CD Baby winds down vinyl and CD sales to focus on streaming market

Music distribution company CD Baby is putting a halt to CD and vinyl distribution to hone their focus upon streaming.

CD Baby have changed their direction, having decided to stop distributing CDs and vinyl and draw all their attention to streaming instead. The decision has arrived as the distribution company aims to cohere with the current nature of the music industry, with streaming services dominating the landscape in the digital age. For over 20 years, CD Baby has forged a reputation for its high-quality services in providing musicians far and wide, a platform from which to share physical copies of their music. It will be a huge shift in focus, but one that comes with meticulous strategy in order to adapt its business fundamentals.

From as soon as the 22 June the company will therefore discontinue sales and distribution of CDs and vinyls, closing the doors on their warehouses and withdrawing all their products from online marketplaces. In a brief statement, CD Baby detailed;

“Digital distribution to places like Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music will continue, as will our support for artists at any stage of their journey. We will even have some exciting new features and offers to help you manage your music career coming soon that we can’t wait to share with you”.

Since it was founded in 1998, CD Baby has paid out over a billion dollars to artists, averaging almost 2-and-a-half million dollars every week. These are significant times for such a big organisation and it will be interesting to see their progress further down the line.

Image Credit: Eric Krull (Unsplash)