On Being An Entrepreneur – Ariel Hyatt Interviews Derek Sivers
Being Derek Sivers’ best friend is a blessing. He’s my friend who: Helped me create Cyber PR® In fact the design of the Cyber PR® campaigns and software were his idea. Always cheers me up and talks me through whenever I think that I can’t do something Is the first call on my birthday This list can go on for pages but I will stop here and say Congratulations Derek on your new book! "Anything You Want - 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur" And speaking of Entrepreneur, I interviewed him in depth on just this subject… It’s long but it is a wonderful deep dive into all things Derek… Enjoy! See the book announcement here: http://sivers.org/ayw And the book page here: http://sivers.org/a Ariel Hyatt & Derek Sivers... On Being An Entrepreneur Derek Sivers. Derek founded CD Baby in 1997, and he invented what today is the distribution paradigm model for all independent musicians. Before CD Baby there was no way for independent musicians to get distribution without a record deal. Derek left CD Baby in 2008 to start a new business to help musicians called MuckWork. He had reached a point where he felt like CD Baby could function without him and he had this new idea that he could not hold at bay. Derek often speaks to musicians about the state of the music business, and how to sell and market themselves. This is a rare interview because it shows Derek’s business-owner side and it addresses thoughts for people who want to get into the business and not musicians. Entrepreneurs are by definition problem solvers and Derek had a double-sided good fortune. As a musician he was frustrated by the fact that he could not get distribution for his own CDs. Because of personal experience, he identified a few major problems and he solved them with CD Baby. Problem #1: Musicians could not get distributed anywhere unless they were signed. He solved this issue it by providing artists with an online distribution channel that allowed artists to accept credit cards Problem #2: Distributors were only paying their artists 2-4 times a year and holding up valuable capital that was necessary for artists to use to self-fund their own development. Derek created a system that paid artists once a week no matter how many or how fee CDs they had sold which was revolutionary for artists who were not used to getting paid so regularly and fast. Problem #3: Musicians are inherently lazy. Read More READ MORE
