Music · pricing
CD Baby pricing
CD Baby publishes 3 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
As of 1 September 2026, CD Baby pricing is on request across 3 published tiers. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- On request
- Model
- One-time purchase plus ongoing commission
- Tiers
- 3
- Free tier
- Not on record
CD Baby plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single | $9.99/month | 2 | Entry tier |
| Album | $14.99/month | 2 | +$5/month, 1 more feature |
| CDB Boost | $39.99/month | 1 | +$25/month, 1 more feature |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Single
$9.99/monthThe entry tier. It covers one-time upfront fee per single, 9% commission on digital royalties, permanent.
Album
$14.99/monthOver Single, this tier adds:
- One-time upfront fee per album
CDB Boost
$39.99/monthOver Album, this tier adds:
- Optional per-release add-on for publishing and sync submission
What the product covers
The full CD Baby feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- One-time per-release fee
- Permanent royalty retention
- CDB Boost
- Royalty collection
- Social monetisation
- DIY musician tools
People bring CD Baby in for an artist who releases rarely and wants to pay once with no risk of losing distribution over a missed renewal, a musician comfortable trading a permanent 9% royalty cut for the certainty of never facing a subscription lapse, an artist wanting publishing administration and sync submission bundled through the optional cdb boost add-on, a legacy cd baby user with an existing catalogue who prefers not to migrate to a subscription-based competitor. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to CD Baby are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Music
Too few music tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CD Baby (this page) | On request | One-time purchase plus ongoing commission | - | |
| rekordbox | Free | Per user per year | - | vs CD Baby |
| DistroKid | On request | One-time purchase | - | vs CD Baby |
| Pro Tools | Free | Per user per year | - | vs CD Baby |
| Serato DJ | Free | Per user per month | - | vs CD Baby |
| GarageBand | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs CD Baby |
| Traktor Pro | Free | One-time purchase | - | vs CD Baby |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the CD Baby badges page.
Before you pay for CD Baby
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 3 tiers between $9.99/month and $39.99/month, with the jump itemised above. With no free tier on record, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to compare CD Baby against the tools that do have one before committing.
CD Baby runs on web, ios, android, and is published by CD Baby (a Universal Music Group company) of Portland, Oregon, United States. The full record is on the CD Baby review, and the rest of the category is under best music tools.
CD Baby pricing questions
- How much does CD Baby cost?
- CD Baby publishes 3 tiers, from $9.99/month for Single up to $39.99/month for CDB Boost. The cheapest paid tier is $9.99/month.
- Does CD Baby have a free plan?
- Not on the record we hold: CD Baby is listed as One-time purchase plus ongoing commission. Whether a free trial is offered is not something this record captures, so check the vendor's site.
- What is the difference between Single and Album on CD Baby?
- Album costs $14.99/month against $9.99/month, and adds one-time upfront fee per album.
- Is the CDB Boost plan on CD Baby worth it?
- That depends entirely on whether you need what it adds, which on the published record is optional per-release add-on for publishing and sync submission. It costs $39.99/month against $9.99/month for Single. Softwr has not used either tier, so this page can tell you what changes, not whether it is worth the difference to you.
- Which music tools can I use without paying?
- 7 of the 8 music tools listed alongside CD Baby have a free tier: rekordbox, Pro Tools, Serato DJ, GarageBand, Traktor Pro.
- What am I actually paying for with CD Baby?
- The record lists 6 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is brought in for an artist who releases rarely and wants to pay once with no risk of losing distribution over a missed renewal, a musician comfortable trading a permanent 9% royalty cut for the certainty of never facing a subscription lapse, an artist wanting publishing administration and sync submission bundled through the optional cdb boost add-on.
- Does CD Baby charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 3 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these CD Baby prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare CD Baby against before paying?
- The closest music tools in this directory are rekordbox, DistroKid, Pro Tools, Serato DJ. Each has a side-by-side comparison with CD Baby covering price, platforms and features.