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If you go directly to CDBaby, you can hear about a minute of each song instead of 30 seconds. Also, independant artists get a larger cut than those who signed up with the Big Labels, so you don't need to feel guilty about handing money over to the Evil Empire.

Upon some research, it looks like CDbaby inked the deal last year. Wish I'd known!

If you go directly to CDBaby, you can hear about a minute of each song instead of 30 seconds. Also, independant artists get a larger cut than those who signed up with the Big Labels, so you don't need to feel guilty about handing money over to the Evil Empire.

Upon some research, it looks like CDbaby inked the deal last year. Wish I'd known!

If you go directly to CDBaby, you can hear about a minute of each song instead of 30 seconds. Also, independant artists get a larger cut than those who signed up with the Big Labels, so you don't need to feel guilty about handing money over to the Evil Empire.

Upon some research, it looks like CDbaby inked the deal last year. Wish I'd known!

Ok, I guess I was trying to say you don't have to read bestsellers, or watch American Idol, or listen to whatever it is that tops the charts right now. Go to a library for books, and go get this album:

ttp://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bryanbeller

When you are done venting, find some music without the restrictions. I would advise checking RIAA Radar before any purchase. We wouldn't want to help the bastards, now would we? Try my two favorite sources of DRM-free music: CDBaby and iRate.

I don't advocate free music. I disagree with the old adage that "all information wants to be free."

No typo. Just because someone downloads songs does NOT mean its illegal. Some of those songs are free, some are not. Some are already bought on CD and downloaded instead of ripping. They risk breaking the law.

Apple's downloads don't work on Linux, and that's what I use. So I can't use their wonderful product, that doesn't permit fair use anyway. Walmart? Yeah, last I checked, they don't support Linux either.

Now, of course, you're saying that I'm complaining because I'm using Linux. But that's missing the point. The reason I have to use Windows or Mac is because they want to implement DRM. I completely support them coming up with a system that prevents me from giving music away to other people free. What I don't support is them doing that at the expense of my ability to excercise fair use. So while DRM is great in theory, it sucks in reality, and no one has come up with a way to fix that. No one has a way to prevent me from breaking the law while allowing me to use the product in legal ways. Bad deal for the consumer.

This has nothing to do with pro-freedom OR anti-corporation. Its entirely based around convenience for the consumer, and pro-fair use.

Oh, and by the way, all that money you pay for CDs does NOT go to the artist, it goes to the RIAA who is really a no-value-added entity. I'd be happy to give the bands I love a flat out $10.00 for their hard work, and another $1.00 or so for the media+case+insert. But that's not the breakdown.

Maybe you should do a little research:
CD Baby
before you post things you don't know about. An artist usually get $1-2 per CD in a normal record deal, and that's only for CDs sold after the first few thousand. You're pretending the RIAA isthe victim here, when its really the artist, and the consumer, that are getting the bad deal.

The income tax analogy is not valid. Income tax is levied by the government, and political organizations hold sway with the government (they can lobby). As long as people like you pay $18 for a CD, the RIAA will continue to do business this way. Political groups cannot change that. Only you NOT spending the money can.

By the way, I don't even trade files online. I think it is a tragedy that the RIAA can convince folks like you that your $18 is well spent, while robbing the artists.

Vote with your dollar.

I agree. The way the RIAA calculates sales, by the "number of units shipped to retail outlets," is very flawed. I'm sure all those purchases I've made through emusic, the iTunes Music Store, DMusic, and CD Baby haven't been included into their [RIAA] numbers.

This leads me to believe that music sales are actually up worldwide. Until *all* music sales are calculated (from digital downloads and independent/non-RIAA CDs to RIAA member CDs), I don't think we'll really know for sure what the sales numbers are like.

Well said! Here's (as an AC so as not to whore the karma) an excellent comment by Linuxbaby, who works at the superb CDBaby service (hats off for being such an ethical company!):

Try some of the more open/competititive ones! (Score:5, Informative)
by linuxbaby (124641) * on 04:43 PM May 7th, 2004 ( #9085738)
(http://www.cdbaby.com/)

Worry not. There are many many MANY more to come that are being very competitive AND open. CD Baby is delivering over 250,000 songs to EACH of the companies below, and the norm for the smaller companies is to receive MP3 or even FLAC delivery.

