TAXI.com

Hi TAXI Members,
I have a QUESTION about releasing on CD Baby a 25 song album of my original songs. I am delivering this to CD Baby this Sunday September 25, 2022.

When CD Baby says on their website - Choose a digital distribution for your album.

[*] Downloads + Streaming services
Includes all download partners, plus streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube Music, Deezer, and more.

[*] Downloads Only
Includes only stores that sell downloads of your music and does not include streaming services that provide users with access to tracks they haven't purchased or previously owned. This will not include services like Spotify, Youtube, or Apple music.

[*] Do it all. Even unpaid.
Includes places that offer free downloads and streaming.

QUESTION: I will choose the first or second option, [*] Downloads + Streaming services or the [*] Downloads Only
TAXI Members please offer your insight on these options. Which one should I choose?

Thanks in advance!
Steven Kerry Bruce

Very few downloads happen these days. Most people are just streaming. Thus, if you do downloads only, your music won't get anywhere near the exposure or listening as it would if it's also available on the streaming services. Thus, I personally go with option 2 (downloads and paid streaming). I don't know what other services might be included in the unpaid possibilities, but I've never done that one, and the paid streaming services have all the key ones I'm aware of (but not user upload sites like Soundcloud and such).

One personal anecdote on this: A singer who recorded one of my songs and released it in late 2018 insisted on doing downloads only. This was back when CD Baby still had a music store, and I think a few of her relatives bought a copy the first year. Then CD Baby discontinued their store (and, realistically, no one was going to find and buy her recordings that way beyond some personal friends and family), and the sales reports from the last two years have been exactly zero. I tried to convince her to add streaming to the album, but with no luck. (She has released subsequent recordings with streaming, and her reports do show non-trivial, but not exactly earth shattering, numbers of streams, especially on the public domain covers she's done.)