CD Baby Hires First International Representatives in India, Continues Fast-Paced Global Expansion

CD Baby is proud to announce the hiring of two notable Indian music professionals to its rapidly expanding network of international representatives. It is the first large international artist services and distribution company to do so.

“India has some of the richest music cultures in the world and artists are eagerly looking for opportunities to share their creativity with audiences around the globe,” explains Heli Del Moral, VP of International Development at CD Baby. “We encourage artists to stay independent and to access our world-class promotion tools to help them propel their music careers. Education is a top priority for CD Baby.  Our mission in India is to simplify the process for artists and composers, and to give them the practical steps and information they need to successfully market and sell their music.”

The two hires’ life work speaks to this mission. Ritnika Nayan, with years of music business leadership and education experience, literally wrote the book on indie music in India, all while managing a large festival and her own music company. Priyanka Khimani, lead partner at one of Mumbai’s prominent digital entertainment and intellectual property legal firms, will offer legal guidance and other support, as CD Baby seeks to offer excellent service and tools for India’s burgeoning independent music scene. Nayan will also represent CD Baby’s sister companies, including DashGo, which offers services tailored to labels’ needs.

“The entry of entities like CD Baby into the Indian music industry marks the coming of a truly exciting time. The country’s music space today boasts of a glittering range of music creators and artists – across genres – particularly in the independent music space,” notes Khimani. “With organizations dedicated to ensuring that such creators successfully communicate their works and monetise them effectively, I look forward to everything that is in store!” 

“I have always been passionate about the independent music scene and music education has been my focus in the last few years. I feel CD Baby is one of the few companies that genuinely shares the same vision of empowering artists,” Nayan reflects. “CD Baby is for the artists and it helps artists take control of their music, not just through digital releases, but also through education. I feel truly blessed to be able to help the indie scene in India through CD Baby, this is exactly what our country needs right now.”  

These hires mark another step forward in CD Baby’s regionalization strategy, bringing its artist-oriented support to local markets in meaningful, informed ways. “India is a huge, vibrant market and presents a great opportunity for CD Baby,” says Tracy Maddux, CEO of AVL Digital, parent company to both CD Baby and DashGo. “We believe that Priyanka and Ritnika are the right people to help us grow and learn about what artists and labels need in this diverse, intensely creative country. This is a very exciting expansion for us that marks our commitment and belief in the future of the indie music market in India.”

CD Baby currently has 19 representatives operating in 25 countries around the world.

About CD Baby

CD Baby is the largest distributor and rights administrator of independent music on the planet.  It is home to almost 750,000 artists and more than 9 million tracks, getting independent music to more than 150 digital services and platforms around the globe and allowing artists to monetize their presence on YouTube. Artists using the CD Baby platform have earned more than $730 million since its founding. Its Publishing Administration service allows over 250,000 songwriters/artists to collect all of their publishing royalties. CD Baby has become the go-to partner for many icons in the new music industry.

App Wizards and Beer Indices: How Viberate Generates Festival Mobile Apps and Landing Pages with Robust Data

Festivals may come in all shapes, styles, and flavors, but they all struggle with one problem: How to keep on top of the flood of information about lineup artists and how to organize festival information in easy-to-navigate ways. Websites are expensive to build and update. A custom mobile app is even more so, with development costs reaching into the five figures. 

“By what we've seen during our market research, official festival websites often suck. There's no way of saying that nicely,” notes Viberate co-founder Vasja Veber. “They might look pretty, but information is lacking or hard to find. They often present a lineup by simply uploading the festival flyer and that's it. Then it's up to us potential festival goers to zoom in and read the names and look up those artists unknown to us.”

Viberate has been building a better way to present and maintain detailed festival info on one short, sweet landing page, one that festival organizers can use to generate an effective, inexpensive custom mobile app for both Andriod and iOS. An app wizard is rolling out soon, to guide festivals step-by-step through the code-free process. Viberate-generated sites and apps are powered by a large, robust database, made from a mix of key data points from socials, streaming services, and ticketing company APIs; contributions from users; and information verified by a legion of professional curators around the globe.

