expect that this will be the case. Any thoughts on this? Leave your comments here. . .

Monday, October 26, 2009

Chris@CDBaby on Redesigned Hits Counter

Here's the latest nugget from Chris at CDBaby.org which caught my eye:

". . .Derek programmed the old hits counter to tally bot hits from search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.). . ." (The old hits counter) "also credited spam bots as actual valid hits."

Furthermore, Chris wrote: ". . .when our IT team redesigned the hits counter they made sure it only tallied up valid hits from real actual people."

This, Chris explains, is the reason many artists are seeing fewer hits on their counters since the function was recently restored by popular demand.

Just thought I'd pass that along. . .

Friday, October 23, 2009

Derek's New Venture

Years in the drawing board stages, Derek Sivers's new baby is being slowly unveiled. Check out the link above for more info.

Can we get Brian & Tony to hire an EMT Team Google and/or Derek & Muckwork to join the overworked and underfed CD Baby techs and frontofficers as consultants?

The irony of it kills me--I'm falling out of my chair: Derek cashes out (good for him!) to Discmakers which runs the Baby into the ground. CorinthianCap, now desperate to get a return on its investment, hires Derek to come back and make things better.

I'm dreaming, I know. . .

Friday, October 16, 2009

Why Did Sivers Sell Out? Here's A Clue

This is kind of interesting, so check it out if you haven't already.

Thanks to the fellow over at cdbaby.org who posted it.

Felsen Reports "DD News"

Brian's latest from a couple days ago is hyperlinked above. . .

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