Chris Anderson and CD Baby: That's Right, I'm Picking A Fight

[Brian Dobbs]

In a March 2010 episode of the CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast, Chris Anderson was interviewed about his new book titled,"Free: The Future Of A Radical Price".

To listen to Mr. Anderson's interview with CD Baby, go here.

As you may already be aware, from my DIY Guide, I don't think highly of Chris Anderson (or CD Baby), so I decided to offer some feedback on the CD Baby Podcast message line.

What you'll hear in this episode of The Solo Album Podcast are clips from Mr. Anderson's interview, my phone call to CD Baby, and the responses from the CD Baby hosts themselves. Stay tuned until the end to hear some of my additional commentary.

Here are some links for some of the subjects that come up during the course of this episode.

    * Wired.com article on Napster Vs. Metallica
    * Jonathan Coulton's Website
    * Kevin Breuner's Blog Post

[KBCDBaby]

Brian,

Glad our podcast made such a big impression on you!  Again, I kinda think you made our point for us.  You took almost our entire podcast for FREE and rebroadcast it as your own without even asking for permission to use it.  You would not have done this had it been a physical CD sitting on my desk, but since it was a digital file, you felt like you could use it however you like without checking with us first.  It had no value.  Pretty much the exact point Chris Anderson makes.

Since you are looking for some pointers on your podcast, here is what I would suggest.

1. If you are wanting to use other people's content, it's best to get permission if it's beyond the scope of fair use.  This was way beyond that.  I personally don't care, but someone will.

2.  It's YOUR podcast.  You should be the one doing most of the talking.  You used so much of our podcast, I got lost in what point you were trying to make.  I stopped listening half way through as I already know what I have to say on the topic.  Your listeners would be confused as you set it up as this fight and all it is is us making our points in a calm thought out manner.  No fighting and they hardly ever hear from you.  Persuade me!  Lay out your case for YOUR ideas.  Saying, "I don't like Chris Anderson!" is not a persuasive argument.  I don't care what you think of Chris Anderson, but give me some solid thoughts about why what he says doesn't work.  All I can get is that you just don't like free, but I don't know why.

3.  RSS feed is a must.


Kevin

[Brian Dobbs]

Thanks Kevin, I appreciate the feedback.  I assume you caught this on HC. 

1) I see what you are saying, but since I was also directly involved I didn't really think of it that way.  Fair point.

2) I'm sorry to see that you didn't listen to the rest of the podcast, or maybe any of the others that I have on my...

3) ...RSS feed.  The top of the podcast page has the following - "The Solo Album Podcast is available via iTunes or XML / RSS."

I have respect for what the CD Baby podcast is doing, I just don't agree with the methodology or presentation.  We both said what we had to.  It's up to other independent artists to decide for themselves at this point.