Oregonians just love boasting about their lack of extraneous fees, don’t they? First they all but force me to travel hundreds of miles to the state in order to satisfy my desire for tax-free rubber bands, and now the Portland-based CD Baby — an unintentional term of endearment for the musicians they’ve treated so well, “baby” — is offering an astounding deal to holiday consumers looking to catch a financial break in their admirably sustained purchase of CDs (contrary to vinyl or digital downloads). Online purchases sure are convenient, but it’d be great not to be blindsided by dickish shipping costs after my brain’s already grown accustomed to the subtotal.
One motherfucking cent! That’s how much the distributor of both music and royalties is charging for shipping on all CDs ordered between Cyber Monday (December 1) and Wednesday, December 3. Nationally or internationally. One CD or CD Baby’s entire goddamn warehouse; the shipping costs will be one cent per order.
It’s a pretty sweet deal, and CD Baby promises that the reduction in shipping costs will “not affect how much artists make from CD sales or the pricing they have set.” Instead, assuming there’s an increase in sales during the indicated period, artists will make a bit more cash, and the company in question will get to clear out some of their inventory of a dying medium. Does anybody lose in this scenario?
• CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com