CD Baby vs Ditto Music: What’s the Best Option to Distribute?

Music distribution has always been a major challenge that musicians, especially upcoming and independent artists face. With the development of online music distribution, however, the whole process has been made a lot easier and convenient. The online music distribution industry is rapidly expanding with several major players taking big strides in helping upcoming and independent artists to distribute their music properly. These companies include CDBaby and Ditto.

This article is a review of both CDBaby and Ditto, comparing the advantages they have over each other to help you determine the company that best caters to your needs when it comes to the selling and distribution of your music.

CD Baby

CDBaby is an online music software that helps artists to sell and distribute their music. It does this by giving upcoming and independent artists a platform to distribute their music. It gives artists access to a worldwide market. The company was founded by Derek Sivers in 1998, making it one of the first digital music distribution platforms. It has since developed to be one of the leading online music distribution platforms in the world.

The company has partnered with a large network of online music stores and streaming services, allowing you to access more than 150 music stores including Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and much more. This kind of access gives you a wider audience since your music is distributed worldwide. This allows you to create a fanbase and establish yourself better as a musician.

CDBaby has several impressive features including CD distribution, which oversees the physical distribution of CDs. Your physical CDs are distributed and sold in the Webstore and the more than 15000 record stores that the company has partnered with worldwide. CDBaby allows you to sell your CDs at the price of your choice.

This platform also offers disc manufacturing apart from CD distribution. At your own specifications, CDBaby will print your physical CDs and package them for you at a certain fee. In addition, they will also take care of your album artwork if necessary.

The company also offers vinyl distribution and takes care of the distribution of your music record in vinyl form. The vinyl are distributed to the over 15000 record stores that have partnered with CDBaby and the Webstore, where they will be sold. However, the vinyl records are not processed by CDBaby.

It also offers pro publishing administration where your music is protected, promoted and accounted for. The online platform ensures that your songs are registered with collection agencies all over the world. All the royalties are then collected on your behalf and the money is then deposited in your account after the company collects a 15% commission for the services rendered.

Another key service offered by CDBaby is sync licensing. Through this service, it helps to get your music played in video games, YouTube, commercials, movies, among other platforms. This is very impressive since when your music gets played on these platforms, you not only get paid well but also get unprecedented exposure.

Sync licensing is offered for free for all standard and pro releases. The company, however, demands a 40% commission on all revenue that is generated through this service.

CDBaby also offers YouTube and social video monetization. With YouTube monetization, you are entitled to any ad revenue generated from any video that has your music on YouTube regardless of the length of the ad. They offer YouTube monetization for free to all Standard and Pro users but demands a 30% commission on your earnings through this service.

You also get social media monetization. The platform allows you to collect ad revenue on Facebook and Instagram. This feature allows you to generate additional revenue from your music.

This platform also helps its users to obtain licenses within their platform for releasing a cover song. The process usually takes a long time, but with this platform, the whole process is made a lot easier. CDBaby charges $14.99 for providing you with a cover song license. Apart from helping you obtain a cover song license, the platform will also take care of paying the royalties to the songwriter.

There is also an online music store known as CDBaby Music Store which provides a platform for independent and upcoming musicians to sell their music. With the Music Store, your fans are able to bypass mainstream platforms and purchase music directly from you, the artist. This helps you make more money from the purchase of your music compared to when your music is purchased from mainstream platforms since when your music is purchased from the Music Store, you get to keep 91% of sales revenue, unlike the 70-85% of sales revenue you will keep if your music is purchased from mainstream platforms.

CDBaby also has an analytics and reporting feature which helps you understand your listeners better. The data is presented in a manner that is easy to understand. The information can be categorized by sources of your plays, demographics and more.

The platform also has several payment options to ensure that you receive your payment in the most convenient way possible. However, some of the payment methods are only limited to the United States. Payments are made on Monday, and you can withdraw your payments based on a personal threshold. The threshold can be any amount between $10 and $10000.

