Frequently asked questions
Who owns CD Baby, and who runs LabelGrid?
CD Baby’s United States privacy policy is published by “Audio and Video Labs, Inc. d/b/a CD Baby, 9600 NE Cascades Parkway, Ste 180, Portland, OR 97220”, and their Terms of Service describe CD Baby as “a division of Audio & Video Labs, Inc.”. Their About page carries the line “As part of Downtown Music Holdings (Downtown), CD Baby is now proudly part of Virgin Music Group.” Their distribution page says “we’ve been in the business for 25 years” and their homepage dates the company to 1998. LabelGrid has been running since 2017 and works from Denver, Colorado.
What does CD Baby cost, and is LabelGrid cheaper?
For one artist releasing one single, LabelGrid is not cheaper, and there is no sense pretending otherwise. CD Baby’s pricing page reads “RELEASE A SINGLE FOR $9.99 OR AN ALBUM FOR $14.99. NO SUBSCRIPTION FEES.” and states “We keep just 9% of your digital distribution revenue and you get the remaining 91%.”, so the customer pays once per release and keeps 91% of what that release earns. Their Artist Agreement adds that a customer “will also be subject to additional set up fees and charges as more fully explained on the Website … as such fees and charges may be updated by CD Baby from time to time”, and names their pricing page as the operative schedule. LabelGrid charges a flat yearly plan fee, published for every distribution plan and API tier, and the customer keeps 85% of standard-DSP royalties on Solo, 85% on Basic, 90% on Pro, and 95% on Custom Distribution and the API tiers for royalties earned through LabelGrid’s standard-DSP deals, with 100% of what they earn on their own DSP deals or through SOBO. Compare the whole cost of entry on each side against the catalogue you actually have: a release or two a year fits their meter, a catalogue spread across several labels fits ours.
What is CD Baby’s 91% a percentage of?
Of what the stores actually pay them. Their Digital Distribution Addendum states: “For digital content resold through our Licensees … we will pay you an amount equal to ninety-one percent (91%) of the net wholesale price actually received by us from our Licensees for the sale or other licensed uses of your Digital Masters (the ‘License Fee’) net of Tax.” The same clause excludes distribution fees owed to CD Baby that it does not receive or collect. LabelGrid’s Terms define accounting fees the same way round, as a range between 0 and 20% of net payable revenue paid to LabelGrid by the DSPs depending on the plan, with the per-plan rate published on the pricing page. Both sides pay out of money received rather than out of a list price, so what separates them is the rate and the plan it sits on, not the base.
What happens to your releases if you stop paying?
This is the sharpest difference on the page and it runs in CD Baby’s favour. Their distribution page states “CD Baby has no recurring subscription fees, so you don’t have to worry about us taking down your music if you miss a payment (there are no payments!)”, and their account-closure article states “There are no annual fees, and there's no cost to leave an account open but inactive, even if your releases have been canceled.” LabelGrid is a yearly subscription: if it lapses or goes unpaid for more than 60 days, LabelGrid may remove or withdraw the content and may suspend or terminate the account, on any plan. If your catalogue needs to sit live for years with nothing further paid, that is a reason to choose them.
Can you use another distributor at the same time?
Not for the same content on CD Baby’s side, and their Addendum says why. It states: “While selling Your Content on the Website is nonexclusive (meaning you have the right to sell your music and videos directly), the rights granted by you to us under this Digital Distribution Addendum are exclusive with respect to serving as your authorized representative for distributing Your Content to third party distributors for online redistribution, because online retailers (e.g., iTunes, Amazon, etc.) will refuse content that may be delivered by multiple parties.” So selling direct from their own site stays non-exclusive, and the third-party delivery right does not. The licence LabelGrid takes is global and non-exclusive, the same content may go out elsewhere at the same time, and no exclusivity survives termination. Their publishing grant is a separate product with separate terms, answered below.
What is CDB Boost, and does either company administer publishing?
