The Deal

Think of it like traditional physical distribution:
You are the label. (You own the music and all rights.)
The retail store is now Apple iTunes, Rhapsody, Yahoo, ringtone companies, etc.
CD Baby is just the distributor that gets your music to the retailer.
They pay us. We pay you.
We do not take any rights to your music. This is not a record deal.
You are just "lending" us the right to be your digital distributor, for the albums you tell us distribute, for as long as you want.
You can cancel at any time. We will never tie up your rights or make it hard for you to leave.
PLEASE NOTE: you cannot change ANYTHING about your album once it's been sent out for digital distribution, and we cannot accept partial albums

The Money

NO startup cost. This is a free service for CD Baby members.
We keep only 9% and pay you 91% of all income from your music.
You always get paid the week after we do.
It's NON-Exclusive, but...
Just like in the physical world, there can't be more than one distributor bringing the same album to the same store. Otherwise, when the album sells, how would the store know which distributor to pay?
We will never prevent you from doing anything you want with your music.
For YOUR sake, please note : If you sign two digital distribution deals with two companies that will both be sending the same album to iTunes, Rhapsody, Yahoo, Napster, etc - this will hurt you, because the retailer will usually remove the album completely until you decide which distributor has the exclusive right to be selling that album through them.

Legal Permission

To give us legal permission to distribute your music, you must own or control the copyright for the sound recordings and musical compositions.
If you didn't write the music yourself, that's OK, but you must get permission, and pay the publishers their mechanical royalties.

How long does it take for you to send it to all the companies?

2-5 weeks, once you've given us ALL the info we need, and we've received your CD. We have to encode it into 17 different formats for 40 different companies, so that's why it takes a while. Plus we have to verify all your songwriter and publisher info is correct before we send it out into the world.

How long does it take to show up on the music services once you deliver it?

Each company is different, but in general it takes from 3 weeks minimum, to 4 months maximum. (Usually 2-3 months.) Once we send it to them, it's out of our hands and they do what they can to get it imported and active in their service. We push them to get it added as soon as possible, and they always do it as soon as they can.

How much do I get paid?

Every company is different, but the average is 60 cents per song downloaded, $6.50 per full-album download, and 1 cent per listen or stream (when people listen to your song as if on a radio station, but don't download or buy it). Remember we only keep a 9% cut of the total income, and pay you 91%.

My friend downloaded my song yesterday - when do I see that in my report - and get paid?

Most companies only report to us every 1 - 3 months. Apple, for example, sends us the monthly report about 4-6 weeks after the month is finished. Meaning: you won't see your January sales until the first week of March. Some companies report a full 3 months after the quarter is done. But we ALWAYS show you everything we get as soon as we get it, and add the money to your account immediately.

ORIGINAL: Maxprizm

I checked out your tunes and they are simply great. Very relaxing, great musicianship.

Yes Sam... Gorgeous stuff! What piano are you playing?

ORIGINAL: samhoff
What do you do when you get to this point and realize that it’s approximately $900 for 300 CD’s, $1000 for 500, and $1100 for 1000?

That’s what’s happening to me with Discmakers, and I suspect it will be that way with all of them (unless I want to go with one color on the CD, black and white on the cover, etc).

I guess what they're basically doing is forcing me to buy 1000 and I'll end up giving a LOT away.... or being HIGHLY motivated to sell them. Perhaps I'll have a concert after all (I wasn't going to since it costs $300 to rent out the theater in town but maybe I will now that I have so many discs to get rid of!).

I assume you all are happy with the quality you're getting from Discmakers?

Sam

ORIGINAL: samhoff

Just checked out Kunaki, and it looks great. Is it cheesy looking at all? I assume it is as high quality as diskmakers?

Sam

ORIGINAL: lazarous

ORIGINAL: sdsicee
Kunaki has equal to or better than print quality compared to diskmakers. I use them extensively for many projects.

But, you ARE receiving a CDR, correct? Not a pressed CD? I still see people running into issues with CDR's in car stereos and older CD players...

Thanks for the clarification, sdsicee!

Corey

ORIGINAL: samhoff

Does it matter if it's a CDR vs. Pressed? I assume the latter is much higher quality, scratches less easily, etc, but I've been giving out CDR's for a while now with only one complaint (from an older lady whose CD player wouldn't work).

Comments?

Sam

samhoff
Hello All,

(Have I said this before?) I’m getting close!

I was going to do just a thinline CD case with printing on the front and inside of the front, using Diskmakers. But what do you do about a barcode in that instance? Do you have to do a regular CD case in order to use a barcode? (ie the thicker ones?) I suppose so, unless you put the barcode on the front cover?

Please advise, I really like the thin cases but don't like the idea of a barcode on the front. What do you all prefer and why?

Thanks,

Sam