How Much Money Can You Make On Cd Baby
It's your first time releasing music every bit an contained musician, and yous've read the names DistroKid and CD Baby about a hundred times. As y'all set to get your music into the globe, y'all need to decide which distribution service to use. They both perform the aforementioned basic function—getting your music in digital stores and on streaming services—only how practice you pick betwixt them?
Each distribution service comes with drawbacks that might make one meliorate than the other for your particular career goals. Let's review the major differences and similarities betwixt DistroKid and CD Baby so you can decide which one will work hardest for you.
Editor'due south note: This article was updated on July 26, 2021, to address an FAQ about CD Baby.
What'due south information technology like to use DistroKid, CD Babe?
CD Babe is very easy to navigate and keeps your releases organized.
DistroKid's interface promotes a social bond betwixt independent artists, whereas CD Infant focuses more on the artist as an individual. DistroKid users tin customize an account contour when they input their music genres, artist inspirations, social media usernames, and their biography. DistroKid publishes this profile to its various community-driven promotional tools (more on these in a bit).
Unlike DistroKid, CD Baby doesn't facilitate any artist-to-artist interactions or customizable social profiles. CD Baby'due south interface is more aesthetically pleasing than DistroKid'southward though, and information technology'south easier to view its artist development tools and your releases at a glance.
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Uploading music to DistroKid is more navigable than uploading music to CD Baby. With DistroKid, you input all of your release'southward information on a single page, whereas on CD Baby you take to click through several pages of information before submitting your release. Each of these CD Infant pages contains a fair amount of instructions and requirements that can be difficult to parse. You're more than likely to miss some information cached in CD Baby'due south page log than with DistroKid's.
Is CD Baby more affordable than DistroKid?
You can hands grow your audience with DistroKid's tools.
When it comes to charging for services, CD Baby and DistroKid take different approaches. DistroKid members pay an annual fee to release an unlimited number of singles and albums. It offers three membership plans: Musician, Musician Plus, and Label. The chief drawbacks of the Musician plan, which is the cheapest, are that y'all can't set future release dates on any content, and yous tin can't view release statistics.
| Musician | Musician Plus | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Musician $19.99/year | Musician Plus $35.99/yr | Label $79.99/year for 5 artists |
| Unlimited song uploads | Musician ✓ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Number of artists | Musician 1 | Musician Plus 2 | Label five to 100 |
| Spotify verified checkmark | Musician ✓ | Musician Plus ✓ | Characterization ✓ |
| Synced lyrics for Instgram | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Daily sales stats | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable characterization proper name | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable release date | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable preorder date | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable iTunes pricing | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
There are also more costs to DistroKid than its annual fee; to keep your releases public even after you cancel DistroKid, you must opt-in to the Exit a Legacy programme. This costs a $29 USD 1-time fee for a single and a $49 USD i-time fee for whatsoever release of ii or more songs. DistroKid as well charges quite a few additional fees for services like YouTube and Shazam monetization.
DistroKid charges additional fees for services like Leave a Legacy.
While DistroKid is a great pick for artists who frequently release music and aren't interested in whatsoever boosted services, CD Babe is amend for musicians with a slower song rollout. CD Baby charges per release, and well-nigh of the add-ons are included in the price of a release. Those who want their music to stay on the digital shelves indefinitely volition discover CD Baby is a more economical distribution service, since it doesn't charge a Leave a Legacy fee.
CD Babe charges additional fees for its publishing assistants service, CD Infant Pro Publishing, in gild to collect publishing royalties. Information technology also charges an boosted $v USD per single and $20 USD per album to give your release a UPC code, or product identifier code, which you'll need to purchase if you don't already have one for your vocal. Here's a breakdown of how much you'll take to pay for each release (USD) if yous don't add together a UPC lawmaking:
- An anthology release costs $29 via CD Baby Standard.
- An album release costs $69 via CD Infant Pro Publishing.
- A single release costs $nine.95 via CD Baby Standard.
- A single release costs $29.95 via CD Baby Pro Publishing.
How do DistroKid and CD Baby collect and distribute royalties?
DistroKid distributes payments monthly, and CD Baby weekly, and then long as you've earned plenty money to fulfill your payment threshold.
Both DistroKid and CD Baby collect reproduction royalties, a subset of recording royalties derived from masters. With DistroKid you lot retain 100% of your earnings, whereas CD Baby takes a 9% cut of your reproduction royalties. And, if you use CD Infant Pro Publishing, ittakes a 15% cut of your publishing royalties.
Payment delivery between the two services is slightly different also. DistroKid pays you lot every month, whereas CD Infant pays you every Monday once you reach your specified earnings threshold between $10-$10,000 USD, rounded to the nearest dollar. DistroKid delivers money through PayPal or through its payment processor, Tipalti, which gives you access to direct deposits, wire transfers, and checks. CD Baby delivers money through PayPal, check, Payoneer, or directly to your banking company account.
DistroKid and CD Baby both collect reproduction royalties, which are a subset of recording royalties.
However, y'all won't be able to collect all the money that is rightfully yours with simply DistroKid or CD Baby—you'll need to sign upwardly for a few other organizations also. To collect composition royalties of any kind, you need to go a performing rights organization (PRO) chapter with something like ASCAP, and yous need to sign a deal with a publisher or publishing ambassador, such as CD Baby Pro Publishing. DistroKid does not currently offer publishing assistants services, and information technology recommends that you sign up with Songtrust to collect your publishing royalties.
