CD Baby keeps $4 per CD sold - isn't that kinda high?

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junplugged

junplugged

Taking the slow road
after all, who's gonna charge more than $10, and if it costs $2 to make, that only leaves you with $4 and then 50% taxes on biz in the US, so you end up with $2 for a $10 CD, that sucks, it's like you belong to a major label or something. there's gotta be a better way.
 
Haven't sold CDs on the Internet as of yet, but that seems pretty high. If ebay took 40% of the total sale price of whatever item I was selling, I'd have a damn heart attack (esp since I just sold about 2k worth of stuff, yikes). I guess they figure most of the people selling CDs on their site are only going to sell a few copies at most, so they might as well get some money out of it.

Did you read the fine, fine, ultra-fine print on the contract you agreed to? Perhaps the amount they take decreases as you sell over certain amounts? Again, that's how it works with ebay sales - sorry for lack of a better analogy - but the percentages are faaaar lower. I would understand 1-2 dollars tops for each unit sold, but twice that? Sheesh.
 
It costs a lot of money to do what CD Baby does. They have maybe 50-60 people on the payroll. I feel $4 is a good deal for all that.
 
David Hooper said:
It costs a lot of money to do what CD Baby does. They have maybe 50-60 people on the payroll. I feel $4 is a good deal for all that.
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That's true. Try selling a CD through CafePress! They take like $10.
 
A lot of people list on CDBaby to get on iTunes, and then promote and sell off their own website. But if you don't want to deal with fulfillment, $4 ain't a bad deal.
 
That seems about right... Distributors etc through out the world will not pay more than 50% of retail.
 
I agree on the shittyness of that deal..

4$ is rediculous in my opinion... They're making a rediculous amount of money ripping bands off.. just make your own shopping cart.. get a paypal account.. problem solved.. fuck cd baby
 
eeb said:
I agree on the shittyness of that deal..

4$ is rediculous in my opinion... They're making a rediculous amount of money ripping bands off.. just make your own shopping cart.. get a paypal account.. problem solved.. fuck cd baby
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I disagree.

My cd will be sold through CDBaby when I'm finished with it. Some shopping carts (and certain online systems like PayPal) charge you a monthly fee. CDBaby also has access to avenues that you may not have access to. You can choose to NOT have your physical CD sold through CDbaby, but only do their digital distribution. Then, they only keep 9%.

Setting up your own shopping cart sounds nice and all, but do some calculations, too. Add up how much it costs you to mail each CD, monthly fees for credit card processing, and so forth. Then examine what CDBaby offers.
 
i just don't get how you can make any profit at all if they charge that much.. what if you have an ep that you're selling for under 10$?

it shouldn't cost you anything to mail each cd.. you charge shipping and handling to the customer (i'm sure ppl that buy cd's of cd baby have to pay for shipping)

there are fees for credit card processing and so forth but if you get to the point wher eyou're selling that many units there are other options.


Honestly, I don't know too much about cd baby but the fact that they take so much off your cd sales seems absolutely absurd and a bad business decision to me...

just my 2 cents
 
eeb said:
i just don't get how you can make any profit at all if they charge that much.. what if you have an ep that you're selling for under 10$?

it shouldn't cost you anything to mail each cd.. you charge shipping and handling to the customer (i'm sure ppl that buy cd's of cd baby have to pay for shipping)

there are fees for credit card processing and so forth but if you get to the point wher eyou're selling that many units there are other options.


Honestly, I don't know too much about cd baby but the fact that they take so much off your cd sales seems absolutely absurd and a bad business decision to me...

just my 2 cents
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Well, if you're doing an EP that you want to charge less than $10 for, you could just go through CDBaby's digital distribution. Then, you keep 91%, and CDBaby keeps 9%. So then, for every $1, you keep $0.91.

What does a "normal" record company take? I'd venture it's more than $4 a copy.
 
Tunecore is another option, but personally I think CD baby is a great deal. I have done much better on digital distribution through them.
 
eeb said:
i just don't get how you can make any profit at all if they charge that much.. what if you have an ep that you're selling for under 10$?

it shouldn't cost you anything to mail each cd.. you charge shipping and handling to the customer (i'm sure ppl that buy cd's of cd baby have to pay for shipping)

there are fees for credit card processing and so forth but if you get to the point wher eyou're selling that many units there are other options.


Honestly, I don't know too much about cd baby but the fact that they take so much off your cd sales seems absolutely absurd and a bad business decision to me...

just my 2 cents
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Trust me on this:

CD Baby is a great deal. They deal with all the crap, send CDs right away, store them, and send you checks every so often. It's also non-exclusive, you can STILL sell them any other way you want. You can sell them through CD baby AND your own website, at concerts, through anyone.

Lets face it: We might be talking about a few dollars here.:D CD Baby is not marketing, it is a warehouse and a centralized shop for thousands of records. You cant really browse effectively.

Selling CDs is HARD AS HELL. All of use have these ideas that we will do better than we think. When you actually have a CD out, selling ONE CD is hard as hell to do. Sure, if you mail them out yourself you might make 5 bucks more. I dont mean 5 bucks per disc, I mean 5 Bucks TOTAL.:D

CD Baby gives a look of legitimacy to the product. Sure, we all know that any bozo can get a CD sold there, but the buying consumer doesnt. It looks like you almost have a "label" deal, and that look might sell a few more CDs.

