CD Baby
Reviews and Complaints

I have used CD Baby for years without issue, but currently am completely disillusioned. One month ago I signed up for distribution of two albums. I attempted to update the cover artwork through the site, but was unable so I initiated a customer service support request. I have repeatedly sent the current artwork with a request to make the revision so that the submission for distribution can be completed. I am now one month out of money paid with no end in site. Every two weeks I receive an email, which at this point appears automated, because when I go back to the website, the requested changes have not yet occurred. Going forward, I can't even imagine if there is a future problem how it will be resolved. How are they able to collect a payment BEFORE the service is even provided and/or completed?

I'm really, disappointed upon cdbaby distribution program, i've made all appropriate changes to my album, cypher rounds, artist swazy mack 7 hunnit records, the inspection classified it as a remix, then classified it as blurry artwork, I made changes, as I made sufficient payments, your company has allowed theirselves to duplicate my music and distribute, production for sale, made purchase of beats recordings and vocals and lyrics are 100% owned by swazy mack 7 hunnit records, hip hop was born from remixes and its gonna remain in all types of musical talent.. Please distribute my music to all local distributors. Sincerely swazy mack 7 hunnit records contact # [protected].

I am finally getting things together and my amazon music for artists acct was playing Ray Charles I Got a woman and CDbaby won't do a thing about it after several emails and wont get me a supervisor. they just ignorantly push you off to Amazon and other people. I keep getting the same reps that I don't want and there is no management structure in place which is very poor. They are costing me time and money. Also I just got a mechanical license through Easy Song and need to add one cover song to my release. They are asking me to remove all tracks ( in which I was provided wrong instructions ) which I had to figure out on my own. I am thinking of releasing my cover song on a different platform. I am very unhappy and dissatisfied with CDbaby and may be moving on after the yr is up.

Cynthia Smith here, from the band, Cynthia Smith With Smitty's Kitchen...

Released 3 albums in 2020, 2021 and 2022 with the cover art clearly indicating the band name. CD Baby submitted for digital distribution the 2020 album twice as 1) Smitty's Kitchen and 2) Cynthia Smith. Then submitted the 2021 album as Cynthia Smith. Finally submitted the 2022 album as Cynthia Smith With Smitty's Kitchen.

When music is submitted multiple times platforms will not pay since they are not sure who they are paying, so we have lost income. I have asked CD Baby to contact their digital partners to correct the artist name. Still waiting. Making matters worse, the 2020 album, submitted as Smitty's Kitchen was deleted from my CD Baby account, so I cannot access it to remove it. I have not received any action to my request for them to make it accessible to me.

Our music is in 3 Spotify accounts, 3 apple/iTunes accounts and with all the messy submissions our music has been pretty much lost in the shuffle. Multiple email conversations with reps and a supervisor are not producing any real results.

I would really appreciate some help from the BBB to get this rectified ASAP. CD Baby should contact their digital partners and correct the band name on all 3 album submissions since this is their error.

My last single dropped on all platforms on September 2nd, except Apple. I've had to communicate with CD Baby twice over the last few weeks. Both times I was promised an email response from Customer Services, and both times I've heard nothing. Both times CD Baby blamed Apple and some sort of error on Apple's behalf.

It's now over three weeks late! I am losing streams and sales.

I am so disappointed with their lack of f*cks, and I am very very frustrated now Sorry about my language but really? What's going on?

Hugh Ruiz!

My cd has been stuck in inspection for 3 weeks. The bot said inspection will take 5 days. I already have 4 singles released & I have the physical cds in my possession. So why hasn’t the digital distribution been released. Contact support not available, just a useless bot. No email or explanation. 2 times I contacted an agent, 1st person said right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. 2nd person said he couldn’t answer my questions. Called the phone numbers, message said can’t take messages. All fees paid in advance. Worst customer service ever. Project is Tom Everling Sincerely Yours.

I have been in contact about some issues with my releases and account three times initially , first in 2020 ,then in 2021 and now again in 2022. Each time there was no reply whatsoever, in one case they replied 6 months later. None of the issues were resolved. In the first case a release could not be carried out because of issues they did not explain or help with. They have a relatively new payment system and once again now it's 'stuck'. Payments are not made, the money just sits in the account. No reply to emails. This company has deteriorated so much and this 'we will reply sooner next time' stuff they say when i do reply months later (as they did in one case) is just a lie. I mean really? 'We've been a bit busy with backlog service requests' ... 6 months ?

CD Baby made multiple mistakes when uploading my last album. They send me an automated email every day to alert me of the issues, although they can only be addressed on the back end. I’ve set multiple appointments for agent calls and then wait in vain every time as nobody calls. Their automated chatbot tells me that there are never agents available, even though I attempt to reach them during their stated business hours.

These issues have persisted for over 6 months and cost me money and opportunity. I literally cannot collect royalties on my own album due to this gross incompetence.

I signed up and paid CD Baby to release my song. They never contacted me with approval but released it without my knowledge. My song is somehow “out of sequence”, specifically the ending is in the middle, solo at the end and stops in the middle of a progression. My original file always played correctly, still does, never had a problem.

I contacted them right away by email, received an auto-response with a ticket # and message that response time is longer than usual. This was almost a month ago, no contact since. In the meantime my jumbled song is on all platforms. I’m mortified.

They are bootlegging and selling my music illegally.

