A few months ago I was on a train and I saw a guy get on board who was toting a banjo and dressed and styled in a vaguely 19th century way.
(As usual) I was dressed and styled in a 19th century way, too, and as the guy had the compartment across the hall from me, we struck up a conversation to pass the time.
Turned out his name was Mark Gardner, and he was a banjo player (big surprise) and also a historian of the 19th century. Combining his interests, he plays period music and gives lectures on the time. He was returning home from such a gig.
We talked for a while about folk music and banjos. I had my laptop with me, so I played him a copy of This Land that I had downloaded and also a song by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that uses a banjo player’s trick to make banjos sound like Caribbean steel drums.
Before he got off the train, he mentioned his web address to me–SongOfTheWest.Com–and afterward I went there and looked up his recordings.
Turns out that they’re distributed by something called CD Baby, which I had never heard of but which is apparently a distribution service for independent recording artists (and from which they make a lot more money than Amazon).
CD Baby stresses the personal touch. It points out that all of its recommendations are done by real people who have listened to the works that they are recommending (i.e., they’re not just calculated by machine from the buying patterns of purchasers), it points out that a real person will e-mail you to tell you when your product ships, etc.
It’s trying a "We’re the little guy, so we’ll give you better, more personal service" angle.
I like that.
If there’s anything that annoys me, it’s big, faceless bureaucracies.
I also liked that they take PayPal; that’s definitely a sales-increasing move. (I don‘t like giving my financial info to small groups I don’t know.)
So I ordered one of Mark’s CDs (which I’ll review soon).
I was stunned, though, when I got my first (and automated) e-mail confirmation (before the personal one that was sent when my order shipped.)
The e-mail address the order came from was orders@cdbaby.com, but the name field associated with this address read: "CD Baby Loves Jimmy."
That’s a personal touch I didn’t expect!
The software generating the e-mail apparently lifted my first name from my order and plopped it into the name field of the e-mail.
I guess, no matter how young CD Baby may be at the moment, he already has developed a sense of humor and playfulness that is advanced for his age.
