For a company with a name as terrible as CD Baby, CD Baby sure has lasted a while. In fact, the company has been around since founder Derek Sivers first thought “I don’t think CD Baby is a bad name for a music distribution company that works directly with artists” nigh on a decade ago (well, okay, it wasn’t actually around-around until he legally incorporated, but what is this, Legally Blonde?). And ever since that thought first flashed across his mind while he was doing his girlfriend, CD Baby has grown to become one of the biggest distributors of independent artists’ music in the known universe, going on not only to help break musicians who came-up “indie” (The Fray, Jack Johnson, Ingrid Michaelson, Regina Spektor), but also musicians who are “terrible” as well (Ric Ocasek, John Oates, Martin Balin of Jefferson Airplane).
In fact, as hypebot reports, CD Baby claims that it has just passed the $200 million mark in dollars paid directly to non-Radiohead musicians. In addition, its new-ish free Music Store app for Facebook, which allows CD Baby artists to sell Mp3s, CDs, and vinyl directly from their Facebook page, has already reached 250,000 users in the five weeks since launch. And with a current payout rate of something like $40 million a year, CD Baby expects to cross the quarter billion dollar threshold in 2012. Hey! Now every indie artist out there has enough extra cash to, say, pay for his or her Spotify account and never mail-order a CD again! Not to mention the fans who could also already do that instead… uh, hmm. Welp, enjoy your moment, CD Baby!
• CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com
