CD Baby has launched CD Baby Free, a new service tier that eliminates the platform’s usual sign-up and set-up costs. Instead, CD Baby will take 15 percent of digital sales instead of their usual 9 percent. This makes the service comparable to Bandcamp, which also takes 15 percent.
+Can This Company Save Streaming… And The (Independent) Music Industry?
Artists can embed their digital store on their website and Facebook page or sell directly from their CD Baby site. Artists set the price for each song and receive weekly payouts via PayPal, direct deposit, or check.
CD Baby supports FLAC, MP3 320, and standard MP3s.
Artists that want to distribute their music to online retailers will have to upgrade to the Standard or Pro plan.
Nina Ulloa covers breaking news, tech, and more. Follow her on Twitter: @nine_u
I dislike CD Baby lately. They have widgets but only for bands, not for blog owners. I’ve been their affiliate for a few years, last sale despite of my efforts to advertise chosen albums, a year ago! A widget with chosen albums or even single songs would let me build a collection and put in one place instead of making many buttons for many releases. Now this ‘free’ word in the new offer which is as misleading as that used by mobile, aviation & insurance companies. If there’s money, cut involved, it’s never ‘free’. Should’ve named it differently.
Within the past few weeks, CD Baby released a new Music Store widget that allows for much greater flexibility: http://members.cdbaby.com/music-store-widget. CD Baby named it ‘free’ as a way to distinguish it from the other services offered, which both include upfront fees.
I’d rather pay a one time setup fee than miss out on that additional 6% on all future sales. Wasn’t the point of CDBaby to give as much money back to the artists as possible?
That’s why we offer both options JV. CD Baby Free is for artists who want to get music online quickly to share, stream, and sell direct-to-fan. It doesn’t include worldwide distribution to our partners like iTunes and Amazon.
You’ll always get much better reach and sales if you go with CD Baby Standard or CD Baby Pro. CD Baby Free just gives artists more options and flexibility for selling music online. Try it out with your next demo track. It’s free after all. 🙂
I need somebody to download my cd so I can share my music on line.
I think the fees are really high. There are so many digital marketplaces where you can easily sell your music, such as gumroad or revolge.com
Why not just sell there. You pay less % and it’s just as easy to sell.