CD Baby acquired by Disc Makers

I love CD Baby. I have always loved CD Baby. I remember when the site first appeared so many years ago. It really was quite a bit ahead of it's time and has grown to become one of the most important resources for independent musicians on the web.

I released a solo CD in 2004 and used a well known company for printing my discs called Disc Makers. I was extremely happy with their work and thought they did very professional work and something of which I am still proud of today. Once I had my CD's, I knew without a doubt that the first thing I had to do was sign up on CD Baby. So I did, and I added my CD, sent in the 5 copies and signed up for the $35 digital distribution deal. This made me ecstatic! $35 to put my music on 20+ (at the time, and growing) digital music marketplaces? My CD on MSN Music? On Yahoo! Music!? On RHAPSODY!? Even on iTunes!?!?!!! YES, PLEASE!

So it turns out that I was not able to follow up with these wonderful syndication efforts of my friends at CD Baby with the correct amount of guerrilla marketing or gigging or self-promotion or any of that. Instead, I decided to move to California and give up the wonderful fan base I had spent years growing in South Dakota (I miss you all!). So the timing wasn't quite right, but CD Baby still did me right. My music is now available on more than 40 digital music marketplaces.

So when I read the news that CD Baby was acquired by Disc Makers, everything seemed in it's right place. Derek knew all along what he was doing and created a revolutionizing product because of it. I couldn't think of a better or more fitting company to acquire CD Baby and know that it wouldn't alienate the CD Baby artists or it's roots.

So I say, thank you Derek Sivers! Thank YOU CD Baby!! Here is a little blurb from Derek himself:

There's a beautiful quote from Abraham Maslow: "Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth). Make the growth choice a dozen times a day." (http://sivers.org/maslow)

You might have seen in CD Baby's 10th birthday announcement last March (http://sivers.org/bilbo) that I haven't worked at CD Baby since last year. In fact I've hardly been there since 2002. I designed all the internal systems to run without me, so that I could be free to go learn and invent new things.

But now my new projects are exciting me so much that I decided to hand over CD Baby to someone that's going to make it better than ever for you. I chose Disc Makers as the new owner because their president Tony Van Veen has been one of my favorite people for years, and I always felt they'd do a better job of running CD Baby than I could.

The CD Baby staff, location, name, and everything else will stay the same, but I think you'll start to notice more attention given to improvements that help you sell more music.

So, this isn't big news. Just letting you know that CD Baby is in better hands now, and I'm off to new things.

Oh, and don't forget to go over and buy my CD at CD Baby right away, because nobody else gives me as much money from the purchase cost then they do.