seeing several bands a month, for an entire year.

This crash course in the company’s own music scene opened Maddux’s eyes to the value of CD Baby’s musician-centered, all-embracing approach. “It influenced me in lots of ways,” he recalls. “I saw music that I thought was great but that had little commercial success, and music that was commercially successful that didn’t appeal to me. I saw this huge diverse world that isn’t made by tastemakers. We are not about exerting judgment. We’re about ensuring that any musician can get out and express themselves.”

But this immersion was not his first lesson in D.I.Y. values; that took place years before.

It was the worst snowstorm in decades, during a major transition for the company Maddux owned outside of Portland, OR. Maddux was in dire straits: He needed to get a shipment of CDs out from the manufacturing plant. So he put chains on his tires and picked up factory employees. He grabbed a snow shovel and dug out the driveways for delivery trucks to pull up to the loading dock. Then he drove everyone back home.

“The tough circumstance meant going back to basics, to manual labor and survival,” reflects Maddux. “I can certainly empathize with artists doing everything themselves to try and earn a living. I’ve had to do that, too.”

Maddux has brought this total commitment, as well as a strong background in finance and a fascination with operations and efficiency, to the world’s largest distributor and support hub for independent musicians. An MBA from the Kelley School of Business, Maddux had held positions in corporate finance at several tech companies before plunging into the CD manufacturing business in the early 2000s. It was there that he learned, hands on, what the transition rocking the music market entailed.

Worn out by the business, Maddux returned to finance, but longed to be part of something he believed in. “I wanted to do something that excited me,” recounts Maddux, who got the chance when he joined the company in 2010. “I was a Portlander, so I knew CD Baby’s story, knew it was this dynamic start up. For the first time in a decade, I got up and looked forward to going to work.”

“The way I see it, everything starts with valuing the work of our employees and really developing people internally,” Maddux explains. “They can use their knowledge to make company and processes better. When I got here, I found that we had a very young and strong team that hadn’t worked anywhere else. Universally, they had some connection to the music industry.”

This connection, in Maddux’s view, is key: instead of outside marketing experts or career CFOs, CD Baby has promoted from within, ensuring that everyone had a musician’s perspective as the company made decisions and launched new tools to help artists.

CD Baby’s job, Maddux believes, is to enable their artists to translate artistic expression into income, in as efficient and frictionless a way as possible. Maddux was shocked to learn, for example, that CD Baby used several warehouses, all with millions of CDs in alphabetical order by artist. Every new title meant someone had to physically shove thousands of CDs aside to make room, or start a new row somewhere.

As another example, development of new tools and products was once something that happened quietly, often done by the company founder himself and unveiled to employees suddenly. Then as CD Baby came under new ownership, development was shopped out to a small team across the country. Maddux brought the programming power back to the company’s headquarters, allowing the team to not only transition more smoothly, but to influence development of new features.

Yet the biggest source of friction for CD Baby’s artists comes not from the company itself, but from the structure of the industry they work in. “Coming from a tech and a manufacturing background,” he relates, “I was shocked how opaque the payment process is for artists and songwriters. The system is simply appalling.”

To bring some clarity to the muddy world of rights and payment has been one of the main themes of Maddux’s tenure at CD Baby. “My mission: I am a Sherpa for the musician,” he states. “The first part of playing that role well and fairly is transparency. If you read the rights agreements of some of our competitors, and they are dozens of pages long, you see what artists are giving up. We don’t want that. We can’t do things that are underhanded. We don’t want artists to leave a huge chunk of their potential revenue on the table. We’re here to guide them.”


Kevin Breuner, Marketing Manager: Real Music, Real Income: Former Major Label Guitarist and Current CD Baby Marketing Head Knows the Ins and Outs of Making a Musical Living

“The band I was in toured solidly, our albums sold well. We had all the appearance of success but we were dirt poor. I thought: there has to be a better way.”

For Kevin Breuner, there was. He discovered CD Baby, the company that’s now the world’s largest distributor of independent music. Not only did he find them, these days he’s the head of marketing for the company. But back when he was the guitarist in Smalltown Poets, he found that musical success didn’t necessarily translate into money.

“I started playing with them in the spring of my senior year at Belmont University in Nashville” Breuner says. “By October, we had a record deal. Our first album sold 200,000 copies and we were nominated for a Grammy. The second sold 100,000. We worked hard, played sold-out shows, but we were the last to benefit financially.”

On a major label and recording at places like the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis, Smalltown Poets were a big deal. But the musicians ended up with very little. After the leaving Smalltown Poets, Breuner made ends meet by mentoring artists and working on a new project.

“That’s when I came across CD Baby, and it was exactly what I’d been looking for,” he remembers. “I started using it to distribute music. Then, when I decided to find a ‘real job,’ I ended up working here.”

Best of all, it meant he was still involved with music, his great passion. The son of a musician, he’d taken piano lessons as a young child, and had been exposed to his older sister’s record collection – everything from Van Halen to Men at Work. But it wasn’t until he was 16 and picked up a guitar that the idea of playing music himself really took root. He went on to study music at Belmont University, where he also received a good grounding in the music business, something that’s served him well over the years.

Although these days he’s in charge of the marketing at CD Baby, Breuner remains a musician, and he feels that gives him a unique insight into the process of working with artists.

“I can see things through the eyes of our clients,” says Breuner. “I feel I’m their voice. One of the great things about this company is we really do care. Anyone can call or email and we’ll work directly with them; they don’t even have to be our artists. We have tools to help people in their careers. For instance, I started a podcast in 2007. It addresses the concerns of independent artists, covering things they might not know. All that helps build the community.”

In a business that’s constantly evolving, Breuner understands the importance of keeping ahead of the curve.

“We’re offering a whole suite of tools for independent artists to make money from their music,” Breuner explains. “We’re showing people how to create revenue streams from YouTube and sync placements. We’ve taken the time to build those relationships. And with CD Baby Pro, we’re helping artists collect publishing money. On top of that, we still sell a lot of physical CDs. Our figures were up 15 per cent last year.”

He’s a firm believer in empowering fans, who are the basis of any artist’s popularity. Although it’s something the music industry has long fought, he believes it’s vital – and makes perfect sense.

“There’s a social economy to music, a value in what people want to do with music,” he continues. – ”With a music video, for instance, fans become your marketing department. You’re not only seeding the community this way, you’re opening up areas of revenue, and that’s going to continue and grow bigger. What I’ve learned, and what I try to pass on, is that artists and companies can’t just focus on one thing when there are all these different opportunities. The industry is shifting.”

Some things do remain the same, though, Breuner insists. To become a musician takes time and effort.

“You have to develop your craft and grow,” he says. “Using Facebook and Twitter to help increase your fan base is good, but you really need to grow as an artist. You need to invest time in building an audience. Find ways to connect well and do more of that, whether it’s playing live, or tweeting videos. Use it all to connect, not as a mandatory checklist.”

Breuner has learned just as much as he’s taught and advised, and he’s applied the lessons to his own musical career. Along with releasing tracks of his own, he’s very active with the re-formed Smalltown Poets.

“We got back together and did a Christmas album in 2011, then an EP in 2012, and toured around those,” says Breuner. “I’ve also been in a Britpop-type band called Hello Morning. Their lead singer made a solo record and I play bass for that, too.”

For Kevin Breuer, music is more than a job or a passion. It’s become a calling. Whether he’s in the studio or behind a desk, it’s his life.

“So many people still think all successful artists are on major labels. When I help show them that independent music can be successful, it helps us all.”