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Posted By: Everett Adams CD Baby about to go single downloads. - 07/11/09 04:04 PM
I had an email from them saying, starting this weekend, that they would start allowing single song downloads from their site. I believe that you can upload single songs to their site too, not necessary to do CDs any more. Could be interesting but I have a few questions I will be seeking answers for.
Hi Ev:

I got the same notification. I also noticed that the "payout" to the "artist" is gonna be less. I'm not a happy camper over this aspect of the deal... but single downloads appear to be where music is headed these days. Funny how everyone's costs keep rising but the value of our songs can be shrunk to a point where it's not worth trying to sell them.

Dave Rice

http://www.ShowCaseYourMusic.com/DaveRice
Thanks for sharing this update! I just checked my email and have not received any notice from CD Baby yet. Maybe it will come later this weekend or by Monday. Interesting that we can now upload single songs. I wonder what the new commission percentages will be?

I'll stay tuned!
Michael
They will be taking the same(9%) from songs on the other sites like ITunes,etc. but will take 25%(or 29cents(minimum)) from sales on their site, which actually Dave, should be a bit better than before. Other sites were taking 30% and CD Baby were taking 9% of what came to us, they won't be taking that 9% of sales on their site, just the 25% of the retail price, which we can set. A $1:00 sale on ITunes left 70cents less 6.3 cents for CD Baby, leaving us 63.7, from their site we should receive 71 cents, I used a dollar price for ease of calculation.
Everett,
That's not a bad deal, actually quit fair!
And probably they still keep $4 per unit for physical CD sales, unless it's now 25% of retails sales price?

I tried to log in to my artist account to see what's up, but it's closed for maintenance until Monday (tomorrow), so I'll try to get back in then.

Michael
They said that they had to close for a while for the switch over. I think the flat rate for CD sales stays the same.
I first predicted that Singles are the way to go in 1998 in one of our earliest newsletters. This pretty much makes it a certainty. There's no reason to wait a year or years between new music releases. I think active artists should add songs for sale the minute they make them.. monthly.. weekly.. daily.. whatever your rate of creation is.. post them and keep folks interested and curious about your development.

Brian
Hi Guys.I am glad its going this way.I was prolific a few years ago but now i only get a good song every 6 months.This is a great way to keep your catalog growing and market your older songs too.I have been really enjoying "Our stage".You can hear some awesome singles there and help support artists you love.'Cd Baby' has been a blessing to so many of us so i cant say enough good things about them. http://www.mjmrecords.com/default.htm
Hi everyone,

I'm still not able to login to my CD Baby artist account, but I guess the upgrade is a fairly substantial undertaking. Having said that, if I can't login by next week, I will be sending them a friendly message.

CD Baby will also be offering a "Download Card" service via Disk Makers. Download cards are basically credit card sized vouchers that you can sell or give away. The buyer has to go to your artist page online to redeem the card and download songs.
(Note that CD Baby has an affiliation with Disk Makers).
Companies like Fizzkicks, Discrevolt, Dropcards and others already offer download cards with slightly different advantages and payment options, so make sure you shop around.

Cheers,
Andy

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