Can I Upload a Cover Song to Cd Baby

It'south your showtime fourth dimension releasing music as an independent musician, and y'all've read the names DistroKid and CD Baby about a hundred times. As you ready to go your music into the world, you demand to decide which distribution service to apply. They both perform the same bones function—getting your music in digital stores and on streaming services—merely how practice you choice betwixt them?

Each distribution service comes with drawbacks that might make i amend than the other for your particular career goals. Allow'south review the major differences and similarities between DistroKid and CD Infant so y'all can determine which one will piece of work hardest for you.

Editor's note: This article was updated on July 26, 2021, to accost an FAQ about CD Baby.

What's it similar to use DistroKid, CD Baby?

CD Babe is very easy to navigate and keeps your releases organized.

DistroKid'due south interface promotes a social bond betwixt independent artists, whereas CD Baby focuses more on the creative person as an individual. DistroKid users can customize an business relationship contour when they input their music genres, artist inspirations, social media usernames, and their biography. DistroKid publishes this contour to its diverse 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's interface is more aesthetically pleasing than DistroKid's though, and it'due south easier to view its artist development tools and your releases at a glance.

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Uploading music to DistroKid is more than navigable than uploading music to CD Baby. With DistroKid, you input all of your release'due south information on a single folio, whereas on CD Baby y'all have 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. Yous're more likely to miss some information cached in CD Baby's page log than with DistroKid's.

Is CD Baby more than affordable than DistroKid?

You lot can easily abound your audition with DistroKid'southward tools.

When it comes to charging for services, CD Infant and DistroKid have different approaches. DistroKid members pay an almanac fee to release an unlimited number of singles and albums. It offers three membership plans: Musician, Musician Plus, and Label. The primary drawbacks of the Musician plan, which is the cheapest, are that you can't fix future release dates on any content, and yous can't view release statistics.

	Musician	Musician Plus	Label
Cost	$19.99/yr	$35.99/yr	$79.99/year for 5 artists up to $1199.99/twelvemonth for 100 artists
Unlimited song uploads	✓	✓	✓
Number of artists	1	two	5 to 100
Spotify verified checkmark	✓	✓	✓
Synced lyrics for Instgram	✗	✓	✓
Daily sales stats	✗	✓	✓
Customizable characterization name	✗	✓	✓
Customizable release date	✗	✓	✓
Customizable preorder date	✗	✓	✓
Customizable iTunes pricing	✗	✓	✓

There are as well more than costs to DistroKid than its almanac fee; to keep your releases public even later y'all abolish DistroKid, you must opt-in to the Leave a Legacy plan. This costs a $29 USD one-time fee for a unmarried and a $49 USD one-time fee for any release of two or more songs. DistroKid besides charges quite a few additional fees for services similar YouTube and Shazam monetization.

DistroKid charges boosted fees for services like Leave a Legacy.

While DistroKid is a great selection for artists who oftentimes release music and aren't interested in whatsoever additional services, CD Infant is better for musicians with a slower song rollout. CD Infant charges per release, and most of the add-ons are included in the price of a release. Those who want their music to stay on the digital shelves indefinitely will find CD Baby is a more economical distribution service, since information technology doesn't accuse a Leave a Legacy fee.

CD Baby charges additional fees for its publishing assistants service, CD Baby Pro Publishing, in order to collect publishing royalties. It besides charges an additional $5 USD per single and $xx USD per album to requite your release a UPC lawmaking, or product identifier code, which you'll need to purchase if you don't already have one for your song. Here'due south a breakdown of how much you'll have to pay for each release (USD) if yous don't add a UPC code:

• An anthology release costs $29 via CD Infant Standard.
• An album release costs $69 via CD Baby Pro Publishing.
• A single release costs $9.95 via CD Baby Standard.
• A single release costs $29.95 via CD Infant Pro Publishing.

How practice DistroKid and CD Infant collect and distribute royalties?

DistroKid distributes payments monthly, and CD Baby weekly, and so long as y'all've earned enough coin to fulfill your payment threshold.

Both DistroKid and CD Baby collect reproduction royalties, a subset of recording royalties derived from masters. With DistroKid you retain 100% of your earnings, whereas CD Baby takes a 9% cut of your reproduction royalties. And, if you apply CD Baby Pro Publishing, ittakes a 15% cut of your publishing royalties.

Payment delivery between the two services is slightly different too. DistroKid pays you every month, whereas CD Baby pays you every Monday one time y'all achieve your specified earnings threshold betwixt $10-$x,000 USD, rounded to the nearest dollar. DistroKid delivers money through PayPal or through its payment processor, Tipalti, which gives yous access to directly deposits, wire transfers, and checks. CD Baby delivers coin through PayPal, check, Payoneer, or direct to your bank business relationship.

DistroKid and CD Baby both collect reproduction royalties, which are a subset of recording royalties.

Even so, you lot won't exist able to collect all the money that is rightfully yours with just DistroKid or CD Baby—you lot'll need to sign up for a few other organizations too. To collect limerick royalties of any kind, you need to become a performing rights organization (PRO) affiliate with something like ASCAP, and you need to sign a deal with a publisher or publishing administrator, such as CD Baby Pro Publishing. DistroKid does not currently offer publishing assistants services, and it recommends that you sign up with Songtrust to collect your publishing royalties.

