Can a "big box" chain like Best Buy become a channel for independent artists to bypass the big record labels and offer their music direct to a very wide audience . . . or at least people who visit Best Buy's web site?
The hubub is over Best Buy's deal with CD Baby.
http://www.cdbaby.com/
http://www.bestbuy.com/olspage.jsp?i...&type=category
Basically, it works like this: The artist decides how to price the CDs, CD Baby (the online aggregator/distributor) gets a $4.00 cut, and Best Buy takes its piece of the action out of CD Baby's $4.00.
Check out this NPR report:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5184853
Is this a big deal or a non-story?