Derek Sivers, CDBaby
By Alex Teitz
Derek Sivers is the head and driving force of CD Baby, an online retailer that appeals to independent musicians. A talented musician in his own right, Sivers has become an emerging force for musicians starting out. Sivers and CD Baby have been involved with Indiegrrl nearly since it’s beginnings. FEMMUSIC was able to catch up with him briefly for an e-mail interview.
For more information on CD Baby visit the site at cdbaby.com
FEMMUSIC: Before starting CD Baby you were making a good living as a full-time musician. Could you tell us about that?
DS: Sure. Graduated Berklee College of Music. (Traveled with a circus as the ringleader, MC, and musician for 8 years before that.)
Moved to New York City and got a sweet job at Warner Brothers as staff producer/engineer/taperoom guy.
Wonderful job, but soon I was traveling the world playing guitar for Ryuichi Sakamoto, playing to audiences of 15,000 people at the age of 22! I had to leave my cushy job at Warners.
I started my own band, Hit Me, and got us into the college circuit. After 2-3 years of hacking away at it, it really paid off and we were hired by over 350 colleges in the northeast, and made a bunch of money.
But as of last year I had been on the road for 10 years straight (age 18-28) so when my little hobby took off (cdbaby.com) I didn’t mind a bit, getting off the road and working from home for a change.
FEMMUSIC: What made you decide to start CD Baby?
DS: In 1996 I was really into the ‘net, it was so wild and new and uncommercialized. My Hit Me CD was selling well, but there were NO online record stores that would sell it! They all said you needed national distribution, which I didn’t want.
So – I started a little corner of my site to sell my own CD, and told some musician friends about it, too. It was meant to be a little hobby I did as a favor for other musicians, but oops… Friends told friends and now there are 2000 musicians on CD Baby, just by word of mouth alone.
FEMMUSIC: What are your long term goals for CD Baby?
DS: Stay small. Stay focused.
I know what makes me happy. I don’t want to be rich. I don’t want to be “big”. I love being small. I answer to no one. I have total freedom and always do whatever I want. I want CD Baby to keep doing exactly what we’re doing now, without being distracted.
We really are the best at selling independent CDs. It’s all we do, we’re totally focused on it, and because of that musicians tend to sell more CDs on our site than anywhere else.
FEMMUSIC: Can you tell me about some of the details of CD Baby? For example, do you report to Soundscan? How often are your artists paid, etc…?
DS: Yeah we’re starting to report to SoundScam this month. And we write checks to musicians every week.
We have no contract. Musicians send their CDs here, and we send a receipt saying, “Got ’em! We’ll pay you $___ when they sell!”
Everything here is as surprisingly simple as possible. I’ve still never hired a lawyer in my life. There’s really no reason to make life so complicated. It distracts from the music.
FEMMUSIC: Online retailers have come under increasing scrutiny recently because of questions about sound files. What is reaction to this?
DS: Oh! I didn’t even know! Questions about soundfiles? Hmm….
We just use 2-minute clips in RealAudio, from 4 different songs on the CD. It’s plenty to let our customers know if they’re going to like that CD. But not enough to truly satiate them, or let them “steal” the music.
Always leave people wanting more. Magic rule of marketing.
FEMMUSIC: CD Baby became involved in Indiegrrl early on. Why was that?
DS: Because Indiegrrl rules!! Indiegrrl is the greatest example of the power of networking through the internet.
Finding like-minded folks around the world, and not only communicating in that circle, but also DOING something about it. Organizing the IndieGrrl tour was brilliant. It’s so rare that people move from the online “talk talk talk” and shut off their computers and go make a difference in the world.
Indiegrrl is the only organization I’ve ever seen do that, and I’ll always be a fan.
FEMMUSIC: What would you like to see changed most about the music industry?
DS: I hope that all the companies are bought by bigger and bigger companies and they keep merging, until it’s just one big company called “AOLTIMEWARNEREMIBMGRCA” and their skyscraper in LA is 195 stories tall, and like Marlon Brando they’ll just get so big that they’ll become some blathering clueless blob that the whole world (even 10-year-old girls) realizes is totally pointless and insignificant.
I want to remove the blinders from the eyes of the potentially-adventurous music fans out there, and make them see this giant democratic (socialist?) world of thousands of independent musicians – that they’ll end up loving with more passion than the stuff they’ve been fed.
Think – if someone made it “cool” to go find your own music, and “uncool” to listen to anything they’re *told* to listen to, we could expand many minds and change many lives.
FEMMUSIC: What advice would you give to an artist wanting to sell their CD?
DS: Hahaha… Oh man, I have SO much to say about that subject.
Get me some miso soup, tuna sushi, and a pot of blackcurrant tea, and in 5-6 hours I could give you a quick run-down of the things I’ve learned about how to call attention to your music.
Honestly, I’ve been writing all these ideas down and I’ll be putting them on the web soon.
I’m in a unique position of being a musician who did pretty well with it, and then running a record store, seeing what works for others, and learning even more than before. And now I just have this urge to show musicians all this cool stuff I’ve learned from experience.
Until my big big article is finished, there are a bunch of good tips here: cdbaby.net
FEMMUSIC: Where do you see online music in five years?
DS: I think so many people are spending so much attention on the technical side of things that the music itself is becoming more rare.
Think about how many musicians are out there thinking they have to learn web design, computer skills, internet promotion, photoshop, digital encoding techniques, etc. These are musicians who used to spend 5 hours a night practicing or working on chords, melodies, lyrics, arrangements.
These computer skills are becoming so common, but I have a hunch that there will be less and less truly GREAT music, because of it.
So – hoo haa – there will be MP5498 which will be quadrophonic surround sound and load 50 hours of music into a microship in your earlobe through a cellular connection. But who cares? It means nothing without great music.
Any musician reading this should have the self-confidence, the self-worth, to turn off her computer, shut off the phone, go over to that piano, guitar, tin can, or studio… and compose some adventurous, emotional, completely creative new music, than no one else can make.
Touch someone’s soul. Blow someone’s mind. Make someone get up and do a witch-doctor dance. Make someone cry. Websites can’t make people cry or dance. But you can.