So instead of whining about how some big major-label Universal album (where the artist hardly gets paid anyway) is DRM'd or expensive, be an independent thinker and go try some of the smaller services.

Emusic
Website for Mac, Windows, Linux where members can download up to 40 tracks per month of high-quality MP3 files. Has been around for YEARS doing both 99-cent downloads, and all-you-can-eat downloads for paid members. Has great catalog of indie label music - company is currently reforming.
AudioLunchbox
One of the first all-independent music download sites. Tracks retail for 99 and albums retail for $9.99. ALB pays out 59 per song and $5.90 per album.
NetMusic
Digital download and streaming service. We get 65 cents per downloaded song. Entire-album downloads usually retail at $9.99.
Emepe3.com
Website that primarily targets Latin America, USA and Spain. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.
Etherstream
Website that offers a la carte downloads. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.
Music4Cents
Retails independent music at very reasonable prices. Pays 55 cents per download. Sells independent music - they will sell CD Baby songs at $.69.
QTRnote
Artist gets about $.64.
TriaSite
TriaSite retails independent music downloads. Pays $.65 per download
Puretracks
Canada-only service that offers $.99 downloads. Website is currently available to Candian residents only. Puretracks is acting both as an online download retailer and a back-end service provider for other retailers. Downloads cost $.99 per track - artist gets about $.59 per track.
CatchMusic
Download site focusing on independent music. CatchMusic sells a la carte downloads at $1 each. Songs retail at $1 - artist gets about $.55 per song.
Viztas Digital Marketplace
Viztas Digital Marketplace will sell all kinds of digital media - not just music. Tracks retail for 99 and albums retail for $9.99. Vistaz pays out 60 per song and $6.10 per album. Viztas has not yet launched.
DiscLogic
A la carte downloads. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.

** BEGIN added to original comment by AC poster **
CDBaby
CD Baby is a little online record store that sells CDs by independent musicians. I don't think they sell downloads, but I

Well said! Here's (as an AC so as not to whore the karma) an excellent comment by Linuxbaby, who works at the superb CDBaby service (hats off for being such an ethical company!):

Try some of the more open/competititive ones! (Score:5, Informative)
by linuxbaby (124641) * on 04:43 PM May 7th, 2004 ( #9085738)
(http://www.cdbaby.com/)

Worry not. There are many many MANY more to come that are being very competitive AND open. CD Baby is delivering over 250,000 songs to EACH of the companies below, and the norm for the smaller companies is to receive MP3 or even FLAC delivery.

So instead of whining about how some big major-label Universal album (where the artist hardly gets paid anyway) is DRM'd or expensive, be an independent thinker and go try some of the smaller services.

Emusic
Website for Mac, Windows, Linux where members can download up to 40 tracks per month of high-quality MP3 files. Has been around for YEARS doing both 99-cent downloads, and all-you-can-eat downloads for paid members. Has great catalog of indie label music - company is currently reforming.
AudioLunchbox
One of the first all-independent music download sites. Tracks retail for 99 and albums retail for $9.99. ALB pays out 59 per song and $5.90 per album.
NetMusic
Digital download and streaming service. We get 65 cents per downloaded song. Entire-album downloads usually retail at $9.99.
Emepe3.com
Website that primarily targets Latin America, USA and Spain. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.
Etherstream
Website that offers a la carte downloads. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.
Music4Cents
Retails independent music at very reasonable prices. Pays 55 cents per download. Sells independent music - they will sell CD Baby songs at $.69.
QTRnote
Artist gets about $.64.
TriaSite
TriaSite retails independent music downloads. Pays $.65 per download
Puretracks
Canada-only service that offers $.99 downloads. Website is currently available to Candian residents only. Puretracks is acting both as an online download retailer and a back-end service provider for other retailers. Downloads cost $.99 per track - artist gets about $.59 per track.
CatchMusic
Download site focusing on independent music. CatchMusic sells a la carte downloads at $1 each. Songs retail at $1 - artist gets about $.55 per song.
Viztas Digital Marketplace
Viztas Digital Marketplace will sell all kinds of digital media - not just music. Tracks retail for 99 and albums retail for $9.99. Vistaz pays out 60 per song and $6.10 per album. Viztas has not yet launched.
DiscLogic
A la carte downloads. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.

