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[supershigi]

Hi everyone... I was curious if any of you have ever used CD Baby (either for sales or for CD duplication), and if so:

1.) What is your impression of them?  Are they good?
2.) Which CD duplication package would you recommend getting (in terms of getting a good deal and product)?
3.) Is there a way to pay them to make your CDs and also keep them around for shipping? (For some reason I can only seem to find information on ordering CDs for the purpose of having them shipped to me... but I'd have to ship them back in order for them to distribute them which seems silly)

[Craig Stern]

I was curious if any of you have ever used CD Baby (either for sales or for CD duplication)

Yes! Not for duplication, but for sales.

1.) What is your impression of them?  Are they good?

Yes, they're great. They give you complete control over pricing, and they'll get your music put up on every digital distribution service you can imagine, from Amazon to iTunes.

2.) Which CD duplication package would you recommend getting (in terms of getting a good deal and product)?

I used Oasis CD for my duplication services: I was extremely happy with the pricing, options offered, customer service, and final results. I have no idea about the quality of CD Baby duplication, though.

3.) Is there a way to pay them to make your CDs and also keep them around for shipping? (For some reason I can only seem to find information on ordering CDs for the purpose of having them shipped to me... but I'd have to ship them back in order for them to distribute them which seems silly)

Again, no idea.

Hope that helped!

[supershigi]

Ah, thanks Craig   It's good to know that someone else has tried it out and had a good impression of them.  How did you go about selling your music through them?  Did you do that thing where you sent them CDs, or was all your material digital download?

[Craig Stern]

I sent them CDs, and they put my music on all the digital stores automatically. Most of my sales are digital, so I rarely have to send CD Baby additional stock. (Amazon was another story--I had to restock them once every few weeks. It was a real pain.)

[Alec]

Haven't used CD baby yet, but we have used Bandcamp, BigCartel and Etsy to ship CDs. (printed at a factory in Canada)

Shipping product yourself isn't too hard and can be fun if you have someone to help you ship stuff each week.

I'd recommend Bandcamp and BigCartel for price + functionality. Bandcamp wins best customer support, hands down. Etsy has a bunch of negative aspects.

[soundofjw]

I have also used CD Baby, and I love it.

Another option for digital distribution is tunecore, if you don't want to sell CDs as well, but they have an annual fee per album.

I can safely second Craig's opinion of CD Baby. Very helpful - I only wish getting on Pandora was easier through them (but I figured it out).

I, like Alec, have also used Bandcamp - also love it. It's my primary release source.

[freestyle]

I have used the distribution service of cdbaby but not used the CD Duplication service. I went with www.discfactory.co.uk because I am based in the UK and their service was excellent but for US distribution cdbaby all the way.

[laneyman]

CD baby do have some good and helpful resourses, I had some CD digipaks made by disc wizards, which turned out brilliantly.