Kevin Breuner on Thriving as an Artist in the Streaming Era

Transcript

Gigi Johnson: Enjoy our conversation today with Kevin Breuner from CD Baby, full of stories of change and ways we can work with artists. Kevin, I’m excited to have you on the show.

Kevin Breuner: I’m excited because CD Baby has been my little tiny label distribution home since 2006. So I think that we have some of that in common.

Gigi Johnson: I was teaching for many years at UCLA and always knew a student was brown-nosing if they went and got my album off of CD Baby when they were getting started. You’ve got a great history, but can you share with our viewers and listeners what the heck you’re doing now at CD Baby?

Kevin Breuner: My role is SVP of Engagement and Education. Basically, I’m doing all our content marketing, a lot of our conference work—both our own conference and other events we participate in. We do podcasts, blogs, anything to help artists engage with the marketplace and grow their music career. Some content is for our users, but most is for the artist community at large. We want to be a good resource.

Gigi Johnson: You’re on episode 300-something on your podcast?

Kevin Breuner: Yeah. We just recorded episode 322, and we’ve been podcasting since 2007—a long time. I’ve survived at least three “podcasting is dead” waves from mainstream media, and now it’s bigger than ever. I’ve always loved content that feels like the real inside story—stripped-down but in-depth conversations, not just “five tips in four minutes.”

Gigi Johnson: But those quick tips are great lead generators.

Kevin Breuner: Yes, they are.

Gigi Johnson: And you’re also a musician—I see the keyboard and records behind you. You have a long-time band identity. What are you doing with that now?

Kevin Breuner: I’m in a band called Small Town Poets. I went to college in Nashville for music and music business, then joined the band right after school. We signed to a major label, had success, even a Grammy nomination. But that life is grueling—we eventually took a hiatus. Now we write, record, and release independently, still play shows, and collaborate online. My band experience flows well with my CD Baby work—many people advising artists haven’t done it themselves, and they miss the emotional component of releasing art into the world.

Gigi Johnson: You’ve stayed in one place—CD Baby—for a long time, which is rare in music. Around the time you graduated, Derek started CD Baby in ’98. My memory is he built it to sell his own music, then friends’, and it grew quickly. Is that the origin story?

Kevin Breuner: Yes. Back then, taking credit cards was hard. My touring band used a clunky, expensive credit card unit that barely worked. Artists couldn’t easily sell online, so Derek started doing it for others. There was a huge need, and it exploded. This was when home recording was becoming possible, making good records on a budget, and the independent artist scene was growing. CD Baby came right at that shift.

Gigi Johnson: And you started with artist relations. Why shift into CD Baby?

Kevin Breuner: I’d taken a break from touring, moved to the Northwest, thought I was done with music—but you’re never done. I started a band in Portland, found CD Baby as a distribution tool, realized it was local, and decided to work there. When I started, it felt more like a youth group than a business—90% of staff were active artists. The ethos was: any music, regardless of perceived quality, deserves to be heard. It was the opposite of the gatekeeper-heavy major label world.

Gigi Johnson: You went into marketing—did your artist and artist-relations experience feed into that?

Kevin Breuner: Definitely. I’d always been interested in marketing in my band. At CD Baby, talking to hundreds of artists gave me deep insight into their needs. Many assume musicians are tech-savvy, but most aren’t—especially as tech companies entered music. When Disc Makers bought us, we built a marketing department. I pushed to speak to artists in ways that resonated, and our content—like the podcast—took off.

Gigi Johnson: Since then, downloads gave way to streaming, and even vinyl came back. How has that shift been for CD Baby?

Kevin Breuner: From the start, our goal was helping artists monetize their music and connect with fans directly. We began as a CD warehouse, then added digital distribution in 2004, and now help monetize music across streaming, social, and more. Music is now consumed in countless ways, creating new rights and revenue opportunities we help artists capture.

Gigi Johnson: How do you decide which new tech or partners to work with?

Kevin Breuner: We have a strong BS detector. For streaming, we vet new services for user base, payment reliability, and contracts. For tools, we ask: will our typical independent artist actually use and benefit from this? Independent artists range from making hundreds of thousands to $10 a year, but our sweet spot is the low-budget, prolific creator.

Gigi Johnson: During the pandemic, did you see a spike in releases?

Kevin Breuner: Absolutely—a tidal wave like never before. It’s since settled. Of those “100,000 tracks a day” stats, many aren’t actually music—lots of white noise and nature sounds are included.

Gigi Johnson: AI training data licensing—has that crossed your desk?

Kevin Breuner: Not much recently. We’ve seen similar tech in the past, like music fingerprint-based recommendation engines, but they were too expensive for our catalog size.

Gigi Johnson: What are you focused on now for your artists?

Kevin Breuner: Helping them focus on what matters, understand how to fully monetize, and opt in to new opportunities. Many leave money on the table by not enabling certain monetization settings.

Gigi Johnson: And what’s coming next?

Kevin Breuner: Better tools for collaboration and payout splitting—reflecting how artists now work together track-by-track. Also, there’s a huge missed opportunity in music credits—liner notes still don’t exist in most platforms, which could open new discovery paths.

Gigi Johnson: Magic wand—what would you fix?

Kevin Breuner: For artists: focus on your craft first. Don’t spend all your time trying to be a marketer at the expense of making music. For CD Baby: instantly create the platform of the future without breaking the current one.

Gigi Johnson: Any new tech you’re excited about?

Kevin Breuner: Less about tech itself, more about shifts in consumption—short-form video platforms like TikTok have become music discovery engines for younger audiences, replacing radio in many cases.

Gigi Johnson: What haven’t we covered that you’d like to share?

Kevin Breuner: If you’re into music promotion, marketing, and distribution, check out our DIY Musician Podcast, blog, and of course CD Baby for worldwide music distribution. I’m @kbreuner on Instagram and TikTok. My band Small Town Poets is on all platforms.

Gigi Johnson: And we’ll put all those in the show notes. Kevin, thank you very much for joining us.

Kevin Breuner: Absolutely—glad to be here.