CD Baby is shutting down its online store

The digital retail store will retire on 31 March. The decision comes after plummeting CD sales in recent years.

In 2009, the CD Baby’s online store sales accounted for 27% of the total revenue paid to artists. The same figure had dropped to less than 3% of the company's revenue last year.

CD Baby will, however, still focus on operations that continue to be fruitful, such as warehousing CDs and vinyl under the physical distribution programme, but not at its own store.

"We’re going to focus on what is making a difference for musicians today – our distribution, monetisation and promotion services," CD Baby CEO Tracy Maddux said.

"We’re already recognised as the only distributor to have top-preferred partner status with both Spotify and Apple Music, but we’re also making it easier for you to reach new listeners, earn more money across an increasing array of channels, and opening up new territories for your music too, including the massive markets of India and China."

Digital Music News reported that CD Baby has been making payouts of more than $500m a year to independent artists and labels for streams, CD and vinyl sales, YouTube revenue and synch licensing fees, among others. The distributor also represents more than 650 000 recording artists and 100 000 songwriters around the world.

The move comes at a time when streaming distribution accounts for a large portion of CD Baby’s business. The majority of orders for CDs and vinyl records, which have made a resurgence in recent years, come from storefronts like Amazon or Shopify.

Meanwhile, CD Baby says it is working on a number of other projects such as new promo tools and pay splits.

The company also recently partnered with Africa's biggest music streaming app, Boomplay.