CD Baby Pays Out

NURTURING CD BABY: Distributor CD Baby, which dubs itself the largest online retailer of indie artists, reports it has paid more than $200 million directly to musicians since being launched by founder Derek Sivers in 1997. Sivers sold the company to Disc Makers for $22 million in 2008. Since opening its Music Store for Facebook on Oct. 3, a free app that allows artists to sell MP3s, CDs and vinyl directly to fans, CD Baby has attracted 250k+ monthly active users. This year, only 12.8% of the company’s revenues will be in CD sales/distribution, with the bulk of revenues from music downloads and streaming. CD Baby currently distributes over 200k independent artists, with a music catalog totaling 3.5 million songs, and will release an estimated 100k new music titles this year. The website attracts over 100 million unique annual website visitors. (11/15p)