Can You Upload On Bandcamp If You Use Distrokid

Information technology'due south your first time releasing music as an independent musician, and you've read the names DistroKid and CD Baby about a hundred times. As you prepare to get your music into the earth, you demand to decide which distribution service to use. They both perform the same basic role—getting your music in digital stores and on streaming services—but how exercise y'all option betwixt them?

Each distribution service comes with drawbacks that might make one better than the other for your detail career goals. Let'southward review the major differences and similarities betwixt DistroKid and CD Babe so you tin decide which ane will work hardest for yous.

Editor's notation: This article was updated on July 26, 2021, to address an FAQ nigh CD Infant.

What'southward information technology like to use DistroKid, CD Babe?

Screenshot of CD Baby interface Standard Single release page

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

DistroKid's interface promotes a social bond betwixt contained artists, whereas CD Babe focuses more on the artist as an individual. DistroKid users tin customize an account contour 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 than on these in a bit).

Different DistroKid, CD Baby doesn't facilitate any creative person-to-creative person interactions or customizable social profiles. CD Baby's interface is more aesthetically pleasing than DistroKid'south though, and information technology'southward 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's data on a single page, whereas on CD Baby you have 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 tin be hard to parse. You're more likely to miss some information buried in CD Baby's page log than with DistroKid's.

Is CD Babe more affordable than DistroKid?

You can easily grow your audience with DistroKid's tools.

When it comes to charging for services, CD Baby 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 main drawbacks of the Musician plan, which is the cheapest, are that you lot tin't set up future release dates on any content, and you can't view release statistics.

	Musician	Musician Plus	Characterization
Toll	Musician $19.99/yr	Musician Plus $35.99/yr	Label $79.99/yr for 5 artists up to $1199.99/twelvemonth for 100 artists
Unlimited vocal uploads	Musician ✓	Musician Plus ✓	Label ✓
Number of artists	Musician 1	Musician Plus 2	Characterization five to 100
Spotify verified checkmark	Musician ✓	Musician Plus ✓	Label ✓
Synced lyrics for Instgram	Musician ✗	Musician Plus ✓	Characterization ✓
Daily sales stats	Musician ✗	Musician Plus ✓	Label ✓
Customizable label name	Musician ✗	Musician Plus ✓	Label ✓
Customizable release date	Musician ✗	Musician Plus ✓	Characterization ✓
Customizable preorder date	Musician ✗	Musician Plus ✓	Characterization ✓
Customizable iTunes pricing	Musician ✗	Musician Plus ✓	Label ✓

There are besides more costs to DistroKid than its almanac fee; to continue your releases public fifty-fifty after y'all cancel DistroKid, yous must opt-in to the Leave a Legacy program. This costs a $29 USD one-time fee for a single and a $49 USD ane-time fee for whatsoever release of two or more songs. DistroKid too charges quite a few additional fees for services similar YouTube and Shazam monetization.

Screenshot of Distrokid interface added payments for a release.

DistroKid charges additional fees for services similar Go out a Legacy.

While DistroKid is a nifty choice for artists who frequently 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 together-ons are included in the toll of a release. Those who want their music to stay on the digital shelves indefinitely will discover CD Infant is a more economical distribution service, since it doesn't charge a Leave a Legacy fee.

CD Babe charges boosted fees for its publishing administration service, CD Baby Pro Publishing, in order to collect publishing royalties. It likewise charges an additional $5 USD per unmarried and $20 USD per album to give your release a UPC lawmaking, or product identifier lawmaking, which you'll demand to buy if you don't already have ane for your vocal. Here's a breakup of how much you lot'll have to pay for each release (USD) if yous don't add a UPC code:

An anthology release costs $29 via CD Baby 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 Baby Pro Publishing.

How do DistroKid and CD Baby collect and distribute royalties?

Pennies spilling onto a table from a glass jar.

DistroKid distributes payments monthly, and CD Babe weekly, so long as you'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 Baby takes a 9% cut of your reproduction royalties. And, if you lot use CD Infant Pro Publishing, ittakes a fifteen% cut of your publishing royalties.

Payment delivery between the two services is slightly different besides. DistroKid pays y'all every month, whereas CD Baby pays you every Monday once you reach your specified earnings threshold between $ten-$10,000 USD, rounded to the nearest dollar. DistroKid delivers coin through PayPal or through its payment processor, Tipalti, which gives you lot access to directly deposits, wire transfers, and checks. CD Baby delivers money through PayPal, check, Payoneer, or directly to your bank account.

A flowchart of the types of royalties DistroKid and ASCAP collect.

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

However, you won't be able to collect all the money that is rightfully yours with just DistroKid or CD Baby—you'll need to sign upward for a few other organizations too. To collect composition royalties of whatever kind, you need to become a performing rights organization (PRO) affiliate with something like ASCAP, and y'all 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 y'all sign up with Songtrust to collect your publishing royalties.

