What our $35 fee is for
When I was promoting my own music, and someone said they wanted to help me, I got interested. But then if they said I had to pay them, I'd say, “No way! I'm not paying anyone!”
So if that is how you feel, I totally understand!
When I started CD Baby, I found I was doing a LOT of work for every album that arrived, so I just HAD to charge something small, to pay for the work I was doing. Otherwise I couldn't afford to do it.
So, I want you to know what we do for every CD that arrives here. This is why we have to charge $35 per-album:
For EVERY CD that comes in, we...
- enter it into the computer
- scan the album cover - cropping, balancing, and tweaking the colors to make it look as good as we can
- resize the albumcover into 4 different sizes for diffferent uses on the website
- convert the audio on the CD into .WAV files - just for the songs and lengths you chose
- convert the .WAV files into MP3 files, then to lores MP3 files
- upload all the audio files to the server, and create linking files to them, and update the database to say which tracks have been successfully uploaded
- listen to the CD (yes we really listen to every album)
- edit the info you submitted to make sure it represents the CD as best as it can: that you chose the right genres, that your bio has no spelling mistakes. that your one-sentence style description is the best eye-catching description of the CD that will make people want to click through to hear it.
- listen to the audio clips, and fix them if they're bad
- make its web page, publish it to the site, and send you the email announcing it
- put it up on our new arrivals gallery and under each of the genre pages you chose
- file it in our warehouse, ready for shipping
- give it room on the shelves until the end of time, never telling you that it's not worth us to carry it anymore.
- (And believe me, many business people who look at the CD Baby business think I'm crazy for not removing the albums that don't sell well. They say I could save a lot of money in rent if I didn't need such a big warehouse. But I tell them that your initial $35 setup cost was there to help pay the rent for your bit of shelf-space forever, so that we never need to kick you out of the system for not selling enough.)
It's about 40 minutes of work per CD.
PLUS: we do all kinds of free “members-only” things - opportunities and things we can do for you, for no charge - FOREVER. Even if you never sent us another CD or another dime, we would do these things for you for decades.
PLUS: we are always available to take your calls and emails. Many artists spend hours on the phone with us, asking all kinds of questions.
We NEVER accept any money after that $35. NO advertising. NO “paid-placement”. Everyone is given equal treatment.
We NEVER sell your information to other companies, no matter how much they offer to pay us.
THAT'S what the $35 is for. We work hard to make it worth it to you.
And it helps make sure that we're still here to sell your music for many years.