DistroKid vs CD Babe: Distribution partners and times

There's a lot to consider when yous're deciding which distribution service to trust with your music.

CD Infant reviews every release submitted for distribution, which can sometimes take several weeks. DistroKid doesn't review releases earlier it distributes them, sending them to partners immediately, where they volition quickly get alive. At first glance, you might call back that DistroKid is the winner here, but its lack of a review organisation leaves yous on your own if you need to deal with copyright issues or problems with file requirements. DistroKid Musician subscribers also tin can't select their own release date, which can create release date asynchrony beyond dissimilar distribution partners. If your vocal is available on Spotify only not withal on Apple Music, you could take issues marketing the release to your fans.

Both distribution services are partnered with numerous music streaming services and digital stores, but CD Baby's listing is a bit longer. What'due south more, CD Baby can automatically send your music to SoundExchange, which collects sound recording functioning royalties, giving a cut to CD Baby. These types of royalties tin can just be collected by SoundExchange. DistroKid won't send your music to SoundExchange, but you can always sign upwardly for it on your own—you won't have to share any percentage of it with your distribution service that way.

Does DistroKid have improve audio quality than CD Infant?

CD Baby has more restrictions on the types of audio files you tin can upload.

When uploading a rails for your adjacent release you lot'll want to make certain the audio file is every bit high quality as possible. DistroKid accepts uploads using WAV, WMA, M4A, FLAC, MP3, and CDDA. CD Infant accepts WAV, FLAC, and MP3 files, merely information technology highly advises against uploading MP3 files because they are lossy. All CD Baby files must be stereo and 16bit, with a 44.1kHz sample rate. DistroKid, on the other hand, volition accept 24-bit WAV files, with sample rates of 96kHz or less, and doesn't specify restrictions for other file types.

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Artist development tools and resources

thegersom It'south nice to have easy access to artist development tools when you're an independent musician.

CD Infant and DistroKid offering unlike resources to members, though both services emphasize getting your music heard.

CD Baby offers inexpensive machine audio mastering on its website and can assist connect you with professional audio engineers. CD Infant continually publishes articles to its web log DIY Musician, which is an splendid resource to learn most the music manufacture and how to make it as an independent creative person. CD Baby also has a relationship with Show.co which offers discounts on promotional tools such as personalized sound ads on Spotify and banner ads on websites like Rolling Stone. CD Baby places a decent amount of emphasis on physical sales, and offers in-house CD manufacturing and vinyl pressing.

The differences betwixt DistroKid and CD Baby come up down to whether you're trying to expand your outreach to artists, or to fans.

DistroKid'southward tools encourage artist-to-artist interaction and tin can connect you lot with tape labels. Playlist Spotlight presents you with previews of two songs released by DistroKid members. After listening to each preview, y'all vote for which song you remember DistroKid should feature on 1 of its genre-themed Spotify playlists. You lot can also submit one song of yours at a fourth dimension to Playlist Spotlight, and the Spotify playlists refresh every calendar 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 than you appoint with and comment on other artists' posts. If you're an independent musician now, but hoping to sign to a record label, you can register for DistroKid Upstream; this lets record labels expect through your profile and reach out to you directly if they are interested in signing your act.

Both distribution services give y'all a verified checkmark on Spotify, build release webpages for you, and offer tools to make music videos. The basic features are very like, and the differences just come 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 go confusing, and it's nice to be able to ask for assist when you demand it.

It'south piece of cake to get lost in the sea of distribution rules and processes as an independent musician. CD Baby knows that, so its client service department is very helpful, though non ever immediately responsive. Most of the reason its client support response times have been ho-hum recently is that everyone has been stuck at abode for the by year, and more than people than ever have been using CD Baby to release music.

The DistroKid Assist Center also has a customer support channel, and every bulletin gets a response. The founder of DistroKid, Philip Kaplan, is as well fairly 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 about how he should modify DistroKid—obviously, the thought for Leave a Legacy came straight from user requests.

DistroKid vs CD Baby: Which service should you use?

Yous don't accept to commit to using CD Infant or DistroKid forever, simply you can simply distribute a atypical release through one distribution service.

These two music distribution services both have their claim and demerits. Those whose career goals heart effectually forming artist connections, and who intend to make frequent releases, should sign up for DistroKid. It's more than likely to help you lot on the path to getting signed to a tape label and has much quicker release times. In the future, if you want to switch from DistroKid to CD Baby or another distribution service like Repost by SoundCloud, you lot can e'er opt in to Leave a Legacy on your releases before ceasing your almanac payments.

CD Infant is a ameliorate option for musicians who don't want to worry most their music being taken downwardly. If your career goals are more focused on connecting with fans and expanding your outreach, CD Babe offers more accessible tools. If yous try CD Baby and dislike it, there's no Leave a Legacy fee—you can but switch to a different distribution service for your side by side release.

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Often asked questions

Does CD Baby offer discounts to its members?

Yes, as a CD Infant member yous volition frequently receive emails with offers and discounts on its various services. You can opt out of these emails if yous observe them annoying, but the deals tin be quite helpful.

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Source: https://www.soundguys.com/distrokid-vs-cd-baby-52157/

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