Anything You Want

Just selling my CD

This story begins in 1997. I was a professional musician, age 27. I was making a

ful  -time  living  just  playing  music—playing  lots  of  gigs  around  the  U.S.  and

Europe, producing people's records, playing on people's records, and running a

little recording studio. I was even the musician and MC

for a circus.

My bank account was always low, but never empty. I made enough money to

buy a house in Woodstock, New York. I was living a musician's dream.

I made a CD of my music, and sold 1500 copies at my concerts. I wanted to sel it

online, but there were no businesses that would sel independent music online.

Not one. I cal ed up the big online record stores and they al told me the same

thing:  the  only  way  I  could  get  my  CD  into  their  online  stores  was  through  a

major distributor.

Music distribution was an awful racket. Getting a distribution deal was as hard

as  getting  a  record  deal.  Distributors  were  notorious  for  taking  thousands  of

CDs, and paying you a year later, if ever. Record labels with deep pockets would

buy expensive promotional placement, and the rest of us would just sit in the bin.

If you didn't sel wel in the first few months, you were kicked out of the system.

It's  not  that  distributors  were  evil.  It  was  just  an  awful  system,  and  I  wanted

nothing to do with it.

So when the big online record stores told me they couldn't sel my CD directly, I

thought, “Ah, screw it. I'l just set up my own online store. How hard could it

be?”

But  it  was  hard!  In  1997,  PayPal  didn't  exist,  so  I  had  to  get  a  credit  card

merchant  account,  which  cost  $1000  in  setup  fees  and  took  three  months  of

paperwork. The bank even had to send an inspector out to my location to make

sure I was a valid business. Then I had to figure out how to build a shopping

cart.  I  didn't  know  any  programming,  but  I  copied  some  examples  from  a

programming book, with lots of trial and error.

Final y, though, I had a BUY NOW button on my website! In 1997 this was a big

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deal.

When I told my musician friends about my BUY NOW button, one friend asked,

“Could you sel my CD, too?”

I thought about it for a minute and said, “Sure. No problem.” I just did it as a

favor.  It  took  me  a  couple  hours  to  get  him  added  into  my  system.  I  made  a

separate page for his CD on my band's website.

Then two other friends asked if I could sel their CDs. Then I started getting cal s

from strangers saying, “My friend Dave said you could sel my CD?” The cal s

and emails kept coming. I said yes to al .

Two  popular  online  music  leaders  announced  it  to  their  mailing  lists.  (Bryan

Baker  from  Gajoob,  and  David  Hooper.  Thanks,  guys!)  Fifty  more  musicians

signed up.

This was meant to be just a favor I was doing for a few friends. Hmmm....

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