Digital Audio Insider -- the economics of music and other digital content

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Digital Audio Insider is David Harrell's blog about the economics of music and other digital content. I write from the perspective of a musican who has self-released four albums with the indie rock band the Layaways.

My personal website has links to my LinkedIn and Google+ pages and you can send e-mail to david [at] thelayaways [dot] com.

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November 10, 2011

Thursday Odds and Ends: CD Baby Pushes for Direct Digital Sales
by David Harrell

CD Baby has lowered its commission for direct-sold mp3s and is encouraging musicians to direct their fans to the CD Baby website for download sales. From an e-mail that went out today:

On every digital purchase (single song or album) made from CDBaby.com, you'll get paid 75% of the selling price. That means for a single-song download priced at $0.99, CD Baby has lowered our cut, so you'll now make $0.74 per song.

For comparison purposes, iTunes pays out 70 cents on a 99-cent download. CD Baby artists pay a 9% commission for digital sales, leaving them with a 63.7 cent payout for the download. The math is even better for CD Baby when it sells downloads directly, as opposed to collecting a cut on sales via iTunes or other digital stores. A 25% cut of 99-cents is almost four times the 9% commission on 70 cents, though in this case CD Baby also has to pay any credit card transaction fees.

Amazon's decision to discontinue its affiliate program in California has put the hurt on one of my favorite Internet radio stations, SomaFM:

SomaFM was quite dependent on the commissions from this affiliate program, and we are disappointed at the way Amazon and the State of California have handled this situation. Once again, it's the little businesses that get hurt.

Jeremy at Fingertips has an essay on social music that's worth a read.

And while sampling is considered a valid creative technique for creating music, that's not the case for spy novels:

"Entire sequences are from other novels," said Mr. Duns. "He didn't even bother to rework anything. It must be the worst case of plagiarism I've ever seen. How did he think he'd get away with this? He fooled me, but others were bound to notice eventually--as they did."

Labels: CD Baby, iTunes, sampling, social music, SomaFM

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THE LAYAWAYS

Out Now -- "Maybe Next Year" -- The New Holiday Album:

"This is a sweet treat, deliciously musical without being overbaked for mass media consumption." -- Hyperbolium

"Perfect listening to accompany whatever holiday preparations you may be making today." -- Bag of Songs

O Christmas Tree - free mp3 lyrics and song details
Away In A Manger - free mp3

Download from eMusic, iTunes, Amazon MP3, or Bandcamp. Listen to free streams at Last.fm.

"...about as melodic and hooky as indie pop can get." -- Absolute Powerpop

"Their laid-back, '60s era sounds are absolutely delightening." -- 3hive

"...melodic, garage-influenced shoegaze." -- RCRD LBL

Where The Conversation Ends - free mp3
January - free mp3
Keep It To Yourself - free mp3

Download from eMusic, iTunes, Amazon MP3, or CD Baby, stream it at Last.fm or Napster.

"The Layaways make fine indie pop. Hushed vocals interweave with understated buzzing guitars. The whole LP is a revelation from the start." -- Lost Music

"Catchy Guided by Voices-like rockers who lay it on sweetly and sincerely, just like Lionel Richie." -- WRUV Radio

Silence - free mp3 lyrics and song details
The Long Night - free mp3

Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, stream it at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody.

"These are songs that you want to take home with you, curl up with, hold them close -- and pray that they are still with you when you wake up." -- The Big Takeover

Let Me In - free mp3
Ocean Blue - free mp3

Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, stream it at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody.

More Layaways downloads:

the layaways website