More on the CD Baby buyout front.

Linked below is an article from Moses Avalon's website. For anyone who doesn't know who Moses Avalon is, he's the author of such books as "Confessions of a Record Producer" and a long time critic of Derek Sivers and CD Baby.

I won't even begin to go into his credibility, mainly because I don't put a lot of faith in people who hide behind a pseudonym, but his math in this is pretty intriguing. I do find it funny though, that for someone who has made it one of his missions to cast doubt on Derek Sivers, he sure does stroke him there toward the end.

It does seem that Discmakers are going to have their hands full doing damage control for some time to come.

Again, if any of this is true, which I'm sure it would be pretty easy to verify, then I truly hope that Discmakers does the things that they are promising and lends a little of their credibility to the situation.

http://www.mosesavalon.com/mosesblog/

Nameless faceless masses, or your very own evangelists?

Before I jump in, I would like to thank Tony Van Veen of Discmakers/CD Baby for his words regarding Discmaker's recent acquisition of CD Baby. Here at Serious Vanity Music we are not only users of CD Baby, but part of the Discmaker's Studio Partners program as well, and plan to stay that way. I know that, for our part anyway, we are looking forward to seeing what new benefits this change in ownership will bring to the CD Baby family.



So, let's talk Evangelism. I'm not referring to the Fire and Brimstone type, I'm talking about your fan base/customers/clients.

Are you content with having people like what you do, or are you ready to have them start spreading the word about you? There is a difference, you know. It's one thing to have the regulars show up at your weekly gig at the local club, but are they following you to that show 100 miles away? Are they on the Internet for weeks leading up to that show telling everyone they can about you and what they can expect if they show up?

People don't preach your message unless you give them a reason to. What benefits do you offer that will make people stand on the mountain tops and scream your name?

In this situation "benefit" is the operative word. People don't do anything is this world without a perceived benefit. They want to feel that they are getting something with enough value that it makes it worth their time to tell others about it.

New operative word "value". The American Heritage Dictionary (sorry, I couldn't find my copy of Websters) says Value is "an amount considered to be a suitable equivalent for something else; a fair price or return for goods or services". This doesn't have to be a monetary or even a physical investment on your part. Often times it comes down to just simply making a person feel that they are are a part of your team.

I know, Street Teams are nothing new, but that's not exactly what I'm getting at. I'm talking about community. To give an example; If you do a Google search for Duran Duran fan communities you will find that there are hundreds of them online. These are communities where it's a major pastime for the participants to just share their love for their favorite band. This may be a rather large example, with a couple of decades head start, but I think it's still the ideal example of what can be accomplished by making people feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves, and believe it or not, it's the quickest way to get your news spread about.

What are you willing to do to add value to your fan/customer/clients experience?

Only a matter of time?

Discmakers isn't wasting any time. Within a week of announcing their purchase of CD Baby, they're now in the process of launching Elite Artist Services, a nice little place where established acts can go when their tired of playing the Major Label game.

Offering services like Duplication, Merchandising, and DISTRIBUTION, it may well be just a matter of time before, like MP3.com, the Indie artists at CD Baby are completely overshadowed by the likes of NIN and Radiohead.

What could this "potentially" mean for Indie artists? The Worlds only Indie distribution company being flooded with the NEW Indies, former Major label acts that want to have more say in their music? Well, it could mean that, as Indies, we'll have to start stepping up our game. Or, it could also mean that the playing field just got leveled. I guess it depends on how you approach your music.

I'm not trying to hate on any artist who wants to have more control over their work, in fact I think that it'd be awesome if all artists had complete creative control, it would do away with the "Disney Creation" acts like Miley Cyrus and Vannessa Hudgens. We could stand to weed out the fodder a little bit.

The wheels of progress never stop.