** BEGIN added to original comment by AC poster **
CDBaby
CD Baby is a little online record store that sells CDs by independent musicians. I don't think they sell downloads, but I

Well said! Here's (as an AC so as not to whore the karma) an excellent comment by Linuxbaby, who works at the superb CDBaby service (hats off for being such an ethical company!):

Try some of the more open/competititive ones! (Score:5, Informative)
by linuxbaby (124641) * on 04:43 PM May 7th, 2004 ( #9085738)
(http://www.cdbaby.com/)

Worry not. There are many many MANY more to come that are being very competitive AND open. CD Baby is delivering over 250,000 songs to EACH of the companies below, and the norm for the smaller companies is to receive MP3 or even FLAC delivery.

So instead of whining about how some big major-label Universal album (where the artist hardly gets paid anyway) is DRM'd or expensive, be an independent thinker and go try some of the smaller services.

Emusic
Website for Mac, Windows, Linux where members can download up to 40 tracks per month of high-quality MP3 files. Has been around for YEARS doing both 99-cent downloads, and all-you-can-eat downloads for paid members. Has great catalog of indie label music - company is currently reforming.
AudioLunchbox
One of the first all-independent music download sites. Tracks retail for 99 and albums retail for $9.99. ALB pays out 59 per song and $5.90 per album.
NetMusic
Digital download and streaming service. We get 65 cents per downloaded song. Entire-album downloads usually retail at $9.99.
Emepe3.com
Website that primarily targets Latin America, USA and Spain. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.
Etherstream
Website that offers a la carte downloads. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.
Music4Cents
Retails independent music at very reasonable prices. Pays 55 cents per download. Sells independent music - they will sell CD Baby songs at $.69.
QTRnote
Artist gets about $.64.
TriaSite
TriaSite retails independent music downloads. Pays $.65 per download
Puretracks
Canada-only service that offers $.99 downloads. Website is currently available to Candian residents only. Puretracks is acting both as an online download retailer and a back-end service provider for other retailers. Downloads cost $.99 per track - artist gets about $.59 per track.
CatchMusic
Download site focusing on independent music. CatchMusic sells a la carte downloads at $1 each. Songs retail at $1 - artist gets about $.55 per song.
Viztas Digital Marketplace
Viztas Digital Marketplace will sell all kinds of digital media - not just music. Tracks retail for 99 and albums retail for $9.99. Vistaz pays out 60 per song and $6.10 per album. Viztas has not yet launched.
DiscLogic
A la carte downloads. Tracks sell for 99 cents. We get 65 cents. Entire-album downloads are usually $9.99.

** BEGIN added to original comment by AC poster **
CDBaby
CD Baby is a little online record store that sells CDs by independent musicians. I don't think they sell downloads, but I

CDBaby , a good service, with good music, run by good people.

A little while ago, I happened to whip up a best of CDBaby site (selections based on their editor picks, and here presented via my PHP/ASP app Andromeda).

I am buying CDDA media, and I do so from a reseller that treats customers and artists fairly. Go have a look at cdbaby and in particular what they do. This is how I want my music stores.

So if they are an indy music store that treats everyone fairly, they can't have music that's worth listening to, right? Wrong. Well, I do not know what kind of music you like to hear, but I have bought from them afroQben, Zap Master, E.S. Posthumus, Hugo, Ohn, MDM and Random Rab, and I am looking forward for my copy of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets Spaceship Zero and Cthulhu strikes back.

Just an extremely satisfied customer.

I am buying CDDA media, and I do so from a reseller that treats customers and artists fairly. Go have a look at cdbaby and in particular what they do. This is how I want my music stores.

So if they are an indy music store that treats everyone fairly, they can't have music that's worth listening to, right? Wrong. Well, I do not know what kind of music you like to hear, but I have bought from them afroQben, Zap Master, E.S. Posthumus, Hugo, Ohn, MDM and Random Rab, and I am looking forward for my copy of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets Spaceship Zero and Cthulhu strikes back.

Just an extremely satisfied customer.

I am buying CDDA media, and I do so from a reseller that treats customers and artists fairly. Go have a look at cdbaby and in particular what they do. This is how I want my music stores.

