WordPlay T. Jay recently got the opportunity to sit down for an interview with an important player in the indie music industry — Derek Sivers, founder of CDBaby.
Sivers is many things by trade, including a writer, producer, entrepreneur, author, speaker, publisher and more. He spoke with T. Jay via video chat, answering some questions about his personal life, career and about CDBaby.
Part I of this three-part series looks at his own career and how things have changed for him over the years.
Sivers has not been very active in the professional realm in the past few years, as he took a number of years off to be a full-time dad.
“The reason I did that is because I remember John Lennon, when he had his first kid, wasn’t there very much,” Sivers said. “And, when he had his second kid, he took off just to be a dad and started saying ‘No’ to everything. I thought if John Lennon could do that, so could I.”
As his child got older, Sivers has been getting back into a working mode.
“I’m doing a lot of writing right now,” he said. “In the mid-1980s, all I wanted to do was be a musician. I went to Berkeley College of Music, then moved to New York and immersed myself in the music scene. I had a day job at Warner Chappell Music Publishing, and that was cool because i got to see how music was made form the inside.
“That’s what my next book is about — what I learned from inside the music industry. After a couple years, I saved enough that I could quit my day job and I became a musician full-time.”
Sivers said in order to maintain a life as a musician, he had to say “Yes” to a lot of things.
“I became a full-time musician in 1996, and I said ‘Yes’ to about everything,” he said. “Well, first I asked what it paid, then It’d say yes if it paid enough. Someone would say, ‘Hey we’re looking for a bassist for this metal album,’ and I’d say, ‘Yep, that’s me. I play bass for metal albums. That’s what I do.’ Or someone would say, ‘We need a jazz acoustic guitar solo,’ and again I’d say, ‘Yep, that’s me.’”
Sivers said through his career, he realized there was no real way to sell music online, so he started a cart feature on his band’s website, and after people asked him to sell their music there, it wound up growing into what CDBaby is today, the world’s largest seller of independent music.
T. Jay asked Sivers what was the best song he ever heard on the platform, and the response was a bit surprising.
“It’s cliche, but I can’t really pick a favorite,” he said. “I used to make these compilations and print like 10,000-50,000 of them and put them in people’s orders.”
Sivers said most music on CDBaby falls into a couple categories.
“There are two kinds of artists — starting line and finish line,” he said. “When you put out music, for a lot of people, that’s like the start of a race. You do all you can every day to sell and promote and get more attention. Those people on CDBaby would average about $1,000, and some would make a lot more.
“Then, there’s the other artists who when they release something are like, ‘There you go. I did it.’ and for the most part, they are done. Those people may make an average of $20.”
Sivers said those two types of artists lead to a kind of this weird disconnect between the quality of a song and the outcome of a career.
“Some are just happy to release music,” he said. “If I were to make music now, I would be like that. I would just put it out to put it out.”
For Sivers, however, there is not any music expected to be coming soon. In fact, the 50-year-old gave away all his instruments recently.
“It’s hard to admit when you have a change in identity, and that can take a long time,” he said. “I was wrapped up so long in being a musician. The truth is, I worked at CDBaby for 10 years, and I only actually made music for that first year, even though I still considered myself a musician.
“I recently realized a metaphor that applies to me, that my old clothes just don’t fit anymore. I tried to put on new clothes, but I was still trying to put them over my old clothes, so they didn’t fit. So, I gave away all my instruments to a friend so I could put on my new clothes.”
For more from Part I of the interview with Sivers, check out the video below.