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September 14, 2007
 In This Corner:
CDBaby.com is a business that sells CDs for small bands independent bands and musicians. It was founded by a musician. The whole culture of the company is drenched in that laid-back, cool-cat type of atmosphere. How it works: if you're an independent band or musician and have produced a CD that you would like to sell, you send a box of them to CDBaby and they'll sell it from their web site, and give you a link so that you can sell it from your web site as well. They take the money and ship the CD to the customer and once a week or so send you a check. It offloads all the hassles of processing orders and shipping product from a musician who'd rather be playing gigs or writing songs. CDBaby offers a valuable resource to help these small bands and musicians make a living from their efforts. There are other similar resources out there, stretchtheskies.com is one such example.
 And In This Corner:
James Brausch is a very successful Internet Business millionaire. He sells, among other things, courses, products, and coaching to help someone learn how to start an internet business and grow that business to the point that they can achieve financial freedom and no longer work a job, but rather spend time doing whatever it is that they love to do. I've purchased and used a lot of James' products. I tried his coaching program for a while too. James has truly helped a lot of people to achieve their goals. His approach may not work for everyone, but then again, no one's does. Several months ago, James started using a CD/DVD fulfillment service, kunaki.com, to sell his newer courses and software products. This is a one-off CD/DVD service that takes the order, burns the CD/DVD, shrink wraps it, and ships it. Once a month they send you a check for your sales minus what they charge for their services. Previously James had created digital only products. There are advantages to both types of products (digital vs. physical). Personally, I like having the option of which type I want when I order something, but that takes more time to setup. One nice thing about kunaki is that you can order a box of your own CDs/DVDs to sell, hand out, or whatever: it saves you having to pay for a run of 1000 or more CDs.
The Opening Bell:
James sent some of his CDs to CDBaby to sell. CDBaby just started (as of August) an ongoing contest to help get exposure for an artist. The top selling, or rather, one of the top selling artists each month will receive a small distribution deal to put their CDs in stores. They will also receive a few thousand dollars to help market their CD. James decided that he wanted to win the contest in August and set out to do so. He sold the most CDs but ran into a series of mishaps with CDBaby that made it appear that they were cheating and didn't want him to win. You can see his latest post on the subject http://www.jamesbrausch.com/?p=774. James and CDBaby have had some strained communication and it appears that CDBaby lost some of his emails notifying them that more CDs were on the way (CDBaby will stop taking orders for a CD when they run out of copies to ship, unless you send them tracking numbers showing that you've shipped more product to them). Their site was also down for a little while during a site upgrade. James says that CDBaby changed the contest rules; CDBaby says they didn't change the rules they only clarified them for the August contest, and changed a few things going forward for the September contest.
Dance like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee:
It does appear that CDBaby is dancing and that James is trying to sting! James says he won the August contest because he sold the most CDs, and that CDBaby should award him the winner. They've each thrown some punches, and some have landed. James posted about it on his popular blog and some of his loyal readers jumped into the ring as well, posting opinions on their own blogs as well as on CDBaby's forums. Some of CDBaby's loyal customers have taken up their cause and jumped in the ring too. Today James sent out an email to his mailing list asking them to comment on this thread.
I've worked with CDBaby from a different angle than most people. A few years ago, I programmed an independent music web site. This web site allows independent artists, musicians, and bands to upload their music and sell it digitally. It also has several "radio stations" streaming music of different genres. We worked out an arrangement with CDBaby to import CDBaby artists who allow CDBaby to authorize digital distribution for them. This amounts to hundreds of thousands of songs. During this process, I talked and exchanged emails with some of the CDBaby staff and found them to be very dedicated to their cause, very easy to work with, and honest. A year or so into processing their regular updates they mistakenly changed their XML format, I notified them about it and they corrected the issue in a week or so.
A few weeks ago, when James posted his first post about CDBaby conspiring against him (maybe we should call that Round 1!), I emailed one of the people at CDBaby and asked them had they seen his post and what was up with all these issues. They said that yes, that everyone had seen it, and that it was all a big misunderstanding, that it would be stupid for them to "rig" a contest, that wouldn't get them anywhere. I agree!
