New CD Baby Agreement

[MichaelL]

Writers who sell their music on CD Baby will be getting, or should have received a copy of CD Baby’s new agreement.

The previous option to have CD Baby collect your digital royalties, now seems to be a mandatory part of the agreement. So, if you sell through CD Baby, it looks like they’re setting themselves up as your digital PRO. They will even register your music with Soundexchange. Obviously they aren’t doing this for free. But, it sounds like you have no options, if you want to sell through CD Baby.

I have a vague recollection of being asked by BMI, if I wanted to designate them to collect such royalties. Obviously you can’t have two PROs collecting the same royalties.

It’s a lengthy agreement. Writers who have the same music on CD Baby and in libraries should read it very carefully.

I’ve asked for confirmation that their sync distribution program is still optional.

_Michael

[wilx2]

Yikes! My first reaction, if this is in fact mandatory, is that many of us will be pulling our songs down off the cd baby agreement and re-uploading directly through iTunes. After all, iTunes accounts for the vast majority of digital sales, so we wouldn’t be missing out on Amazon sales or whatever. Last time I checked it was much more complicated to do the direct iTunes thing, but perhaps they have simplified it by now.

[wilx2]

Thanks for the heads up Michael!

[Mark_Petrie]

Selling through iTunes still has these requirements:

At least 20 albums in your catalog
UPCs/EANs/JANs for all products you intend to distribute
ISRCs for all tracks you intend to distribute

[MichaelL]

Yikes! My first reaction, if this is in fact mandatory, is that many of us will be pulling our songs down off the cd baby agreement and re-uploading directly through iTunes.

Actually, if I read it correctly,as of December 10, they are going to drop artists who don’t agree. I probably won’t hear back from them until after the US Holiday.

[AaronM]

I don’t currently do any distribution myself but http://symphonicdistribution.com is looking like a nice option to me.

No ongoing fees and their agreement is non-exclusive.

[Edouardo]

Hummm, I haven’t been contacted by CD Baby (I have one album with them opted out of any syncing system with them including of course YT ID).

I just use them for distribution of my artist facet via i-tune etc… That was even before I knew about the library business. Luckily, I stayed cautious and didn’t opt-in anything I didn’t understand (pfewww, I discovered later I could have condemned all the tracks of my first album to never be licensed!)… Anyway, BandCamp did much better for me than CDBaby in that regard.

I found the agreement you guys mention on the Internet. So checked my account: Syncing status of the few tracks I have there are on “none”, as they should be. There is no warning of any kind that they will “kick me out” if I don’t sign the new agreement.

Anyway, they do not have the right to do so… I paid for the distribution package of that CD (i.e. i-tunes, amazon mp3 etc…), that is a life long agreement, so they ought to deliver…

[wigmusic]

I just reread my email. Doing nothing and continuing to use the service after 10 December constitutes agreement. To disagree you must cancel your service.

[Edouardo]

Well, this is illegal… When you sign a contract, both must agree: Just one party saying no response = agreement cannot be considered as a valid signature unless one lives in a dictatorship…

Hey, I could send an email to a person that I know doesn’t consult it often, and say: by this agreement, you give me your house. Not responding within 2 days, will consist a legal binding agreement.

Anyway, I still read the agreement. My understanding of it is not that negative:

concerning PRO:
Nothing contained in this Agreement shall prohibit you from affiliating with any PRO for the receipt of royalty payments for the public performance or communication to the public of your sound recordings or musical works made by a third party, excluding only public performances or communications to the public of sound recordings or musical works made by CD Baby pursuant to the Authorizations set forth in Section2 of this Agreement.

Concerning YT ID and Syncing:
This Agreement together with the TOS contains the entire understanding of the parties relating to the subject matter hereof. This Agreement (including all Addenda) supersedes all previous agreements or arrangements between you and CD Baby pertaining to the Services, provided that if you previously entered into a digital distribution or consignment agreement with us in the past, and elected any options specifying or limiting the scope of the distribution of Your Content, the limitations and authorizations with respect to the distribution of Your Content shall remain in place under this Agreement and the applicable Addendum. This Agreement cannot be changed or modified except as provided herein.

That is if I opted out of any syncing or YT ID stuff, I still will remain opted out… So basically no change…

Michael, If I got it wrong, could you please correct me ?

Greetings

[Dave]

I have used AWAL in England and they get the music to I-tunes just fine. i like it because you can opt out of Spotify too.

[wilx2]

I still haven’t received the e-mail, and with only 14 days left, this seems like an incredibly short amount of time to have to rearrange digital distribution. For those who received the e-mail – when did you receive it? and what is the subject line? thx. (and is this possibly a scam??)

[Edouardo]

@wilx2, I haven’t received the email either, that is why I was quite surprised by that post.

Besides, same thought as you: assuming we receive it soon, 14 days is pretty short… especially looking at the complexity of the contract. Actually, I suspect abuse: Seriously, Who’s going to read and understand pages and pages of that Lawyer goobleeboo in such short notice?

Once, I rejected a NE library I was accepted in because the contract was… too long. For me, too long = too fishy.

I checked the website: this new agreement is real.

[MichaelL]

My main concern is that sync distribution remains optional. I’ll post an update when I hear from CD Baby, in that regard.

[MichaelL]

I heard back from Noelle at CD Baby.

She stated that Sync distribution remains optional and that CD Baby will not manage royalties for any Albums already registered with Soundexchange.

[Art Munson]

Thanks for the heads up Michael. We never received an e-mail but I just checked Robin’s albums and, as I remembered, I had previously opted out.

[Author]

Posts