So if they are an indy music store that treats everyone fairly, they can't have music that's worth listening to, right? Wrong. Well, I do not know what kind of music you like to hear, but I have bought from them afroQben, Zap Master, E.S. Posthumus, Hugo, Ohn, MDM and Random Rab, and I am looking forward for my copy of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets Spaceship Zero and Cthulhu strikes back.

Just an extremely satisfied customer.

I am buying CDDA media, and I do so from a reseller that treats customers and artists fairly. Go have a look at cdbaby and in particular what they do. This is how I want my music stores.

So if they are an indy music store that treats everyone fairly, they can't have music that's worth listening to, right? Wrong. Well, I do not know what kind of music you like to hear, but I have bought from them afroQben, Zap Master, E.S. Posthumus, Hugo, Ohn, MDM and Random Rab, and I am looking forward for my copy of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets Spaceship Zero and Cthulhu strikes back.

Just an extremely satisfied customer.

I am buying CDDA media, and I do so from a reseller that treats customers and artists fairly. Go have a look at cdbaby and in particular what they do. This is how I want my music stores.

So if they are an indy music store that treats everyone fairly, they can't have music that's worth listening to, right? Wrong. Well, I do not know what kind of music you like to hear, but I have bought from them afroQben, Zap Master, E.S. Posthumus, Hugo, Ohn, MDM and Random Rab, and I am looking forward for my copy of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets Spaceship Zero and Cthulhu strikes back.

Just an extremely satisfied customer.

I am buying CDDA media, and I do so from a reseller that treats customers and artists fairly. Go have a look at cdbaby and in particular what they do. This is how I want my music stores.

So if they are an indy music store that treats everyone fairly, they can't have music that's worth listening to, right? Wrong. Well, I do not know what kind of music you like to hear, but I have bought from them afroQben, Zap Master, E.S. Posthumus, Hugo, Ohn, MDM and Random Rab, and I am looking forward for my copy of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets Spaceship Zero and Cthulhu strikes back.

Just an extremely satisfied customer.

I am buying CDDA media, and I do so from a reseller that treats customers and artists fairly. Go have a look at cdbaby and in particular what they do. This is how I want my music stores.

So if they are an indy music store that treats everyone fairly, they can't have music that's worth listening to, right? Wrong. Well, I do not know what kind of music you like to hear, but I have bought from them afroQben, Zap Master, E.S. Posthumus, Hugo, Ohn, MDM and Random Rab, and I am looking forward for my copy of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets Spaceship Zero and Cthulhu strikes back.

Just an extremely satisfied customer.

I am buying CDDA media, and I do so from a reseller that treats customers and artists fairly. Go have a look at cdbaby and in particular what they do. This is how I want my music stores.

So if they are an indy music store that treats everyone fairly, they can't have music that's worth listening to, right? Wrong. Well, I do not know what kind of music you like to hear, but I have bought from them afroQben, Zap Master, E.S. Posthumus, Hugo, Ohn, MDM and Random Rab, and I am looking forward for my copy of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets Spaceship Zero and Cthulhu strikes back.

Just an extremely satisfied customer.

I am buying CDDA media, and I do so from a reseller that treats customers and artists fairly. Go have a look at cdbaby and in particular what they do. This is how I want my music stores.

So if they are an indy music store that treats everyone fairly, they can't have music that's worth listening to, right? Wrong. Well, I do not know what kind of music you like to hear, but I have bought from them afroQben, Zap Master, E.S. Posthumus, Hugo, Ohn, MDM and Random Rab, and I am looking forward for my copy of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets Spaceship Zero and Cthulhu strikes back.

Just an extremely satisfied customer.

I agree somewhat. If the record companies jack up prices, Apple should promote the independent artists already on iTMS through CDbaby. Getting into the record business directly may not be the best move for Apple. However, I could see them partnering with lesser-known labels. I've also wished there was a regional function to iTMS; buy local bands music from your city or whatever area strikes your fancy. If the latest Britney or Santana or whatever is too expensive, push the great music promoted by labels that aren't dicks.

Actually, the artist's royalty comes out of the record label's cut. The amount the artist gets is dependent on the contract they have with their label. Thanks to the marvellous CD Baby, I (the artist) quite surprisingly get paid $0.65 per download.

I've written to you guys a couple of times but never received an answer: is there a way to find that album for sale in a digital format from one of the companies you distribute to?

You mean, like these guys?

"A free song from another bland RIAA-sponsored band?"

