Musicians Resources
CDBaby Member Meeting, Sunday, February 11, 2001
By: Sonya Brown
There's a new kid in town. CDBaby.com recently relocated to Portland, Oregon from Woodstock, New York. CDBaby is the brainchild of Derek Sivers, an innovative businessman with a desire to promote and distribute independent music.CDBaby is an online record store that sells cd's catering to the independent musician... where most of the money from the sale of the cds actually goes directly to the musician. CDBaby also has a free musicians resource (located at www.CDBaby.org) that is full of free resources, tips, articles, advice, and links geared towards helping independent musicians.
A few months back, Derek opened up the new CDBaby warehouse for an informal member meeting, where CDBaby members in the area gathered to network, brainstorm and introduce themselves to each other. I met several musicians at this meeting; and I came out with several new cd's to enjoy from many different genres.
Ajay (http://ajay.iuma.com) is a local singer songwriter (and cdbaby artist) that I met a few months prior at an impromptu visit to CDBaby. She was warm and personable and I was thrilled to see her at the member meeting. She presented me with a copy of her cd, "Arrival", which contains 12 tracks of soothing folk music for when that quiet mood strikes me. Arrival was voted Best Folk Album of 2000 by GirlMedia.
As a further example of the diversity of the music found at CDBaby, Rob Tobias (www.robtobias.com) presented me with a copy of his CD, Sparks. Rob sings songs of Jewish soul on this 13 track cd.
Other artists that were represented at the member meeting included Jane Wright (Back Porch Productions - www.scribble.com/backporch) whose CD, Synergy, is chock full of instrumentation to compliment Jane's vocals; including soulful sax, french horn, trumpet, clarinet, trombone and many other sounds that take the listener from honky tonk to lounge to blues and everything in-between.
Also represented was a band from Panama, CAGE 9 (www.cage9.com). Their 15 track cd, Human Feedback, brought me back to my rock roots... and I really enjoyed the trip!
CDBaby has many other projects on the burner - including a West Coast USA tour featuring acoustic artists. Presented by Sixteenth Note (http://www.sixteenthnote.com/TourBabyPromoPressKit.htm), Tour Baby is scheduled for September 1-30, 2001 and will start in Vancouver BC and end in Los Angeles, CA. Some of the artists slated to tour are David E. Carter, Jennifer Maione, Straw Dogs, Liz Capra, Mitchelle Tanner, Garrin Benfield, Sonya Kaye, Southpaw Jones, Holly Figueroa, Erik Muiderman, Deborah Gee and Lizard McGee.
CDBaby is another resource for the "Do It Yourself" musician. This new kid in town is growing up to be a giant with iuma.com now stored at its warehouse, as well as Garageband.com, and farmclub.com also joining the ranks.
It will be interesting to watch this baby grow.
