06-02-2003, 10:00 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Get Some Music From CDBaby
http://www.cdbaby.com
Ok, let me just start by giving a big raspberry to the RIAA. :razz: There. I have that out of my system. I love music but am increasingly perturbed at restrictions the RIAA is advocating that will keep me from playing my music wherever I want. So, what am I to do? I am not going to steal a bunch of music. That leaves independent artists. Last summer I purchased a slew of Aimee Mann CD's from her web site. She has told the record industry to go take a hike. I like her stuff and I'll continue to support her as long as she keeps putting out music like that.
Still, trying to find artists like this is tedious at best. So where do you go? CD Baby, that's where.
The first thing I did was go to the search engine, type in Mazzy Star and viola! Up pops over 60 CDs that match that description. They have a small army of people that listen to every independent artist CD they sell and they categorize it by mood, genre, "sounds like" and probably a few others. So I click on a group called Trespassers William, listen to their tracks in M3U format in WMP on my desktop, find their other CD, listen to those tracks and order both, right there! If you have 12 minutes, listen to those 6 samples. You'll probably get an insight to my musical tastes you may not have expected. 
As another bonus to the great selection, when I go back and place my second order, they will give me a free CD, custom selected for me, not just something from a dump bin somewhere. Sorry, looks like I got the last Trespassers William's "Different Stars" CD. You'll have to backorder it. :wink:
It gets better too. This was in my confirmation email they sent telling me my CD's had shipped. :lol: You have to admire this kind of customer service. It reminds me of Southwest Airlines.
Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Thursday, May 29th.
I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year". We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!
Well, my CDs arrived safe and sound, and the Lear Jet landing in our neighborhood didn't cause too much ruckus.  Both have successfully been ripped to my PC and transferred to my Pocket PC for my listening pleasure, and I feel sure the artist got more money from this sale via CD Baby than they would have had it gone through a major label and sold at Tower Records.
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06-02-2003, 12:14 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 95
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That leaves independent artists.
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Those of us with Macs in the US can aways visit the Apple Music Store ( http://www.apple.com/music/store/) for a mainstream artists as well. It's hard to explain just how addictive 99 cents a song can be!
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06-02-2003, 04:05 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 481
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Re: Get Some Music From CDBaby
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Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
... That leaves independent artists.
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That's the good that might come out of the arrogance of the RIAA and the control of the lawmakers they've achieved.
I've never understood the mega-star phenomena and $100 concert tickets. Why does everyone choose (and clamor) to listen to the same music as everyone else? I've known people that sing very, very well and could have made money off it if they were willing to live life on the road and put up with the contracts (and of course, had the right connections to get in). There is way more talent out there than what we find in the record store.
When the internet first came along, I thought, "Great, the death of RIAA and the big labels". Now anyone can record and distribute their own music. With CD stamping becoming mainstream and affordable, and CD-Rs arriving on the scene, there was nothing left for the big labels to do.
This was actually developing good, and RIAA had nothing they could do to stop it. Then came Napster and "free" big name music, so the market for the self distributer was undermined. Now, though, as that chapter may be coming slowly to a close, I think the market may be swinging back for the "unsigned" artists. And the arrogance of the RIAA will keep them charging on their current path until it's too late to save themselves.
But I still scratch my head on this: why do people (so many people) prefer to listen to the same music as everyone else?
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06-02-2003, 04:18 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Re: Get Some Music From CDBaby
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Originally Posted by PPCRules
But I still scratch my head on this: why do people (so many people) prefer to listen to the same music as everyone else?
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Convenience. It is very hard to find music you like - very time consuming, even with broadband. With the radio, you are fed stuff as you drive or work around the house. Searching for stuff requires clicking and sitting. I have found some stuff from Launch.com but that is really just internet radio.
CDBaby is the first site I've run across that makes it fairly easy to say "Ok, I like X, show me who else is like X and be accurate about it." That said, to find something new still requires clicking. I'd like to hear some independant artist radio that you could select by genre.
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06-02-2003, 04:34 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 651
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Re: Get Some Music From CDBaby
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Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
I'd like to hear some independant artist radio that you could select by genre.
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I'd like to hear that too. Cd sales are not down because of file sharing, it's down because alot of new music SUXS. I hate hearing a song sample a song that was out two months ago and that song sampled a song from 20 years back. Give me some good music and I'll buy it. Thanks for the link Ed, I've found some really nice jazz that I'm going to buy
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06-02-2003, 05:11 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Re: Get Some Music From CDBaby
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Originally Posted by PPCRules
But I still scratch my head on this: why do people (so many people) prefer to listen to the same music as everyone else?
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People listen to what they like, and they only way they decide what they like is based on what they hear, and they only hear what's on the radio/music station (more or less). That's what the unsigned artist does NOT have access to: marketing dollars to get promotion. It's very rare for an unsigned artist to get a truly viral music campaign going that will get their music out to the masses. It happens now and then, but it's a hard thing to do.
People seem to think record companies are completely useless. I think they're about 70% useless, but they DO have a function. :lol:
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06-02-2003, 05:15 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 361
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I find another good way to circumvent the RIAA is to buy (and sell) used CDs. The best place for that online has to be spun.com. They take old discs off your hands and offer up a really good selection of mainstream artists. Their business model is supply/demand driven, so prices vary with the title. If you sell to them they even pick up the shipping tab.
Oh yeah - they deal in DVDs and video games too.
- Drew
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06-02-2003, 05:20 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 116
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That looks pretty cool. I think the RIAA has it all wrong and they will have to at some point evolve or die. I still use P2P like WinMX to find music. Here is a perfect expample how wrong the RIAA is about internet music. Last month is was looking for a pericular song/video and found several versions on the P2P WinMX. I then played them in Windows Media Player 9. Media Player 9 saw the MP3's and proceeded to pull artist and albumn data off the internet...very cool feature. They also added a nice selection of online vendors for me to purchase from. As I recall I selected A&B Music out of Canada. A week later my CD arrived and it was only like $11 US delivered which meets my "wont pay over $12 US for a CD" criteria.
trachy -- I was reading on SlashDot a couple of months ago that the RIAA is trying to stop that and charge vendors for used CD sales.
--Bill[/url]
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06-02-2003, 08:49 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 46
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man, never in my life did i think i'd have something in common with Ed! 
you have pretty good musical taste--i''m a trespassers william fan too!cdbaby is a great website that i've frequented for the better part of the last year or 18 months. i'm a big fan a of independent music and only buy CDs from a select few major label artists that i've been a fan of since i was a kid or a teenager like REM, Radiohead, and Uncle Tupelo which let to what's now Wilco, etc.
their confirmation email is pretty funny. i've never actually bought a CD from them since there are a couple of indie music shops around that i go to and they usually have everything i want. i also find it fruitful to go the indie label websites to find new bands, like jetset records, subpop, march records and my personal favorite, barsuk.
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06-02-2003, 09:03 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Originally Posted by kidA
man, never in my life did i think i'd have something in common with Ed! |
So I can assume you have the three big Mazzy Star CDs, the Hope Sandoval "Bavarian Fruit Bread" CD and half a dozen singles?
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