CD Baby is an awesome site dedicated to profiting from unfortunate stoners helping independant artists distribute their music. They have a surprisingly simple but effective business model:
- Pay them $40 (US) to encode your CD (artists keep all copyrights, rights to non-digital distribution, and can leave at any time with 30 days notice)
- They distribute it to Rhapsody, iTunes, and other digital distribution outlets
- For every dollar made, 9c goes to CDBaby, 91c goes to the artist
- Profit!
I’m sure there are caveats and catches, but it still sounds a lot better than the traditional model:
- Get signed by music label
- They distribute CD, all expenses incurred are culled from any royalties you make
- Artists don't actually own their own music, copyrights, or distribution rights - these go to the label
- Artists get a couple of cents in the dollar, but are left with crippling debts
- Label goons tie up artists' grandmothers and slowly break their fingers to blackmail artists back into the studio
- Artists die alcoholic and alone
My plan for goldsounds.com was always to turn it into a music site, so don’t be surprised if you see a CD-baby-ish business model appear. I like it a lot.