If, and this is a BIG if, the original contest email (I do not have a copy of it) has the wording that CDBaby claims it did saying that ONE top seller each month will receive a limited physical distribution to retail stores as opposed to THE top seller, then CDBaby can award the winner to any one of the top sellers it chooses.
Personally I believe the guys at CDBaby: I don't think it's rigged. I think the times the CDBaby site was down, and then later when it was up and James says that his CD was still saying Out of Stock and was not available for ordering, was an unfortunate series of mistakes and errors on CDBaby's part. CDBaby makes money each time a CD is sold, so why would they intentionally take money out of their own pocket? However, just like when you jump in the short line at the grocery store and stand there watching the long line move by you because the person running your register is slow, ran out of paper, pushed the wrong button and is waiting on a manager, etc., James has a valid complaint about the way he was handled.
Different mindsets different markets:
CDBaby created the contest to help unknown or relatively unknown independent artists and bands get their CDs on a shelf in a real store. Something that's hard to do. By doing this, they are, in effect, endorsing the artist and CD that they promote. This is a new contest; August is the first month they've offered it. I'm sure they expected a musician or band to win. They probability put in the wording (if it WAS in there) about ONE top selling artist vs. THE top selling artist so that if the top selling artist was something extreme, off color, or in some way would damage CDBaby's reputation, they could simply move on to the next artist. I imagine they didn't expect a self-help life management CD from James Brausch to jump to the top of the list!
When the contest was first announced, James posted a message on his blog and sent out an email to his mailing list that he wanted to win the contest. He started offering special deals on his products if you bought 10 copies or 100 copies or whatever copies of his CD from CDBaby. It seemed he had deal after deal after deal for a while. While a popular independent band may have a mailing list the size of James' mailing list, I doubt that they could come up with any offer that would get their fans to buy 10 or more copies of their CD. Because of this, I think it's possible that the number and quantity of James' orders stressed CDBaby's procedures and systems and perhaps overwhelmed some of their customer service people. James can be as blunt and hard hitting as a cannon ball and that's probably not what CDBaby people are used to dealing with.
My Take:
I truly think CDBaby created their contest to help musicians, after all, musicians are their main customer base and the reason they came into existence. James' wealth and mailing list are probably several orders of magnitude larger than the average CDBaby musician or band. James does not need CDBaby. If CDBaby had been doing this contest for a year and screwed up this badly it would be different, but this was their first time with it. I think that James should take the gloves off, tell CDBaby to award the contest prize to who they want to, and offer Derek (the founder of CDBaby) free personal coaching on business systems and processes (one of James' areas of expertise) and business in general. You may think I'm wrong, but my reasoning is as follows. The music industry is totally screwed up; people with no talent get promoted, signed, and played on the radio while truly talented artists fall into oblivion. CDBaby, and other similar companies, are needed by musicians to help make it possible for them to have some success. James on the other hand, could use this as a golden opportunity, a case study if you will, to show that his methods work by helping to improve CDBaby. This would no doubt sell more of James' training materials and products. This could turn out to be a win for both sides.
Fred
About the Author
Fred Black is an experienced programmer, web site developer, online business operator, systems integrator, father, husband, musician, and songwriter. Visit his Internet Business Blog at: http://www.pqInternet.com.
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Posted by Fred on September 14, 2007 | Printer-Friendly
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Comments:
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I like your take - "Turn the other cheek".
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Hmmm... interesting take, Fred, but I don't get it. You think CD Baby is justified in giving James the shaft because he is a non-musical recording artist? Or because he complained about non-fulfillment of his orders? C'mon, we have all made plans before that have turned out differently than we thought they would. You just smile and see it through. They can do business how they want to and inform the non-musical artists that as of right now they are no longer welcome on their website. Regarding the August contest, though, it is not right to go back and change the rules after the fact. Sorry, but the idea of James taking them on as a case study is laughable. You cannot help people who do not think they need help.
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If, and this is a big if, CDBaby really has poor customer service, at least with Brausch, it's karma. Brausch himself has notoriously poor customer service. So I have followed this whole donnybrook, superficially, with amusement.
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Hi again Fred - I have learned quite a bit from Brausch. It is a love-hate relationship. One-way though. ;>)
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From Fred...
