How often do you hear a cut by an artist you never heard before and feel compelled to buy the CD? Answer for me is like WAYYY seldom. But, Harry offered this by Kelly Hagan, and I went to the CDBaby site (link to which Harry thoughtfully provided) and I heard the teasers from her CD, "Tell the truth and run…" and, well… that’s where the story got interesting for me.
I placed an order for the CD and was delighted to receive the following email later in the same day. Do these people get it, or what?
Frank -
Thanks for your order with CD Baby!
Shipping Address
================
Frank Paynter
[order details omitted...-fp-...]Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved ‘Bon Voyage!’ to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Monday, October 10th.
I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as ‘Customer of the Year’. We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!Thank you once again,
Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
the little CD store with the best new independent music
phone: 1-800-448-6369 email: cdbaby@cdbaby.com http://cdbaby.com
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
The best song on that is “Dirty Little Secret”. “Thin Ice” and “Go For A Ride” are nearly as hot. The rest is good, listenable and worthy, but not something to make you jump up and buy.
CD Baby has about the customer relations I’ve seen online. The first time I posted about them, Bruce weclomed me into their fan club. He’s known about them forever.
Almost forgot. Check the same store for “Outloud Dreamer”.
yesir, did a story on them for a technology company’s in-house magazine. Derek is cool and sports a great hairstyle (see if you can guess, Frank). He’s a former musician, started the company because of a desire to distribute his independent music and it grew, thanks to his tech savvy, customer relations savvy, and musician relations savvy. In other words, he’s a smart guy doing good work.
I see they haven’t changed their form letter, but why mess with perfection?
Kelly Hogan is good too: http://bloodshotrecords.com/artists/kellyhogan/
I’m thinking the guy has a shaved head… Kelly Hagan Kelly Hogan Nina Hagen… I think Bruce and Harry are just trying to confuse this old hippie.
Confuse you? What do you mean, ‘confuse’ you :)?
But to get back to the point… they’re either smoking or listening to some hot shit (CD Baby–not Harry or Bruce… Hmm, I wonder) Alternatively (now there’s a word that’s been killed in the States), they do–as you surmise, Frank, just ‘get it’.
It’s refreshing to see after hearing of Amazon’s poor service to many living on the Dark Continent. They use tech to lure the customer and ‘conventional business practice’ (slow-to-non-delivery) to ensure they don’t return. What a waste–I have a Dylan collection to buy and will probably do it (over time) through a local Amazon equivalent, Kalahari.net.
I way prefer candles, satin pillows and all that go with them…
(Gad, I’m so seldom about I feel like an interloper. But it’s nice to bump into some reg’lar friends once in a while. ‘Ullo Harry. ‘Ullo Bruce.)
And the best news is that the CD arrived today, a mere five days after the order was entered and all the candles were lit and so forth. Been glad to see you posting more, Mike.