CDBaby has three payment plans that you can subscribe to. These are the Free, Standard and Pro subscriptions. With the Free option, you can only purchase and download music from the Music Store. Although you pay no submission fee, you are charged a 15% commission from all your earnings.

With the Standard plan, you are charged $9.95 to submit a single and $49 to submit an album. For the Pro option, you are charged $34.95 to submit a single and $89 to submit an album. For both payment plans, the company takes a commission of 9% from your earnings and a 4% commission from your earnings for the distribution of all the physical copies of your music.

Ditto Music

Ditto is an online music distribution platform that allows independent and upcoming artists to distribute their music worldwide in the simplest way possible. The platform does an impressive job of distributing your music across major platforms such as YouTube and Vevo.

Ditto has a set of several impressive features. Ditto gives you the ability to set up a Vevo or YouTube channel and upload your video assets. The cost of setting up a Vevo channel and upload a video is $99. The cost of only uploading a video is $29.

Ditto also offers social media integration that helps you to develop your social influence and engagement. The cost of getting a 4 week Instagram campaign that drives thousands of potential listeners to your profile is $349. To get a 6-week campaign that targets Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and Snapchat, you are charged $1,699.

The platform also provides a radio service that conducts a 6-week campaign to target regional and national stations, key decision-makers, DJs, and producers. The cost of the service including Radio plugging and PR is $3,199. For the service to include coordination of your Spotify advertising, store promo campaigns, Vevo, social media, Radio PR and PR, it will cost you $3,999.

The platform also offers a PR campaign to help you get your music heard by media outlets and key influencers for more exposure. A PR campaign that targets regional and national press exposure costs $1,699. A PR campaign that works to generate buzz with new fans via social media, print media, and online mediums costs $2,999.

The platform also features a tool known as Record Label in a Box that allows you to start a record label. The tool provides you with complete software and management suite to help you to manage your royalties and track your money. This tool costs between $199 and $599.

Ditto also provides reporting and analytics. It provides you with reports and analytics breakdown for the releases of your music and videos. This information is updated regularly.

The customer service of Ditto, however, has received a fair share of negative press. There are several claims that the platform has poor customer service. Nonetheless, the platform has 24/7 customer service and an FAQ that is very comprehensive.

Joining Ditto is free, allowing you to check out what the platform has to offer before making a financial commitment. Ditto users get to keep 100% of the revenue that their music generates. However, they charge an annual fee for you to distribute music on their platform. The cost of unlimited music distribution on the platform for one artist is $19 per year. The annual fee for two artists is $29 while the annual fee for a label consisting of a maximum of five artists is $69. The distribution fee for the label increases as the number of artists in the label also increases.

Although the pricing seems decent on the outside, there are several hidden charges within the platform especially on features and tools that will be important to you. Payouts by Ditto are only made using Payoneer.

What are the Pros of CD Baby compared to Ditto Music?

• CDBaby is a better option for artists with a small number of annual streams
• CDBaby has a wide range of payout options unlike Ditto whose payouts are only made through Payoneer
• CDBaby has a reliable customer support system while Ditto’s customer service has received a lot of criticism
• CDBaby does not have hidden fees while Ditto has several hidden fees
• CDBaby offers publishing administration while Ditto does not offer the service

What are the Pros of Ditto Music compared to CD Baby?

• Ditto does not charge any YouTube commission unlike CDBaby which charges a 30% commission
• Ditto offers very strong marketing support, stronger than CDBaby

Verdict

Both CDBaby and Ditto do a very good job when it comes to distributing your music across all the major music stores worldwide. Both companies have unique tools and features that make them stand out from other players in the market.

However, Ditto has received a fair share of negative backlash due to its hidden fees and poor customer service. CDBaby’s payment plan is attractive but only to users with a small number of annual streams. Hopefully, this article will help you choose the platform that best suits your needs. Good luck!