On the Viberate platform, entities are organized by event, festival, artist, venue, genre, subgenre, city, and country. Entities are crowdsourced with the help of over 20,000 contributors, and each and every entry is then curated by a team of 70 full-time database curators. Viberate also taps into the API’s of major ticket vendors, which provide tens of thousands of events daily, adding to manually contributed events users put up on the platform. Artist profiles are also rich with content and always up-to-date, since Viberate sources the content from entities' official sources and enriches the content with metadata.

“A couple other platforms offer easy creation of mobile apps, but what sets us apart is that we source all Artist and Venue data into the app directly from our database. Festival promoters don't have to deal with content,” a major headache for festival organizers wrangling farflung artist and label teams, Veber explains. “Artists are presented with all the information we collect. That means when they upload new content on their channels right before a major tour, say, it will pop up in the appropriate festival’s app.”

Viberate has already tested this concept with five mid-sized festivals in Europe, including Metaldays and Sea Dance Festival. The goal: To get 30-40% download rates for the festivals’ mobile apps. The results were surprising, as 80% of festival goers downloaded the apps, creating a new and highly valuable channel for festival organizers to reach and target their audiences. The price point was right for festivals, a few hundred dollars a month with no additional costs or fees. 

"We've just wrapped up the sixth edition of Sea Dance Festival, marking our first collaboration with Viberate,” says Igor Vidović, marketing manager at EXIT, which runs several European festivals. “The Sea Dance app proved to be very useful for all our festival-goers, providing them with up-to-date information at any given moment, allowing them to chat with their peers and giving them access to their own festival timeline. In conclusion, we are looking forward to working with Viberate in the future as we're certain we'll easily tackle any upcoming challenges."

The crowdsourced aspect of Viberate’s data mean festival goers’ experiences are captured on the profile or in the app in unique ways. Perhaps the quirkiest is a recent feature added to Festival and Venue profiles, the Beer Index. Festival patrons can use the Beer Index to budget for their big splurge, or to pick a less pricey festival destination with similar music.

“This is a fun metric that we are testing right now and it's completely crowdsourced. Visitors can report an average beer price in a venue or at a festival. Beer price is the universal indicator of the overall price range of a certain destination,” says Veber. “We got the idea when everyone was complaining that in Ibiza, they'll charge you 17 euros for a beer. At the same time, people really enjoyed festivals in Poland or the Czech Republic, in part because beer there is really cheap. If you compare prices of everything else in those destinations, you'll see that the ratios are similar, and that can change how you approach a festival and what decisions you make. It’s all about using data to enhance music experiences,” reflects Veber.

The Music Entrepreneur HQ's New Independent Music Survey

The Music Entrepreneur HQ just launched a brand new independent music survey for you to fill out.

As always, we're looking for relevant answers to our questions so that we can help you better.

The questions in this survey apply to both independent musicians and music consumers. Your answers will help us develop our next solution to help you build the career of your dreams.

Please fill out the survey below, and share it with your friends so we can make a worthwhile solution faster.

Thanks. We appreciate you!

Music Tectonics Conference Stakes Claim at the Epicenter of Music and Technology

A Blockchain Cage Match, an A.I. Talent Show, and everything you need to know about voice interfaces and music will shake up L.A. in October.

The first annual Music Tectonics Conference in Los Angeles October 28-29, 2019, is a destination event for innovators in music and technology. The conference speaker lineup brings together thinkers, doers and investors to explore the seismic shifts that are shaping the business of music. Labels, managers, publishers, tech companies, and startups will come together to map the new terrain.

Music Tectonics is designed to promote cross-industry meeting, dealmaking, and big-picture conversations about music tech innovation. Conference goers will get to:

• Party at Warner Music Group’s new DTLA digs.
• Cheer on blockchain skeptics and enthusiasts, refereed by NWA's Arabian Prince.
• Hear what A.I. music creation apps and platforms can really do, emceed by The Verge’s Dani Deahl.
• Learn from music tech investors, moderated by writer and podcaster Cherie Hu.
• Get a bird’s-eye view of the music tech landscape with Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Research. 
• Find out what voice interface experts from Pandora, Google, and Soundhound want the music biz to know.
• Keep the vibe alive the next day at A2IM’s SynchUp.

