"Pigment of My Fascination" - Silas Scarborough - Response from CD Baby

The question was whether there is a problem in linkage between iTunes and CD Baby which prevents transactions from being posted and the reason for the question is there hasn't been any of my CDs which has failed to enjoy some sales.

The CD is "Pigment of My Fascination" (link to iTunes Store) and the response below shows I've failed altogether in promoting it.  Putting the CD cover in the sidebar looks pretty but does not appear to accomplish much.


Let's go in reverse order and here's my response to CD Baby:

Thank you for your research as my concern was the connection with iTunes was not working. Your response makes clear valid timing expectations and also that I seriously need to do a better job of getting the word out. I do appreciate you verifying it.

So the next question is how to do it when most of that doesn't come free.  There is a link to the CD in the sidebar and also on the Ride the Dragon podcast page.

Spamming it on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ has the potential to reach about three thousand people via the connections I have but the fact of social networks is people don't read most of what you write.

The easy cop is to think I've alienated people so much politically I would not even be able to push the CD even if I gave it away with a free Elvis Presley clock at a flea market.

(Ed:  how about with a Jesus clock?)

Dunno but I have seen them.  I'm fairly sure you go to hell if you actually own one, tho.

(Ed:  there you go alienating people about religion.  That doesn't sell CDs!)

Hey there, P.T. Barnum, the people who buy Jesus clocks are so seriously not going to buy any CD I ever make (larfs).

(Ed:  you won't even let them into the Sanctuary?)

Sure, we will.  They can't bring those ugly ass clocks, tho.

It may be the podcast is a mistake.  The thinking has been uploading songs to it is good promotion but why should anyone buy something when they can get it for free.  In fact, they don't get it for free since the CD has higher-resolution audio, regardless of whether a physical CD or digital delivery.  Since there's no evidence that has worked, I conclude ... it doesn't fookin' work.

The existing links to the CD won't be deleted because maybe they will work and there's no sense to removing that potential.

Second Life is obvious for promoting the CD via live performance.  Since I did a lot of that at one time and CDs sold and I don't do it much at all now and CDs do not sell, it seems highly obvious to do this.  The bigger difference is I was doing four and I think even five gigs in a day sometimes and there's no possible chance of doing anything like that now.

Failing to do any live sets in front of an audience now is a small part laziness but is mostly a list of symptoms no-one wants to hear, including me.

Playing live means playing at venues other than Cat's Art MusikCircus because if this really is business then it has to happen during U.S. prime time rather than Euro which translates to mid-afternoon here.

Nad Gough invited me to play some while back and there hasn't been the possibility to do it even though it would be grand to play for people I haven't seen in quite a while and that goes back to 2006 in Second Life.  They're really good people and that probably means they're broke too but that would still be the first place I would want to play.

Doing that is a valid possibility but an extremely difficult one to achieve.  It took about three hours last night for nine minutes of music and that kind of juice just ain't there for playing sixty or more minutes.  It may happen but don't underestimate the difficulty of it.  This is only a small part laziness.

I'm really not posing an open question on what should I do because I know of various promotional possibilities in CD Baby and elsewhere.  They haven't seemed particularly useful but it's not selling now so maybe they need some time.

(Ed:  if other CDs sold and you don't have them online now then what's yer answer, Einstein?)

Putting them back online is a quality matter.  I didn't feel they measured up to the quality I want of myself so I pulled them.  Whether that was being dickish isn't clear but it would cost seventy-nine bucks a pop to put them back and there are, I think, three in this category.  There's also another seventy-nine to release the new "Ride the Dragon" and the good news is there's no reason to delay on releasing it except zero dollars to do it.

There's no chance I'll release anything old before I release the new one.  That just ain't goin' happen.

So maybe this is the new and improved pitch:  

Support the Blog by Buying the CD

"Pigment of My Fascination" is at the iTunes Store now

Even if it sucks, it's only ten bucks!

(Ed:  I hope you play better than you write advertising copy!)

It's my hope too, Buddy Boy.  It's my hope too (larfs).

(Ed:  just checking.  Are you being whinge-y?)

Nah, this is being analytical.  Whinge-y is when someone is whining so hard you want to punch them.  I believe in the CD and that people will like it if they hear it.  Getting that word out to people is a mystifying task ... so I get analytical.

Take it away, CD Baby.  The reason for posting it is to make it clear buying the CD will work.

Hello,

Thanks for writing! Here's the breakdown about how often we receive sales reports from all of our digital partners. These timeframes are as accurate as I can get since report times tend to vary from partner to partner and from report to report. This is also the average frequency for which we receive reports from these sites. These sites therefore have been known to report sales sooner than these time frames and they also report sales later than these timeframes.

Also, remember that it can take 1-3 months to see the first sales reported inside your account from the time your music has first been distributed.

1 to 2 Months
- iTunes (US)

2 to 3 Months:
- Spotify
- Rdio
- Amazon
- Google Music Store
- Rhapsody
- XBox (formerly Zune)

Quarterly:
- GreatIndieMusic
- 7 Digital
- MediaNet
- Omniphone
- eMusic
- Rhapsody Mechanical Royalties
- Nokia
- 27/7
- Rumbelfish
- Songtrust

3 to 4 Months
- Deezer

I checked and the album is up with all the partners as of April.

If someone purchases directly on CDBABY, the sale will appear in your online accounting within 24 hours after they've paid for it.

However, sales that occur on our partner sites (like iTunes or Amazon MP3) need to be reported to us before we can add them to your accounting. As soon as a company reports a sale to us, we add the money to your balance right away (and send you a payment once your total balance reaches your pay point).

However, please note that most companies only report sales to us every 1-3 months, so there may be a delay before you see the sales reflected in your sales history. And some report up to 6 months.

iTunes, for example, sends us the monthly report about 4-6 weeks after the month is finished. In other words, a sale that occurred in March would get reported to us in May. International iTunes can take up to 6 months.

Some companies report a full 3 months after the quarter is done.

Hope this helps!

Thank you!