CD Baby Pro’s Publishing Catalog Grows 250%, Exposes New Revenue Streams For Indie Musicians
In an industry where musicians are constantly vying for any source of substantial income, CD Baby's rights management service known as CD Baby Pro forges ahead into 2015 with promise worthy of indie artist's attention.
CD Baby prides itself on being owned and operated by musicians for musicians and has established itself as a global leader in independent music distribution. The company reported exponential growth of it's rights management service, CD Baby Pro in 2014. CD Baby Pro has expanded the publishing catalog by 250% and now represents over 54,000 writers and administers over 246,000 songs.
“While writers could sign up directly with ASCAP or BMI to collect performance royalties, many independent artists can’t get an established publisher to work with them, which is key to making other types of publishing revenue accessible” explains Rob Filomena, CD Baby’s Director of Music Publishing. “We’re making professionalized music rights management accessible to a large group of independents and, judging from the growth we’re seeing, this is an essential artists need right now."
CD Baby Pro allows artists to tap into mechanical royalties from streaming services both in and outside of the United States for the first time. Having the option to directly register songs with over 40 foreign societies has the process of issuing payment for performances in these territories that could have otherwise taken years to acquire.
“We continue to help our members understand that performance royalties are only part of the equation with streaming services,” says Kevin Breuner, CD Baby’s vice president of marketing and host of the DIY Musician podcast. “I just came across one of our artists making $3000 from mechanical royalties collected for foreign sales. This is money they wouldn’t have collected without CD Baby Pro.”
“Every little bit helps for today’s independent artists,” Breuner concludes, “and it’s only going to increase from here.”
Not sure how many people still buy music on CD Baby. They’re discontinuing their affiliation program as of today, got an email a few weeks ago. I’ve had no affiliated sales for a year, not even a single song. Been their affiliate since 2012 and it was OK only at the beginning, before Bandcamp has taken over indie music sales. There’s no official info about it so let me paste what I got:
“CD Baby’s affiliate program will be discontinued as of February 24, 2015. We are going to administer one final payout by March 2, 2015. Please make sure your payment information is up to date so we can get you your money! There’s no minimum payout amount, so you will be paid everything you’re owed, but as of February 24, 2015, you will no longer have access to your account. Want to make sure your payment info is up to date? Go here to log in and confirm everything’s as it should be.
Thank you for being a CD Baby affiliate!
Sincerely,
The Team at CD Baby