“Too many conversations about the future of the music industry are happening in siloes,” says Dmitri Vietze, conference organizer, Music Tectonics podcast host, and CEO of rock paper scissors inc., a music tech PR firm. “Take blockchain. Blockchain fans have their own conferences about how it will change systems, including music. What will happen when they sit down with music industry skeptics to really talk about how blockchain might innovate music? That’s the kind of energy and creative connection we need as an industry, to move into the next era of innovation, business, and music making.”

See the Conference Schedule

Music Tectonics kicks off October 28 with a reception at Warner Music Group’s new Downtown Arts District headquarters. Attendees will get a coveted glimpse of the label’s dynamic new space in a dramatically redesigned historic building. 

On October 29, conference goers will convene at the Skirball Cultural Center (2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049; free parking) for a jam-packed day, going beneath the tremors shaking up the daily news about music and technology to grasp the big picture. 

Keynote speaker Mark Mulligan, head of MIDiA Research, is known for crystallizing insight (and infographics) from deep dives into music industry data. A counterpoint to sensationalist headlines about robot music, an A.I. talent show emceed by music tech journalist (and accomplished DJ/producer) Dani Deahl will show off music creation apps and platforms powered by artificial intelligence. 

Breakout sessions will explore the shape of things to come. “Music Like Air,” for example, brings together experts from Pandora, Google, and Soundhound to demystify music discovery and listening as voice interfaces replace physical input and visual displays. Investors in the music technology space, including Zach Katz of Raised in Space, Larry Marcus of Marcy Venture Partners, and Rishi Patel of Plus 8 Equity, will tell startups what it takes to secure funding in a real talk-filled session moderated by Cherie Hu, insightful music tech writer and podcaster. Other sessions will explore new music-related copyright legislation, the latest music marketing tools, innovative listening experiences, new approaches to licensing, the future of live streaming, and more. 

Finding meaningful trends and stories in seemingly scattered scenes has obsessed Vietze and the team at rock paper scissors since the company began diving into music tech. With years of music technology PR and event planning expertise, rock paper scissors has built a network of experts across the music and technology spectrum who are looking for a new kind of conversation and engagement. “If this is a standard music industry conference, shoot me now,” says Vietze. “Imagine a place where decision-makers and innovators get down to the real issues over drinks and laughter. That’s where we are headed with our first year’s conference.”

Registration is open now at MusicTectonics.com/conference, along with a growing list of confirmed speakers. The conference is sponsored by CD Baby, AdRev, and Hydric, along with LyricFind, HFA, Qobuz, and Playlist Push.

Music Tectonics is partnering with A2IM’s 5th annual SynchUp event on October 30 at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica. The gathering now focuses on digital capacity as well as sync licensing. More information at www.a2imsynchup.com/. A2IM members can get discounts on Music Tectonics badges and bundled tickets when buying through A2IM.

CONFIRMED SESSIONS:

Blockchain Cage Match refereed by NWA's Arabian Prince

A.I.s Got Talent (talent show) emceed by The Verge's Dani Deahl 

The Investor Panel moderated by Cherie Hu

The State of Music Tech Startups Keynote by Mark Mulligan

Optimizing Music for Voice and Discovery

Rethinking Royalties

Labels Share Digital Marketing Tips and Tools

How Startups Can Work with Majors and Distributors

Innovations in Listening Experiences

How to Partner with DSPs

The Accelerator Panel

Music and New Social Video Formats

Music Modernization Act Update

...and several more

COMPANIES REPRESENTED:

Universal Music Group

AEG

Warner Music Group

Pandora

Google

Marcy Venture Partners

Raised in Space Enterprises

Plus Eight Equity Partners

DBTH

Techstars

Capitol Records

Soundhound 

Art + Logic

mVibe

New West Records

Verifi Media

Boomy

Song.AI

Amadeus Code

Synchtank

...and many more

HostBaby Teams up with Bandzoogle, for the Perfect Indie Artist Web Hosting Match

CD Baby’s HostBaby is partnering with leading music-oriented web hosting provider Bandzoogle. 

