CD Baby Announces It Will No Longer Distribute CDs and Vinyl

Portland, Oregon-based independent music distributor CD Baby has announced that it will no longer warehouse, ship, or distribute CDs, vinyl, cassette tapes, or DVDs to Amazon or music wholesaler Alliance in an email newsletter to customers. Its warehouse will close and customers will have 60 days to pay for their inventory to be returned before it will be recycled. The company says “digital distribution to places like Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Music” will continue. At the time of publication, the CD Baby website still advertised distribution services for physical products.

When CD Baby, Inc. was founded by Derek Sivers in 1998 in Woodstock, NY, it was one of the first internet-based retailers that focused on selling CDs for independent artists. In addition to their web store, CD Baby distributed CDs, vinyl, and cassette tapes, to more than 15,000 brick-and-mortar stores. It was also an early player in digital distribution, signing on as one of the launch partners for Apple’s iTunes Store in 2003. 

When CD Baby was acquired in 2019 for $200 million by the music services and rights management company Downtown Music Holdings, the company said it had paid out $600 million to artists since its founding.

Is the CD Revival an Actual Thing?