FYI, here is the latest from CD Baby.

You may have already heard that Derek Sivers recently handed over the reins of CD Baby. (If this is news to you, you can read the announcement on Derek's blog.) As you can probably imagine, we've gotten plenty of questions about what's going to happen next with CD Baby, and whether it'll change.

I promise you that CD Baby's philosophy of "artists first" will NEVER change. Click here to see my post on the CD Baby forum with my pledge to CD Baby artists. And the same friendly, capable CD Baby crew remains in place, working as hard as ever to help you sell as many CDs and downloads as possible. Here's how we intend to make this happen:

- We'll focus on getting CD Baby titles in front of more buyers by working with iTunes, Amazon, and other retailers, as well as less traditional music channels, like MySpace, to promote CD Baby content and make it more prominently available.
- We will make it easier for artists to sell their CD Baby titles, through easy-to-use links and widgets that can be dropped into any web page, single song downloads on cdbaby.com, and more.
- We strive to make the cdbaby.com store the premier new music discovery destination on the web, with "best of" lists, staff recommendations, and other features that encourage music buyers to stay and browse.

In fact, we've already made a couple of changes I think you'll like:

SELL MORE MUSIC (EASILY) WITH OUR "BUY NOW" BUTTON
Check out our new and improved "Buy Now" buttons which direct fans right to your CD Baby page, making it incredibly easy for you to sell more CDs and downloads. Go to http://cdbaby.com/link and you'll see how easy it is to add a button to your web site, MySpace page, or any other web page that allows visitors to click and buy your album. These buttons come in a variety of styles, including a small thumbnail of your album art! Go there today, start adding these links, and sell more music!

Here's a tip: Put your fan network to work by emailing your fans and asking them to go to http://cdbaby.com/link and add the link to their web pages and blogs. The more people recommend your music, the more music you'll sell (and we all know that personal recommendations are the strongest sales drivers there are).

ALBUM DOWNLOADS NOW SELL FOR $9.99!
As of yesterday we've changed all album download prices to $9.99. The old system, where the download cost as much as your CD, was too expensive for fans, and it made CD Baby uncompetitive with sites like iTunes. We think this will increase your download sales. However, you can always change your download price to any price you want. Just click here to log in and change it.

So go ahead, sell more music. Thank you for your support of CD Baby, and I look forward to doing great things – together.

Sincerely,

Tony van Veen