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CD Duplicator Buys CD Baby; Recognizing A Digital Future
from the changing-times,-changing-business-models dept
Lots of folks who follow the music space are aware of CD Baby, who has helped independent artists sell their music for years. It basically was a one stop shop for many independent artists, getting their music available in a variety of different places, for either download or physical CD sale. Earlier this week, the company was bought out by Disc Makers, the aptly named company that manufactures CDs and DVDs for independent musicians and filmmakers. The two companies had worked together as partners for many years. Still, what strikes me as most interesting about this is that Disc Makers clearly is recognizing that relying on the physical disc reproducing business to keep growing is a likely to be a losing bet. So, it appears to have come up with a decent plan for positioning itself for the changing market. If only other businesses were willing to do that.
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Reader Comments (rss)
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I need a compelling reason to buy digital
Allofmp3.com had it right. Charge a lot less for the digital copy and I won't mind buying it again at some future date.
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Re: I need a compelling reason to buy digital
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Idiots
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Re: Idiots
Allofmp3.com TRIED to pay royalties for the music, they even setup an escrow account that accumulated money equivalent to the royalties. Unfortunately the music oligopoly did not agree with their business model, and pressured governments to get them shutdown.
So much for free trade.
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Re: Idiots
The were legal until the USA got them put out of business.
But now a totally new company has taken it's place and if you had an allofmp3 account with due credits they are still good.
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A big problem for aging, declining companies is an unwillingness to see the writing on the wall. Take EarthLink. In an effort to "solve" the problem of the declining dialup biz, they squandered all kindsa cash on MVNOs and Muni-wifi. Instead, they should've just stopped reinvesting their profits (which remains sizable) and collected their cash until the last keg was tapped.
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Re: (Joseph Weisenthal)
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Re:
I'm not so sure. I mean, it depends on what they do with it, but on the surface, it appears they may have recognized what the "true benefit" is that they offer their customers: helping independent musicians package and distribute their music -- and to make money doing so.
CD Baby helps them do that as well.
A big problem for aging, declining companies is an unwillingness to see the writing on the wall. Take EarthLink. In an effort to "solve" the problem of the declining dialup biz, they squandered all kindsa cash on MVNOs and Muni-wifi. Instead, they should've just stopped reinvesting their profits (which remains sizable) and collected their cash until the last keg was tapped.
Hmm. Well, I almost totally disagree with you there. :)
I think Earthlink did the right thing, but what killed it was bad management, and some bad choices. The idea that they should sit on their cash cow and not try to change with the changing market seems highly questionable to me. As a company they had assets and core competence that could be put to work in other arenas, and they tried to do that. That they failed was more a problem of execution (and some bad regulations) rather than a failed strategy.
The "writing on the wall" is that they needed to be in a different business, preferably one that leveraged some of what they'd done in the past. Telling them to just die in peace doesn't make sense.
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RE: allofmp3 mafia
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That made me laugh. Anyone believe you when you say that?
Damm branded communities!
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model
This deal represents two kinds of diversification: downstream (now we manufacture AND sell) and product (now we're the major player in CDs AND downloads).
CDs will be around for a long time, and for both DM and CD Baby, CD sales are still growing. That said, someday that growth will cease. For that reason Disc Makers has been successful diversifying for several years into other product areas that independents need, like merch, promotional printing, downloads, and marketing services.
The mistake most people make is assuming that the name Disc Makers = dinosaur. We do a lot more than make discs. Maybe someday we'll change our name to Artist Makers?
Oh, and CD Baby comes with Host Baby, the largest web hosting service for independent musicians.
Nuff said?
Tony van Veen, prez, Disc Makers
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Re: model
I know die hard discmaker fans, they will not switch cause they got burned elsewhere and lucky with discmakers. So with that said they can keep that going until the last keg so to speak. Then afterward they can be the fabric of the industry rather than just makers of discs (yoda speak).
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