It’s a perfect match: Two committed independent music companies, founded and run by musicians, whose mission is to better serve the DIY and self-managed artists in a shifting digital business. Bandzoogle will now host artist sites for HostBaby, as the storied web hosting service winds down. 

“Bandzoogle shares our focus on artists, with tools that help them wherever they are in their career,” explains Tracy Maddux, CEO of AVL/CD Baby. “They have built the best hosting product for indie musicians, and they back it up with amazing customer service. Like us, they keep ahead of a fast-changing business and think hard about what tools will best support artists’ dreams and goals. I can’t think of a better partner in web hosting, and I’m glad we finally get to work more closely together to promote indie music as a whole.”

"Bandzoogle and CD Baby share similar values and goals: our sustained, honest efforts to provide all of the tools DIY artists need online today,” says Stacey Bedford, CEO of Bandzoogle. “We both have longevity in the industry (over 35 years combined!) and we are thrilled to be able to work together to help musicians."

HostBaby users will notice very little change as the partners work closely to migrate the sites slowly and seamlessly. They’ll keep the same domain, inbox, and other assets, as well as all hosting time purchased and all deals with CD Baby. They will also have the same high level of customer service and responsiveness they have grown accustomed to with HostBaby and CD Baby. “We aim to make this move so effortless and easy for users, they barely notice,” notes Kevin Breuner, VP of Marketing at CD Baby. 

In addition, users will discover a wide range of new, exciting tools for promoting their music and engaging their fans. These include highly customizable mobile-friendly templates, direct-to-fan eCommerce to sell music, merch, and tickets, as well as run crowdfunding and fan subscriptions, and integrations with popular platforms like Bandsintown and YouTube. As the transition occurs, HostBaby will not accept new sign ups.

“Our goal is to create or provide the strongest, most effective tools for artists to make the most of their creative lives and music careers,” Breuner states. “This partnership will allow us to move forward in a focused way, putting energy into new offerings while keeping our high standards of support and service.”

About CD Baby
CD Baby is one of the largest distributors of independent music on the planet, home to 650,000 artists and more than 9 million tracks that are made available to 100+ digital services and platforms around the globe. Artists on the platform are empowered to monetize their rights while maintaining control of their own careers, and have collectively earned over $600 million since the company’s founding. CD Baby’s Publishing Administration service allows over 160,000 songwriters to collect all of their publishing royalties and currently administers over 1 million songs, and its sync service has garnered artists placements in series like Stranger Things. CD Baby is a division of AVL Digital Group.

About Bandzoogle
Bandzoogle started with a single website built by Bandzoogle founder Chris Vinson for his alt-rock band, Rubberman. Now celebrating their 15th anniversary, Bandzoogle has grown to a team that is 80% musicians, and has powered websites for over 100,000 artists in 213 countries and territories. Along the way, Bandzoogle members have sold over $36 million in music, merch, and tickets directly to their fans, commission-free.

AllTrack Hires Former Tunecore CMO Lise Barbanti to Lead Marketing Efforts

AllTrack, the PRO for independent creators, has hired highly experienced marketing executive Lise Barbanti as VP of Marketing. Formerly the CMO of Tunecore, Barbanti has operated in a wide array of industries, spearheading marketing efforts at organizations ranging from global enterprises to groundbreaking small businesses.

Recently, she has devoted herself to startups, where potential customer education is key. “The companies I’ve worked for over the last two decades have all been in the business of disrupting their industries,” Barbanti reflects. “Most recently, I’ve been able to work with startups that were doing something that their industry had never done before,” including a platform that enables e-commerce sites to establish subscription features and a platform providing lightning-fast insurance underwriting solutions.

A thread runs through these diverse businesses, one Barbanti is embracing in her new role at America’s newest and most tech-driven PRO: educating people and removing layers of distance and complexity between customers and their ultimate goals. In this case, Barbanti and her team are hoping to reach independent music creators and inform them of their performing rights--and the royalties that go with them.

