CD Baby offers much more than music distribution

With the sudden closure of Spotify’s direct upload tool, there’s been a lot of talk in the industry about music distribution: What it is, why it’s hard, and how to get it right.

I wrote an article recently for Berklee called “The 5 Most Important Things to Know about Music Distribution in the Streaming Era” outlining some best-practices for artists releasing new music.

I also touched upon the difference between the RIGHT distributor and the one that promises everything will be quick, cheap, and easy:

In some ways, moving digital music files from points A to Z is the easy part. It’s everything ELSE that makes the difference.

Your music distributor should handle:

• Robust metadata collection during the signup process
• Efficient rights management
• Manual inspection of every release
• Complete music monetization at low or no extra cost
• Accurate, detailed, and swift accounting
• Customer service and artist support

With all these “extras” you know your music will be properly delivered, that you’re safeguarded from platform guideline violations or rights disputes, that you’ll get paid on time, and that you’re set up to collect royalties from the most sources possible — including:

1. social videos (on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc.)
2. sync licensing
3. global music publishing revenues
4. and more

With more ways than ever to generate money from your recordings and compositions, and with more DSPs requiring 100% accurate metadata in order to keep music available on their platforms, it’s not enough to just “get your music out there” anymore.

CD Baby has paid artists every week for more than 20 years, we provide complete music monetization and publishing administration (in addition to distribution), AND — because of our efforts in metadata and rights management — we’re the only digital music aggregator to have top-preferred status with both Apple Music and Spotify.

There’s more to distribution than speed.

Don’t rush.

If you’re serious about your music, you’ll take the time during CD Baby’s signup process to provide detailed information about every song, you’ll take advantage of our music monetization services (all except music publishing administration come INCLUDED with our Standard distribution package), and you’ll plan ahead so you don’t miss any opportunity to promote your music.

When you do those three things, we’ll have everything we need in order to help you earn the most money from your music catalog over the course of your career.