Answer
CD Baby Pro Publishing Administration takes a 15% commission from the total publishing royalties for each songwriter on our staff. The rest of this percentage is funneled to Songwriters who are affiliated with CD Baby, where they then receive 85% of all collected publishing royalties themselves. To get more information, read this article
Why I NEVER use CD Baby for music distribution!!!
CDBaby takes a small percentage of the artist’s total sales for all CD and digital formats, including royalties. The amount varies depending on which service you use to sell your music with CD Baby: as little as 12% when selling CDs with an aggregator like Tunecore or Disc Makers; 22% with iTunes (including video); and 25-30% for Amazon Music. We also take credit card processing fees from artists who want this option (approximately $0.59 per sale), but not from those who prefer that customers pay by check ($25 set up fee).
The royalty rate is variable because it depends on what type of media format they are using – if the customer buys a physical copy, then there’s no royalty rate. If they purchase a digital copy, then there is one – it doesn’t matter which service you’re using to sell music in CD Baby; the fee will be different because of different services’ payment processing fees and your preference for credit card or check transactions.
The amount varies depending on which service you use to sell your music with CD Baby: as little as 12% when selling CDs with an aggregator like Tunecore or Disc Makers; 22% with iTunes (including video); and 25-30% for Amazon Music.
We also take credit card processing fees from artists who want this option (approximately $0.59 per sale), but not from those who prefer that customers pay by check ($ 0.00 per sale).
For artists who want to use our retail services, we also take a small percentage of the wholesale price when they sell CDs at shows or direct from their website (approximately 20% of the wholesale cost), and charge an additional $0.14 per CD sold for handling costs if you don’t have your own inventory management system in place.
Should I Use CD Baby to Distribute My Music? (Consider This)
The amount varies depending on which service you’re using to sell music with CD Baby: as little as 12% when selling CDs with an aggregator like Tunecore or Disc Makers; 22% with iTunes (including video); and 25-30% for Amazon Music. We also take credit card processing fees from artists who want this option (approximately $0 .25 to $0.30 per CD sale, depending on the service provider).
And of course there’s always our exclusive pricing option for a one‐time flat fee: For a limited time only, we’re offering studios and bands an all in one package including single song downloads (MP33 files), digital masters from your recording session, unlimited CD production with full color packaging design and artwork included at no charge!
With this option you can purchase up to 250 CDs custom printed with your name or band logo that are perfect for giving away as promotional items or selling after shows. You also get royalties when people download any MP33 file from the website – these go towards paying down what it cost us to produce and ship them to you.
CD Baby Pro Publishing Administration takes a 15% commission from the total publishing royalties for each songwriter on our staff. The rest of this percentage is funneled to Songwriters who are affiliated with CD Baby, where they then receive 85% of all collected publishing royalties themselves. To get more information, read this article