Make the healthy choice; Support an independent voice.

Whether you love hip hop or opera, Latin jazz or folk-rock, when you buy from CD Baby, you’re not just taking home a bit of music; You’re helping sustain that artist’s ability to continue recording and performing. Most of the money you spend at CD Baby ends up back in the hands of the artists who make the music in the first place!

CD Baby pays more to artists than any other digital download store. We’ve paid out almost $200,000,000 to independent musicians around the world, soulful and original musicians who are doing things THEIR way without the “help” or hindrance of a corporate major label. CD Baby exists to support artists who make magic happen on their own. In addition to our physical and digital distribution services, we provide our artists with promotional tools, excellent customer service, and free articles with expert advice. When you buy music from CD Baby, you’re helping to support these same independent musicians.

We may live in a culture that’s obsessed with FREE, but good music doesn’t grow on trees; Good music takes time and money to make. If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers then you’re familiar with the “10,000 Hour Rule,” stating that true mastery requires an “apprenticeship phase” of at least 10,000 hours of practice before you can get great at anything. The Beatles’ practice-period took place during their time in Hamburg, Germany, before they’d ever had a hit. Mozart had been composing since he was a boy, but his first masterwork didn’t come until he was in his early twenties.

Something doesn’t come from nothing.

Music isn’t free. It isn’t free for the writers who write it, the players who play it,  or the engineers who record it. Studio time, equipment-maintenance, production fees, promotional budgets, and duplication costs aside,… your favorite artists have spent much of their lives dedicated to getting better and better at their craft so they could create the songs you love. Getting good took time. When you buy music from CD Baby, you’re acknowledging an artist’s time and talents are worth something.

Major labels are singing the Big Business Blues

We believe that today’s best songs and most authentic voices are being developed and discovered AWAY from the corporate machine. In an episode of The Office I saw last night, Dunder-Mifflin’s new CEO, Robert California, gave a pep-talk about how consumers are rediscovering the value in mom-and-pop businesses. Music is no different. We have our very own “Main St. Versus Wall St.” war going on, and we thank YOU for being on the side of the little guys.

So, who are we? Here’s a picture of the CD Baby staff, an awesome group of musicians, artists, writers, and filmmakers who are helping independent artists every day by developing new promotional tools, talking to folks on the phone, shipping CDs around the globe, and occasionally racing scooters in the warehouse.

Who are you? As a customer of CD Baby, you’re a philanthropist, patron, fan, and saint all wrapped into one! For that, we award you 10,000 indie-karma points and say a very heartfelt thanks.

-Chris R. at CD Baby, the little online record store where you can find the most free-range, organic, grass-fed music in the world.

P.S. Check out Malcolm Gladwell on CNN explaining the “10,000 Hour Rule.”