CD Baby introduces online players, latest step in giving artists control

CD Baby has added free customizable online music players for its members. The company, which helps indie musicians to sell digital downloads and physical copies of their music, is positioning this new feature as a way for artists to make their work easily sharable. Think of it as adding Soundcloud-like embedding to a Bandcamp-like browsing environment.

The players can be embedded on a musician’s own website or a writer could share one in a review of an album. Members of CD Baby can share any album or song from their account in playlists. All of the customizations, such as making only 30 second clips available or the four different options for player size and format, help give the musicians control over how their tunes are heard. They also include a link within the player to buy the track or album from CD Baby. They’ve also made the notable decision to make the players responsive, so they look and work equally well on PCs and mobile devices.

Despite many famous musicians’ claims that online listening is causing financial troubles for the industry, CD Baby is taking a stand to put more power in the hands of artists. These embeddable players give them control over how their songs are heard in addition to making the music purchasing an easy task.