CD Baby Turns 10! Still #1 for Indie Artists!

I've been buying music on CD Baby since 1999 and selling music there since January of 2000, and today, I received an email from Derek Sivers and the wonderful folks over at CD Baby that they are now 10 years old, having started in March of 1998. Wow, time has flown by - Congrats Derek and everyone at CD Baby! You guys really do rock!!!  Here are a few snippets from Derek's email, or you can read his post.

"CD Baby has paid over $70 million dollars(!!) directly to musicians. And despite the moaning you hear from the majors, independent artists are selling better than ever. Even physical CD sales are up 30% over last year!"

Wow, I remember when Derek broke $1 million paid and we were all celebrating - what a great accomplishment for them... separately, it's interesting to note that physical media is still selling well... how long will that last?

"Helping you develop, create, promote, and sell your music makes me happier than anything.  It's still why I bounce out of bed in the morning. I love it even more than making my own music. (Weird, huh?)  By helping you get your music out to the world, and helping you make a living doing it, I feel that in a way I'm making more music than ever."

This kind of thinking is just another reason why after all these years, CD Baby remains the number one place to sell your music on the net, not to mention their easy-to-use interface.

Keep on keeping on CD Baby! It's companies like yours that are truly changing the way businesses do business.

Oh, and btw, if you're not selling your music on CD Baby yet, you can signup here. And if you're already selling your music on CD Baby, tell your friends to buy it there instead, as you get 91 percent of the total sale, and that's a great deal more than you would get somewhere else.

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listening to Shark Quest when I wrote this post

"Immigration Man" Covered by MoG: Hit or Miss

MoG Music is about to release a compilation with a couple of new tracks, like their version of Immigration Man, a 1972 hit by Graham Nash and David Crosby. To help promote their release, Harvey Wharfield with MoG sent this cover over and asked me to post it here for your review. Is this song a hit, or did they miss the mark? You be the judge by rating and/or reviewing it below:

Btw, in case you're wondering if they have the digital rights to distribute this song, the answer is yes. Their license with HFA is 1080041265.

If you would like to submit your music to be posted for a "Hit or Miss" review, just drop me a note.

Alltop: A Music News Dashboard

If you're like most musicians, you've probably subscribed to several music feeds via RSS to keep your finger on the pulse of the music industry. About two weeks ago, I learned of Alltop, a free "digital magazine rack" that aggregates music stories, among other types of news topics from leading sites and blogs into an easy-to-scan page, displaying the five most recent music headlines from each content provider (e.g. Paste Magazine). You can then place your cursor over any headline and part of the story will be displayed, allowing you to quickly decide if you want to continue reading it.

What's interesting about that, you ask.... A great deal actually, as Alltop becomes an eloquent, content-specific, "table of contents" on today's music news, updated every 10 minutes. More importantly, it's a great tool for discovering new feeds, part of the company's mission - "the cessation of Internet stagnation.” Here are just a few sites I discovered for the first time by going to music.alltop.com:

• KEXP Blog
• Gorillavsbear
• Music Thing

New Barack Obama Music Video: A Tribute by Greg Hester

About two weeks ago, Greg Hester phoned and said he was thinking about creating a music video for Barack Obama using a song he wrote several years ago called, "President," as he was in the process of re-recording it with Eric McConnell in Nashville. I knew right away that Greg had a great idea and the funked-up version, now called "Prezident" with Ivan Neville, Danny Ray and the James Brown Band (the JBs) would do well, and would probably generate some new listeners for Greg as well... so, we moved as quickly as possible to release it, and just a few minutes ago I received the final edited video from Shannon Pengelly, so please take a look and tell us what you think:

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification