CD Baby has long been committed to providing substantial, in-depth resources for independent musicians who want to do it themselves. Now, the company is doubling down on artist empowerment with its new Artist Engagement and Education team. The team of experienced musician mentors will be led by long-time podcast host and trusted voice Kevin Breuner. As part of this initiative, Breuner has been named SVP of Artist Engagement and Education.
“We want to be a resourceful guide through an increasingly fractured and complicated landscape,” explains Breuner. “By investing in and uniting everything from our blogs, podcast, conference, and community, we hope to empower musicians with practical know-how and, hopefully, inspire them to pursue their musical ambitions and achieve success on their terms.
CD Baby’s approach to education has always stood out among distributors and independent artist services companies. Their approach goes far beyond content marketing or veiled advertising to provide DIY artists with a substantial and ever-growing range of resources designed to help them thrive as independent musicians. Some are so well regarded by music educators, they are used in college classrooms to teach about the music industry.
“Kevin has used the DIY Musician podcast and blog, as well as our annual conference, to demystify distribution, monetization, and promotion and help make success in this atomized music economy—however an artist may define it—accessible to all artists, regardless of whether they use our services or not,” notes CD Baby President Joel Andrew. “Because we’re all artists ourselves, we see our mission as sharing what we know as broadly as possible. Now we’ll be able to bring even more energy to empowering and uplifting the diverse international community that CD Baby serves.”
The Artist Engagement and Education team will focus on emerging artists entering the market at a time when the music business is the most complex it’s ever been. “It’s a really exciting time, but it’s also a time where artists are expected to run their careers like a startup,” says Breuner. “Gone are the days of an A&R person from a label showing up to a venue to see an ‘unknown’ artist with no audience to potentially sign them. We want to provide the guidance that makes artists feel empowered to create their own breakthrough moments.”
