Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/27/2025

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  The company advertises easy access to official youtube artist channels, but has adopted the official policy not to provide this service anymore. This applies to customers who already paid for the service before this policy was adopted. Although this policy has been adopted by the company and they will refuse to provide any assistance in the matter, they still advertise easy access to official youtube artist channels. The notice about the policy change is hidden in their support pages.Clearly, the business should provide the promised service for customers who have already made payments under the advertised claims and discontinue the advertised claim if they do not wish to provide this service going forward.

  Business Response

  Date: 04/08/2025

  Hi. 
  At this time we are no longer offering support for ******* Official Artist channels. This includes linking your auto-generated Topic channel to your personal ******* channel. If your channel has not yet been claimed there is unfortunately nothing we can do on our end to correct that issue. 
  

  We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. We try to do our best to give you the tools to help you with your music distribution, but the ******* OAC program is unfortunately something we cannot continue supporting. 

  Your current ******* channels are not affected and you should continue to promote your music on ******* as you wish. We do not have any further advice on alternative options to claiming your ******* Official Artist channel and we suggest you research your options. 

  Furthermore the fee you pay to us is to distribute your music to our digital partner sites. The *********** was an added bonus at no additonal fee. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/26/2025

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On Friday, December 13, 2024, I filed a help ticket regarding my YouTube Artist Channel. Before this, I had accidentally selected my personal account instead of my Artist Channel. I was told I needed to wait 6 - 10 weeks. I followed up in January, and I was told I needed to wait longer. I followed up on March 25th, and I was sent an email saying there was nothing they could do. I have asked to speak to a manager or supervisor, and I keep getting sent the same form email saying they cannot help me. Their reply also has NOTHING to do with my situation.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/25/2025

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I submitted a new album to be distributed by CDBaby and it usually takes 2 or 3 days for them to submit it for distribution. It's now been over three weeks and they still have not submitted it, and it missed my release date. I've contacted them a few times and always get an AI response. This last time I responded to the ** and it said it was going to forward my e-mail to the right person. That was two days ago and I still haven't heard anything back. I've never had an issue with them before or if I have they've corrected it right away. So because of this it's pushed back me releasing other material. I would like for them to finish the job, refund me for this release, and give me a credit for my next release. Thank you.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 04/07/2025

  Hello,

   

  I wanted to let you know that CD Baby finally submitted my release.  I still haven't heard anything from them. I haven't received any response to any of the e-mails I've sent on my end, nor did they offer a refund or credit for future use.  At least they finally did what I paid them for.   

   

  **** Hand

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/25/2025

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I tried to cancel a subscription for my Hearnow account (part of *********************. I have two subscriptions and cancelled the wrong one. A payment went through today March 25th I tried to reach out right away to see if I could get a refund, but there are no humans responding to any of my concerns. I had another inquiry regarding a totally different matter a couple of weeks ago and they never responded to that either. I tried to remove my payment method from my cdbaby account and there was no option to do this. I would like a refund, but am more concerned that i am going to keep getting charged and have no way of confirming my subscriptions will not renew. My complaint is that I am paying customer and there is no way of making sure that I will not continue to be charged. I have attached screenshots of my cancellation requests.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/25/2025

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  They removed 2 of my albums supposedly for irregular or fraudulent streaming. I have been using a service that submits my music to playlists. Music placement on a particular playlist is not guaranteed. This is different from buying streams which is what they are accusing me of.Anyway, I contacted ******* to contest the decision. ******* said the take-down request didn't come from them, it was initiated by CD Baby. I submitted multiple tickets and all I got was responses from AI. They have discontinued customer service from humans. I finally got a human response 3 months later but it wasn't any info to resolve the issue. The email said it was my fault but didn't give any info about which song, which playlist, or any way to fix the issue.Yesterday I received an email saying they are taking down ALL my music and they are locking me out of my account. I tried to log in but I can't access my funds, my music info, or any info about my account.I have been distributing music through CD Baby since 2017. I have over 70 songs and 9 albums. They just locked me out of my account. They are canceling all my music. This will not stop them from claiming publishing.I'M IN SHOCK! How can this be legal? If there is a Class Action against CD Baby in the future I will be joining. They just stole my life's work. It costs roughly $15 for each release. Also, I had pre-purchased more releases to submit in the future. The monetary cost to me is over a thousand. The countless hours I have spent inputting all the meta data and information for each release can not be counted.I am seeking for my account to be restored to me.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/25/2025

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  CDBABY CAN CARELESS THEY JUST DON'T ANSWER AND STEAL THE MONEY NEED ATTORNEY ASAP FOR ALL OF US CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT CONTACT ME ASAP LETS GET IT CD Baby is withholding $500,000+ in royalties and refuses to provide any explanation. They terminated my account without notice, continue to sell my music without paying me, and wont disclose any claims against my content. Despite repeated attempts to resolve the issue, they ignore my requests and keep the money I legally earned. This is fraudulent, unethical, and a violation of my rights as an artist. I demand immediate payment of all owed royalties and a full explanation of their actions. lawyers **************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/24/2025

