Either someone's out astroturfing for a competitor of CD Baby, or somebody must have had a freakishly screwed up order. Someone calling themselves John Miller is sending e-mail and posting forum and blog comments to just about every independent music website they can find, claiming that they're starting up a class action lawsuit against Derek Sivers and that artists are too "afraid to speak out" about problems with the service.

Puh-leeze.

CD Baby is the one shining star of an e-commerce sector that's notorious for crooks and liars coming out of the woodwork to bait musicians. How many tales of woe have we heard about online music distribution companies that failed to make payments to artists and labels? Meanwhile, CD Baby bends over backwards to make it easy to get paid -- especially when most fulfillment companies charge twice as much and require a monthly pallet fee.

CD Baby works because Derek's been focused on that business from Day One. While other companies tried to leverage their artist goodwill (and use their credit card receipts to funnel money into failed expansion ventures), Derek collects money from buyers and puts it in the hands of artists with no B.S.

Who the heck would have a problem with that?

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