The company just shared the impressive threshold with Digital Music News, while also pointing to a clientele of 250,000 artists. The $200 million royalty number is cumulative, thoughthis is a quickly-ramping figure: CD Baby is now paying approximately $40 million per year, and expects to hit the quarter-billion-mark sometime next year. And this is money paid to artists, not top-line revenues.
Sounds ginormous, though the significance of the figure can be debated. After all, this a payout amassed over a period of more than a decade, and average artist take-homes are typically slim. But there's something to be said for staying in this game: the music industry is where startups perish, yet CD Baby is now celebrating its Bar Mitzvah.
CD Baby president Brian Felsen is popping a slightly different champagne cork, one that celebrates a successful transition from a CD-based business to largely digital one. Warehousing and selling discs was its first service; MusicStore for Facebook one of its latest. “CD Baby was there in the beginning of the internet music boom and has capitalized on every evolution in technology to become the model for the new music business economy," Felsen relayed.
Unfortunately, history lessons don't pay the bills, and in 2011, DIY digital is an incredibly crowded field. And, others could be quick to out-boast CD Baby in the coming days and weeks. That includes Tunecore, whose simple iTunes digital distribution platform has proven to be a game-changer. In April, the company pointed to an artist base of 600,000, and a yearly, top-line revenue rate of nearly $170,000 (artists generally get 70 percent on an iTunes download).
That's a pissing match for later, though CD Baby is clearly roosted towards the top. In fact, out intel suggests that heavyweights like CD Baby, Tunecore, and ReverbNation are profitable, thanks to substantial scale. But it's a tough perch: the DIY space has never been more cluttered, and that super-saturation screams for a shrink-down of some sort. In fact, insiders will tell you that there are plenty of companies “just hanging on," and hoping for friendlier financial skies ahead.
We talked to CD Baby CEO Tony van Veen on this matter, who felt that consolidation was less of a near-term threat. “I don't feel any active push toward consolidation yet," van Veen shared. “There are a number of small players in the digital distribution space, and at some point some of them will start dropping out, which will create that opportunity for consolidation. However, the major players are stable, and I expect them to stay independent for the immediate future."
Sounds ginormous, though the significance of the figure can be debated. After all, this a payout amassed over a period of more than a decade, and average artist take-homes are typically slim. But there's something to be said for staying in this game: the music industry is where startups perish, yet CD Baby is now celebrating its Bar Mitzvah.
CD Baby president Brian Felsen is popping a slightly different champagne cork, one that celebrates a successful transition from a CD-based business to largely digital one. Warehousing and selling discs was its first service; MusicStore for Facebook one of its latest. “CD Baby was there in the beginning of the internet music boom and has capitalized on every evolution in technology to become the model for the new music business economy," Felsen relayed.
Unfortunately, history lessons don't pay the bills, and in 2011, DIY digital is an incredibly crowded field. And, others could be quick to out-boast CD Baby in the coming days and weeks. That includes Tunecore, whose simple iTunes digital distribution platform has proven to be a game-changer. In April, the company pointed to an artist base of 600,000, and a yearly, top-line revenue rate of nearly $170,000 (artists generally get 70 percent on an iTunes download).
That's a pissing match for later, though CD Baby is clearly roosted towards the top. In fact, out intel suggests that heavyweights like CD Baby, Tunecore, and ReverbNation are profitable, thanks to substantial scale. But it's a tough perch: the DIY space has never been more cluttered, and that super-saturation screams for a shrink-down of some sort. In fact, insiders will tell you that there are plenty of companies “just hanging on," and hoping for friendlier financial skies ahead.
We talked to CD Baby CEO Tony van Veen on this matter, who felt that consolidation was less of a near-term threat. “I don't feel any active push toward consolidation yet," van Veen shared. “There are a number of small players in the digital distribution space, and at some point some of them will start dropping out, which will create that opportunity for consolidation. However, the major players are stable, and I expect them to stay independent for the immediate future."
