Articles → Happy 10th Birthday to CD Baby - and an announcement
2008-03-24
I started CD Baby 10 years ago this week - in March 1998.
I'm just a musician-geek, not a business-man. Never meant to start a company. I was just selling my own CD, then helped some friends do it, then it accidently turned into CD Baby. (Ooops!)
Now CD Baby has paid over $70 million dollars directly to musicians. And despite the moaning you hear from the major labels, independent artists are selling better than ever. Even physical CD sales are up 30% over last year!
Announcement:
For the past 10 years I've spent most waking hours, 7 days a week, doing nothing but CD Baby. Last year I just slept on the couch at the office for 6 months, usually working from 7am to midnight.
So today seems like a good day to tell you that I don't work at CD Baby anymore, and haven't in months.
I'm still the owner, but haven't been to the office since May. The crew there is running things better than I ever could. They know more than I do, and do a better job.
I've made that transition from self-employed to business-owner. (You know you're a true business-owner when you can leave your business for a year, and come back to find it's doing much better than when you left.)
Why am I telling you this?
Because the reason I freed my time is to find more ways to help you.
Helping you develop, create, promote, and sell your music makes me happier than anything. It's still why I bounce out of bed in the morning.
I love it even more than making my own music. By helping you get your music out to the world, and helping you make a living doing it, I feel that in a way I'm making more music than ever.
There are many ways I can help you, but I'll email you about those next week.
Today was just a CD Baby birthday announcement. Still, I wanted to let you know there are exciting things to come.
![http://www.flickr.com/photos/vox_efx/2253681054/](/web/20160623031051im_/http://sivers.org/images/10th-birthday.jpg)