CD Baby Grows Up

Two giants in independent music teamed up Wednesday as Disc Makers, the nation’s largest manufacturer of CDs and DVDs for independent artists, acquired CD Baby, the nation’s largest online merchant of independent music.

Two giants in independent music teamed up Wednesday as Disc Makers, the nation’s largest manufacturer of CDs and DVDs for independent artists, acquired CD Baby, the nation’s largest online merchant of independent music. Anyone who followed the paths of the two companies probably saw this partnership coming for a while, well, seven years if you’re counting, as that is how long the two pushers of all things independent have had an unspoken dependence on one another.

While this move is a massive one for CD Baby, it has been a long time since the online retail store was in an infantile state. The company started out in 1998 as a way for founder Derek Sivers to sell his friends’ and his own music online. In the ten years since, CD Baby has distributed for a quarter million artists including Jack Johnson and Regina Spektor (before they John Hancocked with any labels), and its catalog has provided iTunes, Napster, Amazon MP3, and Rhapsody with millions of independent songs.

Sivers seems to be very happy with the situation stating, “Disc Makers was my first choice to take the company to new heights. Their operational expertise is just what little CD Baby needed to grow up.” The CD Baby brand name will not go away despite the buy out, and neither will Sivers, who will stay on as a consultant.