How to Upload Singles to Distrokid for Future Album
It's your first time releasing music equally an independent musician, and you've read the names DistroKid and CD Baby virtually a hundred times. Every bit y'all prepare to get your music into the world, you need to decide which distribution service to use. They both perform the same basic function—getting your music in digital stores and on streaming services—but how do you lot choice between them?
Each distribution service comes with drawbacks that might brand one improve than the other for your particular career goals. Allow'southward review the major differences and similarities between DistroKid and CD Babe and then you tin can make up one's mind which one volition work hardest for you lot.
Editor'south notation: This commodity was updated on July 26, 2021, to address an FAQ about CD Baby.
What's it like to use DistroKid, CD Infant?
CD Baby is very easy to navigate and keeps your releases organized.
DistroKid'south interface promotes a social bond between contained artists, whereas CD Baby focuses more on the artist as an individual. DistroKid users can customize an account profile 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's interface is more aesthetically pleasing than DistroKid'due south though, and it'due south easier to view its creative person 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 Babe. With DistroKid, you input all of your release'due south information on a single page, whereas on CD Baby yous accept to click through several pages of information before submitting your release. Each of these CD Baby pages contains a fair amount of instructions and requirements that can be difficult to parse. Yous're more likely to miss some data buried in CD Infant'south page log than with DistroKid'southward.
Is CD Baby more affordable than DistroKid?
You can easily abound your audience with DistroKid'southward tools.
When it comes to charging for services, CD Babe and DistroKid take different approaches. DistroKid members pay an almanac fee to release an unlimited number of singles and albums. Information technology offers three membership plans: Musician, Musician Plus, and Label. The chief drawbacks of the Musician plan, which is the cheapest, are that you can't gear up hereafter release dates on whatsoever content, and yous can't view release statistics.
| Musician | Musician Plus | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Musician $19.99/yr | Musician Plus $35.99/year | Label $79.99/yr for 5 artists |
| Unlimited song uploads | Musician ✓ | Musician Plus ✓ | Characterization ✓ |
| Number of artists | Musician 1 | Musician Plus 2 | Label 5 to 100 |
| Spotify verified checkmark | Musician ✓ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Synced lyrics for Instgram | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Daily sales stats | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Characterization ✓ |
| Customizable label name | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable release appointment | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable preorder engagement | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Label ✓ |
| Customizable iTunes pricing | Musician ✗ | Musician Plus ✓ | Characterization ✓ |
There are also more than costs to DistroKid than its annual fee; to proceed your releases public even after you cancel DistroKid, y'all must opt-in to the Leave a Legacy program. This costs a $29 USD 1-time fee for a single and a $49 USD onetime fee for any release of ii or more songs. DistroKid too charges quite a few boosted fees for services similar YouTube and Shazam monetization.
DistroKid charges additional fees for services similar Get out a Legacy.
While DistroKid is a groovy choice for artists who ofttimes release music and aren't interested in any additional services, CD Baby is better for musicians with a slower song rollout. CD Baby 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 it doesn't accuse a Go out a Legacy fee.
CD Baby charges boosted fees for its publishing assistants service, CD Babe Pro Publishing, in order to collect publishing royalties. Information technology likewise charges an boosted $five USD per unmarried and $20 USD per anthology to requite your release a UPC code, or production identifier code, which you'll need to buy if you don't already have ane for your song. Here's a breakdown of how much you'll have to pay for each release (USD) if y'all don't add a UPC code:
- An album release costs $29 via CD Babe Standard.
- An anthology release costs $69 via CD Baby 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 Babe collect and distribute royalties?
DistroKid distributes payments monthly, and CD Baby weekly, so long equally y'all've earned enough 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 retain 100% of your earnings, whereas CD Infant takes a nine% cut of your reproduction royalties. And, if you utilize CD Baby Pro Publishing, information technologytakes a 15% cut of your publishing royalties.
Payment delivery between the two services is slightly different too. DistroKid pays you every calendar month, whereas CD Babe pays you every Monday in one case you attain 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 Infant delivers coin through PayPal, cheque, Payoneer, or directly to your bank account.
DistroKid and CD Baby both collect reproduction royalties, which are a subset of recording royalties.
However, yous won't be able to collect all the money that is rightfully yours with just DistroKid or CD Infant—you'll need to sign up for a few other organizations also. To collect limerick royalties of any kind, you need to become a performing rights organization (PRO) affiliate with something like ASCAP, and yous need to sign a deal with a publisher or publishing administrator, such as CD Baby Pro Publishing. DistroKid does not currently offer publishing administration services, and it recommends that you lot sign upwards with Songtrust to collect your publishing royalties.
DistroKid vs CD Babe: Distribution partners and times
In that location's a lot to consider when y'all're deciding which distribution service to trust with your music.