DistroKid vs CD Baby: Distribution partners and times

A bass guitar player playing a bass guitar.

In that location'south a lot to consider when yous're deciding which distribution service to trust with your music.

CD Baby reviews every release submitted for distribution, which tin sometimes accept several weeks. DistroKid doesn't review releases before information technology distributes them, sending them to partners immediately, where they will quickly go live. At outset glance, you might call back that DistroKid is the winner here, just its lack of a review system leaves you lot on your own if y'all need to deal with copyright issues or issues with file requirements. DistroKid Musician subscribers also can't select their own release date, which tin create release appointment asynchrony across different distribution partners. If your song is bachelor on Spotify but non yet on Apple Music, you could accept issues marketing the release to your fans.

Both distribution services are partnered with numerous music streaming services and digital stores, but CD Babe'southward list is a chip longer. What'due south more, CD Babe tin automatically send 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 send your music to SoundExchange, merely y'all can always sign up for it on your ain—you won't have to share any percentage of information technology with your distribution service that fashion.

Does DistroKid have better sound quality than CD Infant?

A picture of the Sennheiser HD 450BT noise cancelling headphones worn by a woman as she adjusts the volume via the onboard controls on the right ear cup.

CD Infant has more restrictions on the types of sound files you tin upload.

When uploading a track for your next release you'll want to make sure the audio file is equally high quality every bit 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 exist stereo and 16bit, with a 44.1kHz sample rate. DistroKid, on the other paw, will 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

A light brown piano with sheet music on its stand. A chair is placed in front of the keys.

thegersom It's squeamish to take easy access to artist development tools when you lot're an independent musician.

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

CD Babe offers cheap car audio mastering on its website and tin can assist connect you lot with professional audio engineers. CD Babe continually publishes articles to its blog DIY Musician, which is an excellent resource to larn well-nigh the music industry and how to make it as an contained artist. CD Baby also has a relationship with Bear witness.co which offers discounts on promotional tools such as personalized audio ads on Spotify and banner ads on websites like Rolling Stone. CD Baby places a decent amount of accent on concrete sales, and offers in-firm CD manufacturing and vinyl pressing.

The differences between DistroKid and CD Babe come up down to whether yous're trying to expand your outreach to artists, or to fans.

DistroKid's tools encourage creative person-to-creative person interaction and can connect you with record labels. Playlist Spotlight presents you with previews of two songs released by DistroKid members. After listening to each preview, you vote for which song you think 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 week.

Another bully 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 you engage with and comment on other artists' posts. If you lot'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 deed.

Both distribution services give y'all a verified checkmark on Spotify, build release webpages for you, and offer tools to make music videos. The bones features are very like, and the differences just come up down to whether y'all prioritize artist connections or fan connections.

Does i have better customer service over the other?

Woman helping young boy play an acoustic guitar.

Navigating the independent musician industry can get confusing, and it's dainty to be able to inquire for help when yous need information technology.

It's piece of cake to become lost in the sea of distribution rules and processes as an independent musician. CD Infant knows that, then its customer service department is very helpful, though not always immediately responsive. Most of the reason its customer support response times have been dull recently is that anybody has been stuck at domicile for the past year, and more people than ever take been using CD Baby to release music.

The DistroKid Help Center also has a client back up aqueduct, and every message gets a response. The founder of DistroKid, Philip Kaplan, is likewise fairly agile on the r/DistroKid Reddit page and oftentimes responds to questions and concerns posted by DistroKid members. He also uses the subreddit to crowd-source information about how he should change DistroKid—apparently, the idea for Leave a Legacy came straight from user requests.

DistroKid vs CD Baby: Which service should you utilize?

A man sitting against a brick wall holding a vinyl record. A radio and CD player rests next to him.

You lot don't take to commit to using CD Infant or DistroKid forever, simply yous can merely distribute a singular release through one distribution service.

These two music distribution services both accept their merits and demerits. Those whose career goals eye effectually forming artist connections, and who intend to make frequent releases, should sign up for DistroKid. It's more likely to help yous on the path to getting signed to a record label and has much quicker release times. In the futurity, if you desire to switch from DistroKid to CD Baby or some other distribution service like Repost by SoundCloud, you can always opt in to Leave a Legacy on your releases before ceasing your annual payments.

CD Baby is a ameliorate option for musicians who don't desire to worry nearly their music being taken downwardly. If your career goals are more focused on connecting with fans and expanding your outreach, CD Baby offers more accessible tools. If you try CD Baby and dislike it, in that location's no Leave a Legacy fee—you lot tin merely switch to a different distribution service for your side by side release.

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Frequently asked questions

Yes, every bit a CD Baby member you will often receive emails with offers and discounts on its diverse services. You tin opt out of these emails if you find them annoying, but the deals can be quite helpful.