The Brobdingnagian Bards are about as indie as you can get, and they have over 25k downloads on iTMS. In fact, any independent artist selling through CD Baby has the option to have albums available on iTMS.

Rhapsody IS a different but you can still "buy" songs from the service for 0.79 and burn it to CD.

I think it is the best of both worlds. You get unlimited streaming of over 600k* songs (according to their web page). You can search for artists, songs, albums, etc and pick exactly what you want with pause, replay, ff rew etc.., or use the preconfigured radio stations and create your own genre of radio stations and just let it play. While the radio service is going, you can skip to the next song so you are not forced to listen to something you do not like either. The service is very good overall. You can login to the service from any *Windows* computer to use it. The downside is only one active connection per login so the kids and I sometimes end up booting each other off. My typical use of the system is split 50/50 between the radio streaming and directly selecting music I want to hear. If I hear something I like and want to own, I have a tendency to jump over to Amazon or similar and look for it used as I have not done the burn option in Rhapsody yet. I was surprised to find artists from CdBaby on Rhapsody and have bought cd's directly from there also.

Not specific to Rhapsody but I currently have one of my computers attached to my Yamaha home stereo via the S/PDIF digital output from my SBLive using the KX drivers (not really required but much better then the drivers from SB) and it sounds very good as far as a compressed music file goes. My own midi files sound much better though ;)

* of the 600k claimed, some are not burnable and some are not manually selectable but the total 600k is streamable via the radio function.

Since the first two Slashdot stories about CD Baby getting independent music into Apple iTunes (see iTunes Indie Meeting Notes and Sell Your Music on iTunes Music Store) - things are starting to standardize.

It's actually really interesting watching this happen, from a tech point of view. These big companies appear to have their stuff together from the outside, but I've had quite a few conversations where the techies at the big giant download music service are asking us, Uh... what do you recommend? How are the other companies doing it? Others say things like, This is how Universal Music sent us their catalog - so can you just imitate that? And voila! Watching new standards form.

I get the feeling that immediately after the initial announcement of Apple iTunes, and their 1-million downloads, lots of companies felt they just had to jump in as fast as possible, without any time to think out the long-term strategy. That's part of the reason why they're so incompatible. No time to communicate with others. (And plenty of paranoia about revealing their plans, I'm sure.) Things are settling and standardizing now, though.

Anyway, as you can tell I'm a very open guy, and this summer I'm going to take the time to do some detailed technical write-ups of all the things that go on behind the scenes (including our cool 40-terabyte digital audio warehouse). It's pretty interesting stuff.

(For details of what we do, see the CD Baby Digital Distribution page. Tell any good artists you know who want to get their music onto these services!)

--
Derek Sivers, CD Baby

A note to the music industry: my discretionary spending potential is at least 100 times what it was when I was in high school. I send money to CD Baby on a regular basis because they sell music that I enjoy.

You can market to my kids all they want, and I might buy the occasional CD for them. Alternatively, you can spend some of that money on real musicians, and I'll buy what you're offering.

Hint: unless my kids are named Mary Kate and Ashley, and they're not, their spending money is a subset of mine. You might want to consider that.

Get together, purchase the tools or access to the tools to create music directly, make CDs, and together, negotiate to sell them to stores.

Or leave out the last step and sell them directly to fans via CD Baby. Check out their "about" page. They only sell music that comes directly from musicians. Artists set the prices on the albums (most are around $10, which hits the $1/song price point), and they get a much higher percentage of the sale without all the RIAA middlemen to pay. Plus, CD Baby has all sorts of recommendations -- music for a certain mood, style, "sounds like", etc. -- making it easy to find music to match your tastes.

So check out the site, listen to samples of the music, and throw some cash at whoever is making music you enjoy. And stick it to the Man in the process! :-)

I'd like to say one thing: cd baby.

Really, go there, buy their stuff. There is a lot of excellent indie music on there. Not only do you get to buy cheap and good music in whatever your musical taste is (though I admit the quality on cd baby varies), but you're boycotting the big five record companies at the same time. It's a win-win situation.

If you like 80s music, like Supertramp, then I am guessing that you might like other progressive rock music, like Yes, Genesis (with Peter Gabriel), Jethro Tull, etc.