When you do it on your own, you have to stuff envelopes, address them, be organized, keep track of little tiny checks, etc. A big hassle. Its not worth it. As I said, you CAN do both. Some customers might prefer the CD baby approach. 1 out of 10000 CDs are going to be profitable. Dont sweat it, enjoy the process and let someone else lick the envelope.:D

PS. My CD is on CDBaby, as well as every online site known to man ( I have a label deal). Here it is MY CD My label guy LOVES CDBaby, he makes more money than from Amazon or the others.
 
In the real world, us labels basically sell x amount of copies to distributors who in turn put it in the stores at half of the retail price. So, if your looking at it at $10 a copy, that's $5 dollars that go to you. So at CDbaby, your getting $6 dollars. However not many indie artists will be able to sell x amount to make it profitable either way. Major labels do the same thing, except they are selling a million cd's

Just because an artist sells an aloted amount of cd's doesn't mean that he should explore other options because he/she needs credit card processing. That should be necessary anyways.

It may seem like a bad decision, but in all reality, unless the CD sells itself, a website with merchants account etc is a waste of time, money, and space.
 
junplugged said:
after all, who's gonna charge more than $10, and if it costs $2 to make, that only leaves you with $4 and then 50% taxes on biz in the US, so you end up with $2 for a $10 CD, that sucks, it's like you belong to a major label or something. there's gotta be a better way.
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the whole reason cdbaby got into the game was they had a vision of, "there's gotta be a better way."

so they offer digital as well as hard copy distribution for a nominal fee. no copyrights change hands, no obligations on your part--what exactly are you selling then? no live shows, no publicity tours, no deadlines, not a damn thing except what you already do, which is make music.
if you sell 100 cds (which 90% of the bands there don't), they've made $400 which is a pretty low price for the distribution alone. not only that, they've sent you a $600 check!

if you ask me, this is a sweet deal. no one is selling their cd on cdbaby to get rich, but rather to just get their music out there and make a few bucks in the process.

if you have major labels wining and dining you, then cdbaby probably can't compete with that. but for those of us who just want to write, perform, and record for the sake of our love of doing so, recovering any costs at all is simply a bonus. and the exposure/distribution they offer is a far bigger bonus.

can you think of anyone else that is telling you, "go ahead and make your music, we'll do all the publicity work and send you a check based on your sales."?

and if you become a sensation and sell a ton of cds, you and they both win, plus you get to sign whatever contract you want, with whomever you want, because you retain all rights!

so when you come up with a better way, stop whining and start your own business, because that's what these guys did, and not only are they making money at it (based on sheer numbers of submissions) but they're doing a good thing--getting music out there that would never be heard otherwise.
 
I wrote something about this a while ago, and though postage rates have changed a bit, the numbers are still fairly accurate. Read it here:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=99091

CD baby and similar services are best suited to either very low-volume sellers (who shouldn't bother investing in their own website) or high-volume sellers (who don't have time to be constantly mailing CDs). If you're somewhere in the middle, you'll save money by selling through your own website.

-Peter
 
I'm not much one to turn down money...

...so I do both.

If I sell a CD direct, and one on CD Baby, I focus on the fact that I have TWO people exposed to the fruits of my labor, and not the couple bucks difference in profit.

Some buyers have confidence in making their purchase through known outlets, and don't like popping their CC info into strangers carts, which is why it makes sense to say "Also available at CD Baby" next to your "BUY" button. It's ALL better than losing a sale, and missing out on someone hearing your music.

In this new era in the record business, it's hard to set aside this old school focus on profitabilty, and keep in mind that long term success and career building takes place these days by nurturing the relationship with a fan.

Sell at every available outlet, and get as much music out as possible, and don't let a couple bucks cost you a fan.

I know TONS of ex-record company employees walking the streets looking for jobs, that are have difficulty adapting to dropping their old industry "toolboxes", while the people left at the labels are sitting around like the dinosaurs talking about the meteor.

And just in case you make assumptions about CD Baby's philosophies, predicated upon what you know about it's success, remember that Derek started it out just goofing with code to figure out how to sell his own music. Once he got that going, his bandmates asked if he would sell their music, then other people asked, and he really didn't expect this. He's a musician, and he refuses to refer to CDs as "product" or "units".

I've actually heard the words come out of Derek's mouth, "I'll be glad when the industry gets to a point where everyone can do this for themselves and CD Baby won't be necessary anymore". He's on the side of the industry in general...

Then again, his yacht is bigger than mine....;)
 
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4 dollars a cd is a SMOKING deal

Even a major label deal will likely net you 1/10th or less than youd be making off CD baby

Thank your lucky stars theyre only charging 4 dollars, I dont see how they can do it
 
pipelineaudio said:
I dont see how they can do it
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Its the $40 fee per disc. Lets face it, a lot of peope will sell zero CDs, so they just keep the 40. They have it down as far as making web pages and samples. Somebody must be VERY organized, because you can get a CD up and running very quickly.
 
eeb said:
I agree on the shittyness of that deal..

4$ is rediculous in my opinion... They're making a rediculous amount of money ripping bands off.. just make your own shopping cart.. get a paypal account.. problem solved.. fuck cd baby
Click to expand...

You can certainly do this, but are you in the business of making music or the business of stuffing envelopes? It's a bitch to deal with fulfillment, tech support, lost orders, etc.
 
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