understand how to do this and answer their [Kevin] CD Baby from the beginning has Spotify, for every five dollars you make there
questions, so that’s what I got a job doing. always been about helping artists monetize is additional dollar of publishing royalties that
That’s where things started happening. I would their music to its fullest. When we started, that is owed to you if it’s original music. So even
just be on the phone with artists all day long, meant helping them sell CDs directly to fans on streaming platforms there is publishing
and some of them just wanted career advice. because they could not get their CD into stores revenue that if you don’t have a publishing
This whole new world of digital distribution was without a label. We did some other things as administrator, that money is just getting paid
starting to open up and they didn’t understand. well to help them monetize merch at that time. out to major label artists. You hear the term
Then we were the first independent distributor ‘black box royalties’. We do have a sync-
I was already a podcast junkie, I loved listening to distribute to iTunes and the download stores licensing department here, we’ve been getting
to podcasts. So, that’s when I thought, “I wish that popped up. a lot of placements for independent artists in
I could have a longer conversation with artists,
film and TV, and that’s really growing. We get
and there are artists who are doing cool things So now when you go to CD Baby we are artists music on Instagram stories, we monetize
that could help other artists understand the helping you monetize a lot of music rights. on Facebook.
opportunities for them as far as going direct, We still have a warehouse and sell your CDs you don’t need a label”. So I started the DIY if you so choose, for some artists that is still So there are all of these new ways that people
Musician podcast for CD Baby. I just posted a very sizeable revenue stream. We do digital are using music. It’s just the ways people are
our 233 episode a couple of days ago. distribution, which is Spotify, Amazon, and engaging with music have just exploded, so
Apple Music. But it’s worldwide, and that’s we’re helping them collect all of those royalties.
If you just search ‘CD Baby podcast’ or ‘DIY one thing that is very different that artists Because every time someone uses your music,
Musician podcast’ it’ll come up. You can find it really have to start understanding. There are no matter if it’s on Facebook or YouTube or
on any podcast app that you use, it’s in any of these incredible worldwide markets opening Instagram, or on a TV show or streaming
the directories, and it’s even on Spotify. up that aren’t Spotify, that aren’t Apple. That’s service, there’s in many cases multiple revenue
what we know in the US. But Asia is really streams that if you’re not set up to collect
So that was one of those things, I wanted exploding with some new streaming services you’re missing out on. So we make sure you’re
to help artists understand that there was a which have millions of people streaming in set up to collect all of those.
better way, they didn’t need a label they just these services, which we’ve never even heard had to focus on building direct relationships of here in America. Same thing with Africa So that’s our core business. We have a lot
with their fans and marketing themselves. And and Latin America. Some of these territories of marketing services we’re working on. We
understand how new technologies are helping that are developing countries have actually have one called Show.co that helps artists do
them reach more people, more affordably. skipped the download era because they didn’t Spotify pre-saves, it also has an ad platform in
have personal computers, but the streaming it. It’s free for CD Baby artists to get a Show.co
Then we were sold to Disc Makers, and that’s services are bundled in with their cell phones, account right from their dashboard.
when we started building out real departments which they all have now.
rd
for the business. That’s when we established
Then we have the conference that we’re doing,
a marketing department, and I got moved to So there are a lot of these amazing music the artist conference. When I discovered
that. I was already doing some other business markets that are just opening up, so getting CD Baby one of the things at its core that I
development things for the company at that your music on all of those platforms is a big loved back in 2003, was it had resources and
point. But then I got moved to the marketing piece. We do YouTube monetization that drives educational things to help me understand what
department and started the social marketing millions and millions of dollars for artists. We my options were as an artist and who I could go
when that was a brand-new concept. Then do publishing administration. So if you write to for different services. We’ve exploded that
I worked my way to becoming the VP of original music we collect that publishing writer out, like with the podcast, which was the first
marketing. royalty and publisher royalty, that you really expression of expanding on that and trying to
can’t get without a service like us going out educate the artist community. We have a blog
there and getting it for you. that’s really popular, and now we have this
[WM] CD Baby has had to change quite a bit
as all of these new technologies rolled through,
DIY Musician Conference which is really just
CDs went out. What is the main push for CD [WM] Are those for songs that land on TV and us helping the artist community understand
Baby now? What is your main emphasis for other uses? that they have a lot of opportunity if they just
helping artists and how does that work?
go for it, and understand and are willing to do
[Kevin] Even just for streaming platforms, like
June 2019
some work on their own. Just like a lot of the
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