I believe the original question would be valid if asked of a 'label catalog'; not of a distributor. I actually enjoy thinking that the disti's remain unbiased in promoting individual artists. They just make a buck warehousing, providing e-commerce tools and support, embedding jukeboxes, take time to negotiate digital distribution deals,etc...they are working very hard at little cost to each artist.
If you can get to your material by typing in the name= fantastic! Disti's don't make enough $$ to add promotion on top of warehousing (even digitally) and providing e-commerce functions and tracking. I would gladly pay again (and have already benefited from) the $35. set up to have a full time shipping, receiving, secure and reliable e-commerce staff at my disposal 24 x 7.
The marketing hits from CDBaby to my myspace has been great, to me any marketing benefit from a disti is all gravy.
Big label bands do stadium tours to generate interest in CDs and t-shirt sales.
It would make sense indie artists get down to the coffee shop to direct market the same way. Maybe plan on handing out cards with a pic and CDBaby link and watch what happens.
My CDBaby experience has been quite satisfactory. I did not expect them to market or promote my music.
CDBaby | Loomis
rock on