CD Infant reviews every release submitted for distribution, which can sometimes accept several weeks. DistroKid doesn't review releases before it distributes them, sending them to partners immediately, where they will chop-chop get live. At beginning glance, you might think that DistroKid is the winner hither, but its lack of a review system leaves you on your own if you lot need to deal with copyright bug or issues with file requirements. DistroKid Musician subscribers also can't select their own release date, which can create release date asynchrony across dissimilar distribution partners. If your song is available on Spotify but not all the same on Apple Music, y'all could have issues marketing the release to your fans.
Both distribution services are partnered with numerous music streaming services and digital stores, simply CD Baby's list is a chip longer. What'due south more than, CD Baby can automatically transport your music to SoundExchange, which collects sound recording performance royalties, giving a cut to CD Baby. These types of royalties can only be nerveless by SoundExchange. DistroKid won't ship your music to SoundExchange, but you can ever sign up for information technology on your own—you won't have to share any percentage of information technology with your distribution service that way.
Does DistroKid have amend sound quality than CD Infant?
CD Babe has more restrictions on the types of sound files you tin can upload.
When uploading a runway for your adjacent release you lot'll want to make sure the audio file is equally high quality as possible. DistroKid accepts uploads using WAV, WMA, M4A, FLAC, MP3, and CDDA. CD Baby accepts WAV, FLAC, and MP3 files, but it highly advises against uploading MP3 files because they are lossy. All CD Baby files must be stereo and 16bit, with a 44.1kHz sample charge per unit. DistroKid, on the other hand, volition have 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 resource
thegersom It's nice to accept like shooting fish in a barrel access to creative person development tools when you're an independent musician.
CD Baby and DistroKid offer different resource to members, though both services emphasize getting your music heard.
CD Infant offers inexpensive auto sound mastering on its website and can help connect you with professional person audio engineers. CD Babe continually publishes manufactures to its blog DIY Musician, which is an excellent resources to learn about the music industry and how to make information technology as an contained artist. CD Baby as well has a relationship with Show.co which offers discounts on promotional tools such equally personalized audio ads on Spotify and banner ads on websites like Rolling Rock. CD Baby places a decent amount of emphasis on physical sales, and offers in-firm CD manufacturing and vinyl pressing.
The differences between DistroKid and CD Baby come downwardly to whether you lot're trying to expand your outreach to artists, or to fans.
DistroKid's tools encourage artist-to-artist interaction and can connect y'all with record labels. Playlist Spotlight presents y'all with previews of 2 songs released by DistroKid members. Afterward listening to each preview, you vote for which song y'all think DistroKid should feature on one of its genre-themed Spotify playlists. You can also submit one song of yours at a fourth dimension to Playlist Spotlight, and the Spotify playlists refresh every week.
Another neat DistroKid feature is Slaps, a social media platform for DistroKid members. Hither you lot tin listen to other musicians' releases, bring together groups, and get your music promoted the more you engage with and comment on other artists' posts. If you lot're an independent musician at present, just hoping to sign to a record characterization, y'all tin register for DistroKid Upstream; this lets record labels await through your contour and achieve out to y'all 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 similar, and the differences merely come down to whether you prioritize artist connections or fan connections.
Does i accept ameliorate customer service over the other?
Navigating the independent musician industry can get confusing, and information technology'southward nice to be able to ask for assistance when yous demand information technology.
Information technology's piece of cake to get lost in the sea of distribution rules and processes as an independent musician. CD Baby knows that, so its customer service department is very helpful, though not always immediately responsive. Virtually of the reason its customer support response times have been slow recently is that everyone has been stuck at home for the past twelvemonth, and more people than ever accept been using CD Baby to release music.
The DistroKid Help Centre besides has a customer support channel, and every message gets a response. The founder of DistroKid, Philip Kaplan, is also fairly active on the r/DistroKid Reddit folio and frequently responds to questions and concerns posted by DistroKid members. He as well uses the subreddit to crowd-source data about how he should alter DistroKid—apparently, the idea for Leave a Legacy came directly from user requests.
DistroKid vs CD Infant: Which service should you employ?
You don't accept to commit to using CD Baby or DistroKid forever, simply you can simply distribute a singular release through one distribution service.
These two music distribution services both take their merits and demerits. Those whose career goals center around forming creative person connections, and who intend to make frequent releases, should sign up for DistroKid. It'southward more likely to help you 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 some other distribution service like Repost past SoundCloud, you can always opt in to Leave a Legacy on your releases before ceasing your almanac payments.
CD Babe is a ameliorate option for musicians who don't desire to worry almost their music existence taken down. If your career goals are more focused on connecting with fans and expanding your outreach, CD Infant offers more accessible tools. If you try CD Baby and dislike it, in that location'due south no Get out a Legacy fee—yous tin simply switch to a different distribution service for your next release.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, as a CD Infant member you will frequently receive emails with offers and discounts on its various services. Y'all tin can opt out of these emails if you find them annoying, simply the deals can be quite helpful.
Source: https://www.soundguys.com/distrokid-vs-cd-baby-52157/
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