Derek Sivers earned $22 million from the sale of CD Baby, according to an interview surfacing Thursday.
Sivers sold the company to Disc Makers in early August after a seven-month closing process. “I knew that was about the right price,” Sivers disclosed to Venture Voice. “We actually didn’t bicker or negotiate over the price one bit, I just set a price and they said okay.”
According to Sivers, CD Baby pulled annual, top-line revenues of roughly $100 million at the beginning of this year, a fourfold increase over a three-year period. The company employed 85 people at that point, though Sivers rarely visited the office. “I really started letting go in 2002,” Sivers shared.
The acquisition sounds like a windfall, though Sivers actually channeled the money into a charitable trust. Sivers is now drawing interest from his Independent Musician’s Charitable Trust, though the principal goes to artist-related causes when Sivers passes away. Currently, Sivers is investing his efforts in Muckwork, a company that aims to offer an “army of assistants” to musicians struggling to promote and distribute themselves.