CDB Boost is an add-on priced at “$39.99” added “to any single or album”, described on their page as taking “your tracks beyond Standard distribution”. It registers a customer’s music with The Mechanical Licensing Collective, registers sound recordings with SoundExchange and opens sync placement opportunities. Their Publishing Administration Addendum is a separate product again: CD Baby “shall retain an Administration Fee of fifteen percent (15%) of the ‘Gross Receipts’”, defined as the amounts actually collected on the writer’s behalf, and the addendum grants “the sole and exclusive rights of administration, promotion and collection throughout the world … with respect to one hundred percent (100%) of all of your right, title and interest” in the compositions submitted, with synchronisation rights excluded and physical reproduction rights granted non-exclusively. That 15% sits on compositions and is a different revenue line from the 9% on digital distribution revenue; the two are never added together. LabelGrid does not offer publishing administration, publishing royalty collection or publisher connections today, and no plan upgrade adds them. We distribute and collect on the recording side only.
Is YouTube Content ID included on both?
Yes, on both. CD Baby’s YouTube page states “YouTube Monetization is INCLUDED with CD Baby distribution.” and that they “work in partnership with YouTube’s Content ID system to make sure every instance of your music is detected on YouTube”, and their pricing page lists “Monetization with YouTube Content ID” among what an account gets. For social surfaces, their Artist Agreement defines a “Social Video Monetization (SVM) Service” governed by its own addendum, and their pricing page describes video monetization revenue when tracks are used on social apps as included. On LabelGrid, YouTube Content ID registration is available on every distribution plan, and social and user-generated monetization runs through that same registration. The SVM addendum was not among the pages we captured, so this answer compares coverage rather than rates.
How do you take music down, or close an account?
CD Baby’s Artist Agreement says that on a Withdrawal or Termination Notice they remove content from their website “in no event more than five (5) business days following receipt of a Withdrawal Notice or Termination Notice” and advise their Licensees by Takedown Notice within the same period, adding that “CD Baby is not responsible for, and has no liability for, any delays of our Licensees in removing Your Content” and that the customer “shall remain solely responsible for enforcing the removal”. Closing the account itself is done “by submitting a request to our Support team” once active releases are cancelled. On LabelGrid a withdrawal is self-serve and its timeline is published: open the release, deselect outlets on the Outlets tab and save, and takedown requests go out to the platforms you cleared. Delivery to the stores takes 1-3 business days, the stores then take 1-14 days to process the removal, and full removal typically runs to 2-3 weeks. Removal works at the release level rather than the track level, so one track cannot come down on its own, though deselecting a single store leaves the release live on the rest. Royalties earned before removal are still paid. Both sides publish the leg they control, and neither controls how fast a store acts.
When does CD Baby pay out, and when does LabelGrid?
They publish two statements about it and both are worth reading together. Their pricing page says “Keep ALL your rights. Get paid WEEKLY!” Their Artist Agreement says they “will use commercially reasonable efforts to make a payment to you for amounts generated, actually received, and posted to your account … no later than 15 business days after your Threshold Amount (also known as Pay Point) has been met”. Their payments article adds that where a payment has been returned, “On the next payment, the amount of this previously-returned payment will be included and noted in the payment breakdown.” Both are their own words about the same money path. LabelGrid pays monthly: a statement is generated from the 21st of the month, payment is initiated between the 3rd and the 14th of the following month, and funds arrive 3-7 business days after that. What neither side controls is the leg in front of it: the stores report and pay 1-3 months after the streams happen, so streams in January typically reach a payment in April or May.
What does LabelGrid offer beyond distributing a release?
Three products on one backend, and a route past the price list. Self-serve distribution is the first: several labels in one account, 1 on Solo, 3 on Basic, 5 on Pro and 50 on Custom Distribution, royalty accounting on every plan, with per-artist statements and automated splits from Basic up and on every API tier (Solo carries neither), release review on every distribution plan, and streaming analytics in the dashboard on every plan, covering the major reporting stores and the social surfaces. Imprint is the second, currently waiting-list only: the same platform under your brand and on your domain, with every end customer in its own workspace. Engine is the third, and it is where the API route lives: public documentation, three published tiers plus Custom API, the same analytics on the public API as in the dashboard, ERN delivery on every distribution plan with ERN import on the API tiers and Custom Distribution, a sandbox once the plan is active, and @labelgrid/mcp, our MIT-licensed MCP server on the public MCP registry, with the @labelgrid/cli companion running on the same public API. Past the published ceilings, a custom deal adjusts caps, platform fees and packaging to the business actually running on it.