And I recently discovered, much to my amazement, that progressive rock didn't die in the eighties -- it's still being made today (it just doesn't get played on the radio, or sold in the stores).

There are quite a few Internet-based progressive rock radio stations. For example, I enjoy listening to these two stations:

Delicious Agony Progressive Rock Radio

Canvas Productions

As a result of listening to these, and similar Internet radio stations, I have bought over 100 CDs in the last year. That's ten times as many as I had bought in the previous decade!

You might also like to check out the Gibralter Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock.

Lastly, check out CD Baby, which is an Internet music store that specializes in Progressive Rock and other esoteric music that you will never hear on the radio. Play some of their samples, and I think you will be quite surprised.

I think you can find music that doesn't suck, if you're not listening to an inane top 40 station. You could ask friends for recommendations -- I've met two music afficiandos who go to local clubs and listen to all kinds of unique CDs, and between the two of them I hear about interesting stuff. But it seldom comes from the radio.

I think placing all the blame on Clear Channel is too simple. Public radio stations also exist. My favorite is KCRW in Los Angeles, which has a 24/7 music stream. Check out their weekend eclectic shows for new bands.

Finally, I haven't seen CDBaby in the discussion yet, but I'm sure they're bound to get more than a few mentions -- and for good reason. With free previews from 30 seconds to two minutes, good relationships with customers and a great selection, what's not to love? That line sounds like a commerical, but this is one of those rare cases when it's true. Recently I bought E.S. Posthumus and O.A.R.'s first CD -- and love both.

Even among big-label music good stuff exists, if you're willing to look for it. This post has gone on long enough, but there are solutions -- if you're genuinely interested in solving the problem.

Instead of complaining that music today sucks, try looking for something new.

Try CD Baby

They have lots of great music from musicians you've probably never heard of.

I think placing all the blame on Clear Channel is too simple. Public radio stations also exist. My favorite is KCRW in Los Angeles, which has a 24/7 music stream. Check out their weekend eclectic shows for new bands.

Finally, I haven't seen CDBaby in the discussion yet, but I'm sure they're bound to get more than a few mentions -- and for good reason. With free previews from 30 seconds to two minutes, good relationships with customers and a great selection, what's not to love? That line sounds like a commerical, but this is one of those rare cases when it's true. Recently I bought E.S. Posthumus and O.A.R.'s first CD -- and love both.

Even among big-label music good stuff exists, if you're willing to look for it. This post has gone on long enough, but there are solutions -- if you're genuinely interested in the problem.

SwiftCD will allow you to set up an account with them which will do everything including collecting from customer credit cards and shipping to them via a store page for zero setup costs, you send them a copy of your physical CD master and upload the artwork. The CDs are a bit overpriced (CD+packaging about $12, you choose what your profit margin is going to be when you set the sale price) but that's the nature of custom manufacturing.

Or if you can make professional-looking CD-R packages or can afford to do a short production run of CD-Rs or pressed CDs, setting up with CD Baby, IIRC, total setup cost is $35 plus $20 for a required barcode if one wants to sell digital music tracks via iTunes, Rhapsody, BuyMusic, Emusic, the new Napster, AOL's MusicNet, MusicMatch, etc.

Just how easy does this have to get?

There's lots of great independent music on cd baby too.

I haven't met a single person who couldn't find anything on cd baby they didn't like. That's in real life mind you. On slashdot there always seem to be people who have to be stubborn just to be stubborn.

I'm reminded of why I quit buying their stuff and started buying better music instead.

I think now would be an appropriate time to mention that if you're into independent artists, and you like physical media, check out CDbaby.com. Tons of great independent artists, good prices, and a good portion of the money actually goes to the artist.

Plus, their shipping notice email is cool. :^)

I first saw a link on Slashdot, and I think others have pointed to CDBaby in this thread.

They're primarily a WMP9 shop, but I believe at least some of the resellers use mp3's, which should work on your ipod.

iTunes itself is coming to europe, in theory the first half of this year; but it's anyone's guess as to when they'll actually launch.

Personally speaking, I prefer to still buy CD's, as I get to choose the rip quality (high quality ogg's for my PC, 128vbr mp3 for my flash mp3 player).

I just refuse to buy the corrupt disks, and stick to the smaller labels, especially the indie's. If you do want to import (cheap) CD's, I can personally recommend CDBaby for non-label music, and cd-wow are insanely cheap for more well known artists.

