Cdbaby Pro?

[jerryjennings]

I just finished co-writing and recording a song with a friend, and this is a piece that would probably not fly as a film tv song. It's just for his musical project. With that in mind, does anyone have insight on whether cdbaby pro would be a worthwhile way to go? I know that they become the publishing "administrator". I was reading their stuff and it sounds like they may take the publisher's share? If I'm correct about that, what do they do in return? I've stared at the bullet points for each, but they aren't really making that much sense to me. Thanks, J

[RPaul]

I just finished co-writing and recording a song with a friend, and this is a piece that would probably not fly as a film tv song. It's just for his musical project. With that in mind, does anyone have insight on whether cdbaby pro would be a worthwhile way to go? I know that they become the publishing "administrator". I was reading their stuff and it sounds like they may take the publisher's share? If I'm correct about that, what do they do in return? I've stared at the bullet points for each, but they aren't really making that much sense to me. Thanks, J

CD Baby Pro is an administrative publisher. They don't take your publisher's share (50%, with the writer's share being the other 50%), but do take a 15% commission on money they collect for you (both where they are collecting your publishing and in the cases where they collect your writer's share -- there are some cases where you get paid your writer's share directly, namely performance rights, such as from ASCAP or BMI in the USA).

I use CD Baby to release my recordings, but do not use their CD Baby Pro services for a few reasons. First, at least at this point, the amount of money I'm leaving on the table by not using them (basically foreign mechanicals) is miniscule, so, from a purely financial perspective, does not justify the extra cost of CD Baby Pro over standard CD Baby distribution without the Pro part. Second, and in some ways maybe even more important, at least when I checked it out, they were unable to handle co-written songs unless your co-writers were also CD Baby members (mine aren't). Third, I'd already gone through the efforts to set up my publishing company with ASCAP, and had already been doing mechanical licenses, registering copyrights, registering songs with ASCAP, and so on prior to CD Baby Pro's coming along, so I didn't need their services just to make up for my not understanding the business side of things (which is one key reason I suspect many people use the Pro service).

I believe CD Baby Pro is using SongTrust.com under the covers. Were I to look into publishing administration at this point, I'd probably be more likely to consider going that route directly. I believe, though, that they'd also need to represent co-writers, which could be an issue. (At present, I collect for my co-writers and send them their share when I am licensing my songs directly to other artists and, for that matter, for my own recordings. I also handle royalty reporting to those co-writers. On the performance rights side, they collect both their writer's and publisher's share directly from their PROs.)

Rick

[jerryjennings]

Thanks Rick! There's a lot there, and I plan to read it several times to make sure I'm getting what you're saying.
J