They have said they will stop selling it but they do not. I have requested that they cease sales of my cd and they have not done so. I requested they stop over 10 years ago but they co tinue to sell both illegal downloads and they have also printed fake copies and sold them. I see these on sale online for as much as $970, and yet they have not paid me.

I would appreciate help with this. Thank you.

I've dealt with this company since 2005 and what is clear is that they no longer represent US as independent artists. My royalties and sales are down and I believe I am being stolen from. Spotify platform is a nightmare, they have other music from foreign lands on my page and THEY actually are helping me, NOT CD BABY. They had my material under another artists name on youtube. They don't wanna talk about accounting errors, I notice in every conversation, they always try to get around that. The reps that call KNOW NOTHING. They are very young, naive, and have no experience and simply don't care. Someone IS stealing. CD Baby is not the company they used to be. Thats why they destroyed a lot of physical copies of albums a few years ago. Someone needs to investigate them and Spotify. They have my release ALL MESSED UP and they say that the name on the album MUST match the name of the release or they will assign it another name. THIS MAKES NO SENSE except to create more confusion and a WAY TO STEAL. Just like they did that family in California... they want to wait until you die and then STEAL from you, so your loved ones don't realize what you have given the world. I don't recommend this company anymore. They are unfair just like the music industry. They are only about Beyonce and Jay Z and no one else BETTER say anything or you'll see your 10 cent royalty check disappear along with your restaurant! Some socialist communist mess here!

For many years, CDBaby was one of the best places to get independent music (on CD... hence the name). Though I even remember them selling original copies of Elliott Smith's "Roman Candle". I frequently ordered CDs there.

Times have changed for the music industry and apparently the business model of CDBaby also got a severe overhaul. Through the homepage, you can't even really find their CD store again. Their focus now seems to lie with steaming.

Nevertheless, I recently ordered a few CDs from their store. The order confirmation included the typical message of how they caressed the discs with gloves and hung my picture on the wall as "customer of the month".

Then reality sinked in as my parcel got lost in international transit. The usual support email that led to prompt replies in the past, now returns an automatic message referring you to a tedious form, and the "average response time" was said to be 4 to 6 business days. I have yet to hear back from them nearly a month later.

In short, it seems the "old" CDBaby has gone down the drain. They have brought me joy over many years so I would be delighted if they manage to reinvent themselves and help distribute independent music. But I can recommend you to avoid the CD store from now on; it's not what it used to be and CDBaby doesn't seem to care about it anymore (heck, even the FAQ section and support form are not designed for inquiries on CD shipments). To me, the whole experience makes me suspicious about relying on their support for streaming.

Goodbye, CDBaby.

Album Name: This Is Me
Artist: Miss Fire
Release Date: 2/6/17
UPC Number: [protected]

Hi,

My album was release June 2017 and was supposed to be uploaded to spotify.
I paid for my album distribution with CD Baby and even went through the trouble of asking for help from your cd baby support forum but to no avail my album is still not on spotify.

It has been 6 months now and It is embarrassing when people are asking me when the album will be available on spotify when I promoted this.

Can you look into this please ?

I have a number of friends that have purchased my album months ago but I still have not received payment and only see $38 in the accounts sections which cannot be right.

I loo forward to your prompt response

Thank you

Yulander Davis (Miss Fire)

Hello, my name is Doby Daenger, and I am a longtime member of BMI. I have NO contract with CD Baby.

I terminated my contract with CD Baby in 2010 specifically signifying that all physical copies were to be returned, and all electronic forms of my music were to be removed from internet sites.

Out of 11 physical copies, only 5 were returned. They claimed they were "just sold, " and a check was issued for the missing CDs.

Apparently, CD Baby has continued distributing / selling my .mp3 files for the last 5 years, as they self admittedly twitted, "this is an old act."

This is a rampant problem, with this company in particular, claiming music they do not own, distributing it and collecting royalties on YouTube from bewildered users, etc.

I feel the public needs to be made aware of agencies like this, with full disregard of copyright laws, flagrantly take advantage of the fact that for the average musician, fighting back is a vain effort, if not impossible.

I will be pursuing legal action if retribution is not made, and Cease & Desist notice not adhered to.

https://twitter.com/search?q=%40dobydaenger%20%40mndigital%20%40cdbaby&src=typd

http://www.mndigital.com/content-experience/search/songs/?keyword=Doby+Daenger

www.cdbabylawsuit.com explains it all.

CD Baby is allowing artists like myself to pay for services they know they cannot provide due to whatever technical problems they say they are having. No customer service, just lip service.

I've now paid them $55 for distribution they are not providing and it's been 2 months. They knew their distribution capabilities were broken when I paid. They did not tell me! Now because their website is, as they say, "broken" - my music is not showing up as available on their website. This problem just cost me my eligibility for the Grammy's this year! They disqualified me because they could not find my music available for retail purchase!

My keyboard player who wrote an amazing powerful song with me is dying of liver cancer and I submitted our song to give him a chance to be publicly recognized for all of his musical contributions over the years and now he can't even have that chance. I could have gone with another distributor, but CD Baby did not tell me they were having problems before I made my purchase. And now their contract will not allow me to distribute my music to other places. I'm stuck!

I get nothing but lip service from the people at CD Baby and I'm sick of it. They've sabotaged thousands of artists' eligibility into the Grammys by having ALL of their digital downloads suddenly "disappear" from their website.

This company is not to be trusted!