CD Baby shuts down its online music retail store

By Emmanuel Legrand

Downtown Holdings-owned digital distributor and service company CD Baby is "retiring" its online retail store to focus on distribution, monetisation, and promotion services. CD Baby retail store will be phased out on March 31st, 2020, according to a post on the company's site.

  The company said the store only represented a very small portion of its clients' income and was no longer central to its activities.The store offered CDs, vinyl, or high-res digital files from a wide range of independent artists' music.

  CD Baby will continue its physical distribution programme, to warehouse CDs and vinyl and fulfill orders of physical products placed through Amazon, Alliance, local record stores, and other outlets. 

No longer a money-maker

  "20 years ago, when CD Baby launched the online store, it was revolutionary to help independent musicians gain direct access to their fans and the market," reads the company's blogpost. "By 2009, sales through our store accounted for only 27% of the total revenue we paid to artists every week. By 2019, sales on our store comprised less than 3% of our clients’ total earnings. With a few exceptions, the store is no longer a money-maker for most of our artists."

  Looking at the future, CEO Tracy Maddux said the company would "focus on what is making a difference for musicians today: our distribution, monetisation, and promotion services."