CD Baby end of an era

Discussion in 'Music, Movie and Hardware Store Guide' started by SlimepantsMcgee, Feb 20, 2020.

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  1. SlimepantsMcgee

    SlimepantsMcgee Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    07747
  2. aoxomoxoa

    aoxomoxoa I'm an ear sitting in the sky

    Location:
    USA
    Never used them to buy a cd.
     
  3. I am glad they seem to be adaptive. But I am sure the news will be received by some as the sky is falling cd conspiracy.
     
  4. ggergm

    ggergm another spring another baseball season

    Location:
    Minnesota
    Every small run artist or band used CD Baby for online CD sales for years.

    I had maybe four CDs for a local artist that I either recorded and/or produced up on CD Baby 10 years ago.

    Bye-bye baby, bye-bye.
     
  5. ScramMan2

    ScramMan2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland OR
    More info on CD Baby:

    CD Baby

    They are based out here in Portland OR.
     
  6. visolo

    visolo Well-Known Member

    I get all my CDs either on ebay or Book-Off (used book store but carries tons of CDs, for $1-$3 each). I know many stores are dumping CDs, but they will make a comeback someday, just like vinyl did, and cassettes.
     
    Larry C. McGinnis III likes this.
  7. ScramMan2

    ScramMan2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland OR
    Just a statement of the company CD Baby, not on-line CD sales in general.
     
  8. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    Once CD's go OOP, they'll be in demand.
     
    ScramMan2 likes this.
  9. ScramMan2

    ScramMan2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland OR
    Wish I had a crystal ball.
     
  10. aoxomoxoa

    aoxomoxoa I'm an ear sitting in the sky

    Location:
    USA
    My band uses CD baby to publish music. That's what it's main use is for. I think the CD sales end probably didn't generate any revenue so they decided to stop.
     
    ScramMan2 likes this.
  11. eelkiller

    eelkiller One of the great unwashed

    Location:
    Northern Ontario
    This forum should have supported them more, their shipping updates were very creative.
    They were made for this place.
     
    showtaper likes this.
  12. AlmanacZinger

    AlmanacZinger Zingin'

    Location:
    The Land of Zaat
    Not so sure of that. But their prices certainly go up.
     
  13. AlmanacZinger

    AlmanacZinger Zingin'

    Location:
    The Land of Zaat
    I certainly did. They released a lot of CDs by artists I supported. Them stopping CD production is actually quite a blow to me. Lots of indie stuff now OOP and I can't even find FLAC downloads of some.

    I don't know anything about their inner-workings but outwardly they did have a fun atmosphere.
     
    melstapler, Hep Alien and eelkiller like this.
  14. Lord Hawthorne

    Lord Hawthorne Currently Untitled

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    I got a lot of empty CD cases from them, people would opt to save shipping costs by omitting the cases, never needed to buy any for my CDRs.
     
  15. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    i went there a few times, but as someone above mentioned, a wee bit overpriced.
     
  16. Art K

    Art K Retired but not tired!

    Location:
    Corvallis, Oregon
    I love CD Baby...
     
    showtaper likes this.
  17. melstapler

    melstapler Reissue Activist

    Definitely. A number of titles released by Heart of Texas Records either became unavailable or extremely expensive after CD Baby stopped selling titles through their site. Fortunately, that particular label gets distribution and has been working to rectify the situation.
     
    AlmanacZinger likes this.
  18. Birybero

    Birybero New Member

    Location:
    Australia
    I was there, 1 year ago:)
     
  19. visolo

    visolo Well-Known Member

    As long as hipsters don't convert from vinyl to CD, CD prices should stay low.
     
  20. stoopid

    stoopid Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV
    CD Baby produces good stuff, but at a premium. I always opted for Kunaki for lower volume/cheaper runs. It does the job, really not a huge enough leap from CD Baby to Kunaki IMHO. Were established artists (selling thousands or tens of thousands of units) even using CD Baby?

    I've only inherited a few CD Baby distributions, have never used them myself (buying or selling) because of the price.
     
  21. stoopid

    stoopid Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV
    Difference being there's a compelling reason compact discs will come back - it's a good medium.
     
  22. visolo

    visolo Well-Known Member

    Yes, agreed. I don't know how vinyl and cassettes made a comeback. I guess hipsters are to blame.
     
    stoopid likes this.
  23. tmtomh

    tmtomh Forum Resident

    I love CDs and they are by far my primary collecting and purchasing medium.

    However, CDs are very unlikely to make any real comeback, because they have one major flaw when compared with vinyl and cassette: The musical information on them is identical (or virtually identical in the case of CD vs high-bitrate mp3/AAC) to what folks can get with streaming.

    A huge part of the charm of vinyl, and to a lesser extent cassette, is that it's an analogue medium that has a sound that is often noticeably different than streaming/digital files. Again, this is not a type of charm that appeals to me - I strongly prefer CDs. But it's clearly something that's a major part of the appeal of vinyl (and cassette) to most of the people who are responsible for that medium's resurgence.

    In addition, vinyl is a tactile, art-rich medium. And because CDs are so much smaller, and often encased in jewel cases rather than paper sleeves, their tactile quality and artwork size are viewed as inferior by most folks who value those aspects of the vinyl experience.

    Finally, you can see a record spinning on the platter, and with most modern turntables you are involved in positing the arm, flipping the disc, and so on - again, not benefits in my book personally, but clearly major attractions of the format for many people.

    In short, CDs are not different enough from digital/streaming files to attract a whole lot of folks these days - and the physical/tactile/aesthetic qualities of CDs are for many people all done better by vinyl.

    If CD makes any kind of comeback, I would imagine it would be a very niche thing, somewhat bigger than the hyper-niche 8-track collecting community and somewhat smaller than the still-niche cassette comeback.

    The silver lining for those of us who like CDs is that there's never been a better time to buy them inexpensively on the used market! And thank goodness for places like this where a critical mass of CD lovers can get together to by, sell, trade, discuss, post images, and share information.
     
    Jonesey and Hep Alien like this.
  24. visolo

    visolo Well-Known Member

    Vinyl records are for hipsters.
     
    stoopid likes this.
  25. stoopid

    stoopid Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV
    I think, aside from the good points you made about the positives with vinyl [there really are none for cassette, are there? :p ], you missed an obvious point regarding why CDs would have a comeback... control. The music industry is slowly luring listeners into surrendering control of their musical intake. Streaming only has one final outcome - control of all music. Once no one buys and owns direct access to their own library of music (whether digital files or a digital medium like CD), the music industry can charge whatever price they want since they own the means to accessing music.

    It's not far fetched, we've already veered off the highway and are nearly at the end of that offramp.
     
    Hep Alien and tmtomh like this.
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