CD Baby, which offers digital distribution to independent artists, has launched its Pro tier in the UK – including a publishing administration service to collect royalties.
Without ever having to sign a publishing deal, songwriters can collect all of their publishing royalties via CD Baby Pro, which uses technology from Downtown Music-owned Songtrust.
These include mechanical royalties from streaming services like Spotify, Deezer and Google Play as well as foreign sales.
More than 35,000 UK-based artists already using CD Baby for distribution. Anyone that signs up a new release, will now have full access to the CD Baby Pro dashboard.
“If you’re an independent songwriter, collecting mechanical royalties can be very challenging,” said Rob Filomena, CD Baby’s Director of Music Publishing.
”Being a member of a performing rights society like PRS for Music doesn’t give you access to your mechanicals, which are a vital part of a songwriter’s income from sales and streaming services.
“As streaming becomes more important in the royalty mix, having a handle on this part of the process will be key.
“CD Baby Pro can act as a songwriter’s publishing administrator to get them paid without giving up ownership of their songs.”
[UPDATE: A PRS For Music spokesperson said: “You don’t have to be published to be a member of PRS or MCPS. It’s possible and indeed common to join as a writer-member and as such these organisations would be in a position to licence and distribute royalties on their behalf across any service e.g. physical, online or broadcast.”]
“CD baby pro can act as a publishing administrator without songwriters giving up ownership of their copyrights.”
Rob filomena, CD BAby
CD Baby Pro has expanded by 250% since the service started for US artists in 2013. It now administers over 250,000 songs.
“CD Baby Pro has been simplifying worldwide publishing royalty collection for tens of thousands of songwriters in the US and Canada,” explained Filomena.
“The UK represents one of our most vital member bases, and the launch of Pro means writers based there finally have a one-stop, simple solution for global music distribution and collection of all of the publishing royalties their music earns.”
CD Baby is one of the largest distributors of independent music in the world, home to more than 350,000 artists.
The company says its catalogue makes up an estimated 17% of iTunes tracks.
Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Macklemore had their start on CD Baby, while others like Ingrid Michaelson and Gregory Alan Isakov have maintained independent careers using the platform.
Ex-XL artist Willis Earl Beal (pictured), Greg Brown and Grant Lee Phillips are among musicians who’ve dropped the old label system and turned to CD Baby to strike out on their own.Music Business Worldwide
