I was working in the industry at a sub model service when itunes was being built, and at an indie distributor when he made that speech - I remember it well.
Negotiating with the majors for content and pricing and access was worst hard-ball negotiations I've ever seen and schizophrenic at that. One of their big fears of course was enabling a market that would erode their competitive advantage in distribution and allow smaller players to sell music in ways indistinguishable from their own.
I have no direct inside knowledge, but I'd bet big you were just on the ass end of a power play that otherwise had little to do with CD Baby. Your catalog was a huge stick that could have been wielded in many ways in those fights. The contract that arrived the next day had an NDA, so suddenly you weren't able to disclose the terms of any deal you might have right?
As an aside, congratulations for sticking with your model and your principles and surviving that whole decade. It wasn't easy at all to make it in that market, my resume is just a bunch of smoldering craters from that period.
Negotiating with the majors for content and pricing and access was worst hard-ball negotiations I've ever seen and schizophrenic at that. One of their big fears of course was enabling a market that would erode their competitive advantage in distribution and allow smaller players to sell music in ways indistinguishable from their own.
I have no direct inside knowledge, but I'd bet big you were just on the ass end of a power play that otherwise had little to do with CD Baby. Your catalog was a huge stick that could have been wielded in many ways in those fights. The contract that arrived the next day had an NDA, so suddenly you weren't able to disclose the terms of any deal you might have right?
As an aside, congratulations for sticking with your model and your principles and surviving that whole decade. It wasn't easy at all to make it in that market, my resume is just a bunch of smoldering craters from that period.