
In the early dawn of the internet, it wasn’t easy for an independent artist to sell their music online — so Derek, an musician himself, decided to create a system where he could. Then his friends, and friends of friends, wanted to do the same thing — that’s when CD Baby was born. It later became a lean sales machine producing over $100 million dollars in sales and servicing over 200,000 musicians. Derek later sold CD baby, giving proceeds to charity, in 2008 for $22 million — he’s also a best-selling author, musician, programmer, world traveler, and circus ringleader (to get over his fear of public speaking.)
I have the pleasure to speak with Derek, via Skype from his home in New Zealand, to talk about marketing, automation, and how it applies to product-based companies.
Continue reading Derek Sivers: Systematizing Friendliness (The DOcast)