CD Baby closes online store, still doing distribution

CD Baby started out as an online CD store back in 1998, back when CD's were the dominant music format. This was also in the early era of the Internet, and the world was about to change in a big way.

The following year, Napster came on the scene allowing users to upload and download music files for free. That put a major hurting on CD sales and the music business retaliated with lawsuits. However,  the lawsuits couldn't stop the general public from wanting to download music from the Internet.  A few years later, Apple CEO Steve Jobs came up with an idea to allow music businesses to sell mp3 copies through the company's online store iTunes. 

While CD Baby continued to sell CD's, they expanded their business by becoming a music distribution service for independent artists. 

The music distribution was changing at the time, with the emphasis changing from getting the music into physical stores to now getting the music into online stores and later, streaming sites. 

Independent artists don't need to audition for CD Baby. They just submit their music to CD Baby, pay a fee,  and their music will be distributed to iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Deezer, Pandora, TikTok and much more. 

And their music would be available on CD Baby's online store (store.cdbaby.com). Until now.

In February 2020, CD Baby announced that they are going to shut down their online store while still distributing music to other platforms. 

The following is a snippet of the press release from CD Baby's CEO Tracy Maddux

https://diymusician.cdbaby.com/business/the-music-business-is-evolving-and-were-evolving-with-it/

22 years ago when CD Baby launched our online store it was revolutionary, helping independent musicians gain direct access to their fans and the market in the only way available at the time. By 2009, sales through our store accounted for only 27% of the total revenue we paid to artists every week. By 2019, sales on our store comprised less than 3% of our clients’ total earnings. It’s clear that our store just isn’t where fans want to engage with their favorite artists and discover new music. 

This announcement came a few days after I submitted the music files, cover art & other information for my latest instrumental album "Naptime Music: an instrumental album". At that point, I already paid the fees for the online distribution and CD manufacturing.

Being that I was envisioning "Naptime Music" to be played for preschool naptimes, and some preschool teachers still used CD's for naptime, I thought manufacturing CDs will be perfect for this album.

CD Baby did state this about their physical distribution program

https://support.cdbaby.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039018232-What-you-should-know-about-the-retirement-of-CD-Baby-s-retail-store-?_ga=2.259793289.286372079.1585549405-2024275994.1585549402

Will CD Baby still warehouse and ship my CDs and Vinyl?

YES! Although we’re retiring our own retail store, we’re continuing our physical distribution program.

CD Baby will continue to:

• warehouse your CDs and vinyl
• fulfill orders placed through Amazon, Alliance, local record stores, and other outlets
• send you re-stock requests when we need more discs

and 

Where should I send fans to buy my CDs and Vinyl? You should send fans to where your CDs are being sold. This could be the Amazon Marketplace, your own website, or more! If you are directing fans to your website, social media platforms or EPKs, you'll just want to be sure to remove old CD Baby store links and replace them with links to one of the examples mentioned.

And this is where I still have more questions than answers.

Ever since Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior started selling music in 2016,  I have encouraged my fans to go to store.cdbaby.com to buy physical CDs of my music.

 I have long boycotted Amazon because of the documented workplace abuses going on in their warehouses.

Learn more at "Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace" 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?_r=0


(note: users can use the Amazon site to find items sold by CD Baby, but the CD's are coming from CD Baby's warehouse, not the Amazon warehouse. As far as I know, CD Baby's warehouse doesn't have any documented workplace abuses like Amazon does).


 I did check to see if Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior has any listings on Amazon. Only 2 of my album CD's are listed ("Urban Honolulu Jams" and "Sounds Like a Video Game"). My other 2 albums ("Urban Honolulu Metal Industries" and "Naptime Music") are not listed.

I have sent an email to CD Baby about that issue. Still waiting for a reply. 

I still want to direct my fans to buy my CD's, but I can't do that if there's nowhere to link to. That's my main concern with CD Baby closing its online store and Amazon not listing all my CD's that I'm selling through CD Baby. 

Yes, my fans can still download my mp3's from iTunes and Google Play. My fans can still stream from Spotify and Apple Music.  I'm grateful that CD Baby has distributed my music to those platforms.

But I did spend money on getting my CDs manufactured and distributed and I still want a place for my CD loving fans to buy them. 

I'm still waiting to have this issue resolved!