CD Baby Closes Online CD Store for Independent Artists at End of March 2020

[bmoura]

The end of an era is here – CD Baby is shutting down its online music store at the end of March.

CD Baby first launched its online presence in 1998 as one of the first online CD stores for indie artists. Since then, it has become a massive global distributor of independent music and a major publishing rights administrator. Currently, CD Baby represents over 650,000 recording artists and 100,000 songwriters. The company reports payouts of more than $500 million to indie artists and labels for streams, CD and vinyl sales, YouTube revenue, sync licensing fees, and more.

In short – online CD sales have plummeted to a tiny percentage of the company’s revenues. In 2009, online store sales accounted for 27% of the total revenue paid to artists each week. By 2019, sales from the store account for less than 3% of artists’ overall earnings, according to the company.

Add flattening downloads into the mix, and the decision becomes pretty easy. “With a few exceptions, the store is no longer a money-maker for most of our artists,” an announcement reads.

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2020/02/19/cd-baby-shutting-down-online-retail-store/

 

[humprof]

Was sad but not surprised to get a forewarning email about this from CD Baby a couple of months ago. Last year they also got out of the hi-res download business, reducing the bitrate of all their downloads to 320kbps mp3s. (Earlier, they had begun offering 16/44.1 and even 24/96 FLACs.) Bandcamp evidently figured out how to do all of this better than CD Baby. Still sorry to see them go.

 

[splinter7]

So they will close down their online store but still serve as a physical distributor for orders via amazon or the artist's web store?
That doesn't seem to be something an artist can't figure out a way to work around. To me, this seems to more of telling sign that their own marketing efforts for their online store failed them. Am I missing something here?

 

[JediJoker]

To me, this seems to more of telling sign that their own marketing efforts for their online store failed them. Am I missing something here?

I think you're not far off. Their website is not easy or intuitive to navigate. I'm rather surprised they survived this long in the age of far more elegant online shopping experiences.

 

[splinter7]

You are so right Jedi. Sometime last year I stumbled onto an artist that was selling via CDbaby. It was challenging to buy from the site and I was kinda shocked that they were still around to go to in the first place.

If CDbaby is the self professed largest online distributor & publisher of independent music in the world and yet can't be bothered with (or successful) with even having their own digital music platform or selling service, I doubt they are good as they claim in other stuff.

 

[kap'n krunch]

CDBaby was never the same once Derek Sivers left, which was a VERY long time ago!

 

[Marplot]

yep shit site. I hope Michael Manring is able to find a new home for physical media.