Friday, July 29, 2011

Mini-Review of "Anything You Want" by Derek Sivers


CD Baby gained my undying loyalty when I received my first shipment from them - a Jake Armerding album. It contained the now iconic message from CEO Derek Sivers:

"Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Sunday, March 30th. I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year.' We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Sigh..."

In this tiny gem of a book, "Anything You Want," Sivers outlines how he became a reluctant entrepreneur, turning CD Baby into a force that changed the independent music industry. He is transparent in telling tales on himself and his staff - what they did right and wrong. The book is a refreshing and inspiring tale.

Enjoy!

Al

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