A few weeks ago, I shared the first instalment of a four-part blog series on digital distribution in the music industry where I take a deep dive on reviewing and comparing music distributors.

In this series, I hope to help you sift through the digital distribution landscape to find the best platform for getting your music into the world.

Today, we’re focusing on CD Baby and all it offers. If you're interested in other music distributors, be sure to check out my posts on TuneCore or DistroKid. You might also be interested in my comparison posts on CD Baby vs DistroKid, DistroKid vs TuneCore, or Tunecore vs CD Baby.

CD BABY: A Brief History

If you’ve been around the music industry for any number of years, you’ve probably heard of CD Baby. Founded in the late 90s, CD Baby was in the business of physical distribution (selling actual CDs) and royalty tracking for independent artists and small labels.

They were among the first to jump on the digital distribution train, and have some impressive credits.

A quick online search of “albums released through CD Baby” will show you the impressive reach of this company in the past few decades.

I've also been a big fan of Derek Sivers who founded CD Baby because he was a musicain himself and wanted to get his music out there in the world. He started to create UPC codes so musicians could print CDs and eventually things grew from there. 

But, even though CD Baby has a great founding story and it's been in the business for a long time, how does it stack up to other distribution sites today? And, (maybe more importantly), is it the best site for helping you in your music career?

Structure

Like other sites, the structure of CD Baby is fairly simple for digital distribution.

You upload your tracks and album artwork to their site, and CD Baby sends your music to streaming platforms. For example, if you want to upload your music to TikTok, you can sign up for CD Baby and they will deliver your song to the official TikTok music library.

Unlike music distributors that charge an annual, recurring fee, CD Baby charges its artists based on the type of project they are releasing.

Whether releasing an album or a single, CD Baby charges a flat fee for two tiers.

Tier one, or “Standard” releases, include distribution, free marketing tools, and some monetization through social media and Youtube, and costs $9.99. This is also only a one time fee. This is quite different to other distributors like DistoKid or TuneCore who charge an annual fee.

The higher tier, “pro publishing,” includes song registration and performing rights organization administration. And, most importantly, this tier includes the collection of both publishing and mechanical royalties. We’ll explain more about that in the “Getting Paid” section.

If you want to know more about performing rights organizations, check out this video I made with all the details.

User Experience and Functionality

CD Baby makes it easy to upload music and artwork. Their interface is easy to navigate and their help tools are extremely thorough.

And, while some releases are processed quickly, it’s good to note that they do review all submissions and recommend a 5-6 week lead time for releases. Most music distributors will all recommend this lead time to make sure your music will be available on your release date. It also gives you the chance to pitch your song on your Spotify Artists Dashboard (if it's not your first release). This gives you the chance to get on a Spotify Editorial playlist.

The CD Baby artist dashboard is pretty comprehensive and provides helpful visuals for seeing the reach of your music.

You can track plays, playlist adds, and more through their tools. You can even get verified on specific platforms (like Spotify) just by distributing music through their services.

One important point to note when it comes to uploading and sharing music is that CD Baby no longer helps artists acquire licenses for cover songs or cover albums like some other distributors. So, all of the music uploaded to their platform must be original. That's too bad since I think recording and releasing cover songs is a great way to find exposure as a new artists. For example, I recently released a cover of Tainted Love and it now has almost 1,000,000 streams on Spotify.

Opportunities for Marketing

In my opinion, one of the coolest aspects of CD Baby is how they support an artist’s journey. And, knowing a bit about their history, it makes sense. CD Baby supported artists in distributing their music and growing independent careers long before digital distributors even existed. I do really feel that in their messaging. I feel that they are really their to support the DIY musician at the core.

Because of that, they have a wealth of resources and tools to help you get your music in the world and make sure that your music is heard.

They have a ton of free support and resources through their podcast and blog, plus cool networking events like their DIY Musician Conference. The conference is a really cool idea but it's something that I've never attended. I think you could find so many valuable connections at an in-person event like this though.

As a CD Baby member, you can access other promotional tools that help you launch pre-save campaigns, build a website, and much more. And, if you’re looking to sell physical CDs or merch, they can help with that, too. For example, they have partnerships with companies like show.co which help you make Spotify pre save campaigns or partnerships with Bandzoogle which is a website builder specifically made for musicians. In my experience being a full-time musician, it's super important to have your own website.

Support

CD Baby offers a few different support options in their support centre: 

• Articles: You can browse common topics to get help with your questions

• Support Requests: You can submit a support request to be answered via email

• Live Chat: They do offer live chat M-F from 9 AM to 1 PM Pacific time, or you can chat with a bot during non office hours

While they currently do not offer phone support, they are generally responsive and thorough in their customer service.  I don't have a one to one experience with their customer service team but if it's anything like their online marketing messaging then I'm sure you'll be in the right hands as a DIY musician.

Getting Paid For Your Music 

Ah, yes, the moment we’ve been waiting for. How do you get paid for streams using CD Baby as your digital distributor?

As mentioned above, royalties differ depending on whether you pay for CD Baby Standard or CD Baby Pro publishing.

CD Baby differentiates between mechanical and performance royalties. Simply put, the mechanical royalties are collected every time someone interactively streams, downloads, or reproduces your song.

Performance royalties are collected from live performances (radio, at a store, off someone’s Spotify, etc.)

You can get royalties as a songwriter but must also register with a PRO (performing rights organization) to receive your publishing royalties. OR, you can use CD Baby’s Pro Publishing. They will register the songs on your behalf, collect publishing royalties, and retain 15% as an “administrative” fee.

This can be extremely helpful if you are an independent artist and need help navigating the publishing royalty landscape. If you want to learn more about music publishing, you can check out this video from my Youtube channel .

Overall Review

As one of the first platforms for independent musicians looking to release music, CD Baby has created an Indie Artist empire that embraces and supports the artist’s journey and really stands behind the DIY musician.

As a digital distributor, CD Baby is great for artists looking to get their original music in the world and who want to take advantage of a vast network of marketing tools.

For extremely prolific artists, CD Baby can get pricey quite quickly as you need to pay per release. However, if you are an independent artist releasing music less frequently, CD Baby is a fantastic option.

If you're still undecided and you'd like to compare some other music distributors, be sure to check out TuneCore and DistroKid which are both popular options. Alternatively, you can check out my comparison posts on all three; CD Baby vs DistroKid, CD Baby vs TuneCore, or TuneCore vs DistroKid.