“In marketing, you take the mission defined by the CEO and craft clear and impactful messages around that,” reflects Barbanti. “AllTrack’s message and mission are clear. Independent artists, writers, composers and producers are often only partially aware of their rights. They typically don’t know about every financial opportunity available to them, and as a result they’re missing out on certain royalty streams. We hope to educate them and help them solve this dilemma as related to performing rights in a very easy way.”

AllTrack’s ease of use is very purposeful. The company is built to be radically more efficient and attuned to self-managed, single-first, and other non-traditional artists. “I’m excited to be able to work with such a dynamic team at bringing new era ideas and technology to the performing rights industry,” Barbanti notes.

“Lise has years of experience reaching out to consumers requiring new-era solutions, but who may not know where to start. And, she’s had a great deal of experience working with the very people AllTrack is built to service, independent music creators,” says Hayden Bower, founder and CEO of AllTrack. “We’re thrilled to have someone who truly understands the details of our industry leading our efforts to reach our core users, who have often been overlooked until now.”

About AllTrack

AllTrack is the first full service global performing rights organization (PRO) established to represent independent music creators – artists, songwriters, composers, producers and publishers. Its mission is to maximize compensation to its creator base by focusing on licensing their music and collecting their performance royalties from millions of potential commercial music users across the globe. AllTrack’s creators are compensated when their songs are performed by streaming services, TV, cable, radio and when their songs are played in bars, restaurants, nightclubs, hotels and hundreds of other types of businesses. AllTrack’s creators are also compensated when their songs are publicly performed live. An AllTrack license is an efficient, fair and ethical means for businesses to both utilize the music of its creators and comply with global copyright law. Through the ongoing development and use of cutting-edge technology designed to eliminate inefficiencies, AllTrack is committed to providing a near effortless compliance solution for creators and businesses, resulting in a hyper-efficient, fair and balanced marketplace for all. Please visit www.alltrack.com to learn more.

Soundrop and Save the Children Launch New Musical Side of Successful Create for Kids Program

As part of global humanitarian organization Save the Children’s Create for Kids program, Soundrop and its artists are donating tracks to build a unique compilation that highlights young musicians and artistic creativity. Alus and Astrid (of The Voice Kids UK fame) have already given music to the project, which will be released August 15, 2019. (More artists to be announced July 30.) Participating artists will donate their tracks for exclusive distribution as part of this charitable initiative, with 100% of reported revenue going to Save the Children.

In past years, Create for Kids has collaborated with creators on platforms like Twitch to raise money for charity’s diverse programs. Many of these creators had a strongly visual side to their work, leading to the project’s signature coloring book. This is the first collaboration with musical artists and a distribution service. 

It’s a natural fit for the creator-first, democratic distributor and its artists. “Our Soundrop Artists already make the world a better place every day through their positivity, creativity, and community building,” explains Soundrop Brand Manager Zach Domer (better known as “Pony”). “Joining forces for this project allows our creators to do what they do best for a cause that anyone can get behind: helping kids in need. The best part is that listeners and fans will be supporting Save the Children simply by streaming and downloading these songs as they normally would, so everyone wins!”
“We are looking forward to expanding on the success of our Create for Kids campaign by launching a special way for musicians to support the event,” says Lisa Smith, Associate Director of Digital Peer to Peer Fundraising for Save the Children. “Save the Children is very thankful to Soundrop for stepping up to partner with us on this exciting new project that will serve as an incredible platform for talented musicians to show off their work.”

For the Soundrop artists taking part in the initiative, donating a track was an easy decision, an extension of their values and goals as creators. “I am so excited to be part of the Save the Children compilation,” Astrid, age 10, notes. “It’s a charity helping children, which is the intention of my original song, ‘The Little Jazz Singer,’ to support other kids, like me, to be the best version of themselves! It’s my honour to support this charity!”

“Music has healing powers that can ignite a happy soul,” says Alus. “Donating a song to Save the Children is the least I can do to help children celebrate their creativity.”

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Since our founding 100 years ago, we’ve changed the lives of more than 1 billion children. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.