DistroKid vs CD Babe: Distribution partners and times
At that place's a lot to consider when you lot're deciding which distribution service to trust with your music.
CD Baby reviews every release submitted for distribution, which can sometimes take several weeks. DistroKid doesn't review releases before it distributes them, sending them to partners immediately, where they will quickly get alive. At first glance, you might think that DistroKid is the winner hither, but its lack of a review organization leaves you on your own if you lot need to deal with copyright issues or problems with file requirements. DistroKid Musician subscribers likewise can't select their own release date, which tin can create release appointment asynchrony beyond dissimilar distribution partners. If your vocal is available on Spotify only not yet on Apple Music, you could accept issues marketing the release to your fans.
Both distribution services are partnered with numerous music streaming services and digital stores, but CD Baby'south list is a bit longer. What'due south more than, CD Baby tin automatically transport your music to SoundExchange, which collects sound recording operation royalties, giving a cut to CD Baby. These types of royalties tin only exist collected by SoundExchange. DistroKid won't ship your music to SoundExchange, but you lot can always sign up for it on your own—you won't have to share any percentage of it with your distribution service that style.
Does DistroKid accept better audio quality than CD Baby?
CD Baby has more than restrictions on the types of audio files you can upload.
When uploading a track for your next release you'll desire to brand sure the sound file is as loftier quality every bit possible. DistroKid accepts uploads using WAV, WMA, M4A, FLAC, MP3, and CDDA. CD Baby accepts WAV, FLAC, and MP3 files, but information technology highly advises against uploading MP3 files because they are lossy. All CD Baby files must exist stereo and 16bit, with a 44.1kHz sample charge per unit. DistroKid, on the other mitt, will take 24-bit WAV files, with sample rates of 96kHz or less, and doesn't specify restrictions for other file types.
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Creative person development tools and resources
thegersom It's nice to accept easy access to artist development tools when you're an independent musician.
CD Baby and DistroKid offer different resources to members, though both services emphasize getting your music heard.
CD Infant offers cheap machine sound mastering on its website and can help connect you with professional audio engineers. CD Infant continually publishes articles to its web log DIY Musician, which is an excellent resource to learn about the music industry and how to make it as an independent artist. CD Baby also has a human relationship with Prove.co which offers discounts on promotional tools such as personalized audio ads on Spotify and imprint ads on websites like Rolling Stone. CD Baby places a decent amount of accent on concrete sales, and offers in-house CD manufacturing and vinyl pressing.
The differences betwixt DistroKid and CD Baby come down to whether you're trying to expand your outreach to artists, or to fans.
DistroKid's tools encourage creative person-to-creative person interaction and can connect yous with record labels. Playlist Spotlight presents you with previews of two songs released by DistroKid members. After listening to each preview, you lot vote for which vocal you think DistroKid should feature on 1 of its genre-themed Spotify playlists. You can besides submit one song of yours at a fourth dimension to Playlist Spotlight, and the Spotify playlists refresh every week.
Another great DistroKid feature is Slaps, a social media platform for DistroKid members. Here you can listen to other musicians' releases, join groups, and get your music promoted the more you engage with and comment on other artists' posts. If yous're an contained musician now, but hoping to sign to a record characterization, you tin register for DistroKid Upstream; this lets record labels await through your profile and achieve out to you lot directly if they are interested in signing your deed.
Both distribution services give you a verified checkmark on Spotify, build release webpages for you lot, and offer tools to make music videos. The bones features are very like, and the differences merely come up down to whether you prioritize artist connections or fan connections.
Does one have better customer service over the other?
Navigating the independent musician industry tin get confusing, and it'due south squeamish to exist able to ask for help when you need information technology.
It's piece of cake to get lost in the bounding main of distribution rules and processes equally an contained musician. CD Babe knows that, so its customer service department is very helpful, though not ever immediately responsive. Nearly of the reason its customer support response times have been dull recently is that everyone has been stuck at home for the past year, and more people than ever accept been using CD Baby to release music.
The DistroKid Help Middle as well has a client back up channel, and every message gets a response. The founder of DistroKid, Philip Kaplan, is also adequately active on the r/DistroKid Reddit page and often responds to questions and concerns posted by DistroKid members. He also uses the subreddit to crowd-source information well-nigh how he should change DistroKid—apparently, the idea for Leave a Legacy came straight from user requests.
DistroKid vs CD Babe: Which service should yous use?
You don't have to commit to using CD Baby or DistroKid forever, only you tin only distribute a singular release through one distribution service.
These ii music distribution services both have their merits and demerits. Those whose career goals center around forming artist connections, and who intend to make frequent releases, should sign up for DistroKid. It's more likely to assist y'all on the path to getting signed to a record label and has much quicker release times. In the future, if you want to switch from DistroKid to CD Baby or another distribution service similar Repost by SoundCloud, you tin can always opt in to Leave a Legacy on your releases before ceasing your annual payments.
CD Baby is a meliorate choice for musicians who don't desire to worry virtually their music existence taken downwardly. If your career goals are more than focused on connecting with fans and expanding your outreach, CD Babe offers more accessible tools. If you endeavor CD Baby and dislike it, there'southward no Leave a Legacy fee—yous can just switch to a different distribution service for your next release.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, as a CD Baby member you lot volition oft receive emails with offers and discounts on its various services. You can opt out of these emails if you find them annoying, but the deals can be quite helpful.
Source: https://www.soundguys.com/distrokid-vs-cd-baby-52157/
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