Looks like Apple's itunes won't be available in Europe anytime soon (apparently Napster seems to want to come back in Europe though).

However, some companies have popped up, like CD Baby and Magnatune, which provide services for independent artists (such as liasing with the online music stores) while having policies that are less likely to ruffle the feathers of the average P2P fan.

start here: cd baby

If this were a band offering free MP3s for download, that might be interesting.

Check out the link in my sig, www.magnatune.com
Those artists are offering free MP3s of their albums.
Plus they get a 50% cut of what you decide to pay for the album. Great idea imo.
You buy the albums through the internet by the way, downloadable in different formats (WAV/OGG/MP3/FLAC)

CDBaby is also doing something like this. (although they sell real CD's, not downloads)

Independent artists who sell on iTMS get a pretty good chunk, depending on distributor. CDBaby gets 59 cents of each download just like the RIAA labels, but unlike the RIAA labels they only keep 10% giving the artists 53 cents per song, or $5.29 per album (which is more than most of the artists get for selling the actual CD).

Some distributors do get it, and I hope that downhillbattle let people know which distributors those are.

As an independent musician, I find it odd that they have never responded to an email asking for more info from an artist's POV - especially when asking for clarification on their stance on iTunes downloads. Silence can often speak volumes.

Our stance on iTunes downloads is pretty simple: if the money goes to musicians, that's great. If most of it goes to a major labels that's a bad thing, for musicians and music culture.

As for public accountability, as has been pointed out already in this thread, there isn't much potential for scamming. We don't even know if the codes we get are real or fake until we redeem them, so giving people receipts would be silly.

DISCLAIMER: The band I am in offers ALL of our CDs for free on our web site, all the time. iTunes wouldn't touch us if we were the last band on earth.

Shawn Fanning is an idiot. This is not a troll. He releases a PTP system that is so inherently unthought out and stupidly illegal and try to make a go of it. He wrote a program in VB that was what it was because he couldn't implement anything more complex. Sure, some of the beauty of Napster was its simplicity. But this is also the reason we are in a jam with PTP systems like we are today. Without Napster we would not have the RIAA court cases. We would have Gnutella systems, Bit Torrent etc free from lawyers and everyone would be happy.

The reason we have distributed systems in the first place is due to the destruction of Napster. If Napster had never existed, I'm inclined to believe P2P would be nowhere near as widespread as it is today, or that it would even exist at all.

That said, I see no need for any software that allows the recording industry to make money. We simply don't need the recording industry anymore. All we really need are artists, and fans. Woe be to the recording industry when the likes of iRate and CDBaby meet. It's clear that we've got the distribution thing covered with the internet. A system like iRate handles the task of getting the artist exposure with fans who will appreciate them, and a store like CDBaby handles the obvious financial needs of the artists. That's really all the current recording industry does now.

So why do we need to include the bastards who sue 12 year olds again?

If the artist so requests, CDBaby will also shop the CD to download services like Rhapsody, BuyMusic, Emusic, the new Napster, AOL's MusicNet, and MusicMatch (no iTunes yet). The cool part is that CDBaby only takes 5% of what the download services pay them, passing on the rest, which is about 60 cents per track, to the artist, and when they do that they forward the detailed accounting report to the artist.

This is great, CDBaby has an impeccable track record of honesty and fair dealing with the artists, and 60 cents is more per track than what the vast majority of signed artists get per entire CD. But the potential for accounting shenanigans perpetrated by the download services themselves is high. They could simply lie, or fail to correct some error in their accounting software, and the artist would be none the wiser. CDBaby already helps independant artists by harnessing the collective bargaining power of all its members, but the additional pressure and oversight of a union like Mudda could help keep the pressure on.

Why buy used, when you can buy new and still stick it to the man?

Almost all the music I buy comes from cd baby. They have a huge collection, and I can't imagine someone browsing their collection and not finding exactly their taste of music.

They're cheaper too.

iTunes is lame. It will matter when ANYONE can sell music through it, and artists can bypass record companies altogether. As it is, it is just a shill for the record companies and the RIAA.

An artist can get their music into the iTMS by getting a label to represent them and act as an intermediary with Apple. Any of the labels in the iTMS can submit music. So for an artist to get into the iTMS, they just need to get on CD Baby. It's easy.