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Over a year ago, we submitted two albums for distribution with CD Baby. One of the albums was processed quickly and distributed. The other album has been stuck in the "Queue" for over a year. When you click on that project, it says:Thank you! Your release is now in the inspection queue...A member of our team will be inspecting your release shortly ? If approved, your title will be distributed immediately ?? If more information or changes are required, you'll receive an email clarifying what changes must be made before resubmitting.Visit our *********** to learn more about our inspection process and for our most up-to-date inspection wait time.A month ago, we tried to contact CD Baby and were VERY disappointed to see that all reasonable forms of communication with support have been discontinued. Given no other choice, we submitted the ticket (Ticket #*******) and received the auto response that someone would be in touch within a couple of days. One month later...NOTHING. (and yes, we have checked the junk folder). So we submitted a second ticket a few days ago...STILL NOTHING. Now I am reading online that many people are experiencing these issues. In the past, good support was the reason that we launched several CD Baby accounts for different artists and collectively released many projects via CD Baby. We always recommend CD Baby because they had such great service in the past. NOT ANY MORE. We have been loyal and brought CD Baby a ton of business. The company has grown and expanded and the support has now disappeared.

  Business Response

  Date: 04/03/2025

  Hi. I have reached out to you via email to *******************************

  Here is a copy of that message: 

  ************************, Beverley.
   
  Thanks for getting in touch with us. Sorry about the delay with your release but I have cleared up that issue now. We will need you to sign off on the terms of service before we can proceed. Please reply to this email when you have completed the below steps and then I can put a rush on the release. 
   
  -log in
  -click on "Albums and Singles"
  -click the VIEW EDIT button next to your album
  -click the Service Agreement header at the bottom of the screen
  -check the box to agree to the Digital Distribution Addendum then fill in your name
  -hit the Save button
  -click on Submit for Dsitribution

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/07/2025

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  UnresolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My music is distributed by CD Baby. In the past few months (from Dec/2024 till now), despite of that my music is hugely playing on a music platform called "NetEase Cloud Music Stream", I couldn't see any loyalty transactions reported to my CDBaby account from this platform. There used to be monthly loyalty reported to my account and the money will be paid after few days.Wrote to their customer service but just got response from AI after 2 months and didn't really help anything.There is no other way to contact them. I'm concerned this business is holding the loyalty/money from the streaming service that supposed to be reported and paid to me. I'll need this business to provide more transparent information about what's going on between their platform and ******* and collect the outstanding money from them.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/11/2025

  Hi. I have respoided to you via email **************************** Ticket Ticket #*******

  Here is a copy of that message. 

  Hi, ****-****.
  
  Thanks for getting in touch with us. Here's the breakdown of how often we receive sales reports from all of our digital partners. These time frames are as accurate as I can get since report times tend to vary from partner to partner and from report to report. This is the average frequency for which we typically receive reports from these sites, however we cannot completely guarantee that these times will be adhered to. These sites have been known to report sales sooner than these time frames and they also report sales later than these time frames.
  
  Also, remember that it can take 1-3 months to see the first sales reported inside your account from the time your music has first been distributed.
  
  1 to 2 Months
  - iTunes (US)
  
  2 to 3 Months:
  - Spotify
  - Amazon
  - Rhapsody
  - Groove (formerly Zune, formerly XBox)
  - ******* Music
  - TikTok
  
  Quarterly:
  - 7Digital
  - MediaNet
  - Nuuday (formerly 24/7)
  - ******* Content ID
  - Songtrust
  - Tidal
  
  3 to 4 Months from the end of the sale month:
  - Deezer
  
  In general, if you aren't seeing sales listed in your Account Overview, it either means that no sales have occurred, or that they just haven't been reported to us by the partner sites yet. There is never a set date as to when they will send us the reports so these are general estimates.
  
  As soon as they've been reported to us you'll see those funds in your account!
  
  See a list of most recent sales report dates from our partners in our help center here
  
  Check out this *********** article if you need help navigating your Accounting Overview page!
  
  I hope this helps clarify.
  
  Take care!

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/11/2025

   
  Complaint: 23033572
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  The platform, NetEase, I had issue with was not even listed in CDBaby's response. Also from the previous experience, ******* sent their report monthly and will be imported to CDBaby

  My music is definitely actively played on the platform. Please see the url below: ******************************************

  CDBaby has to contacted NetEase and figured out why the transactions are missing; Otherwise I suspect that CDBaby are holding up loyalty and not paying to the creator, which is totally unacceptable.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  Monmon ****

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/04/2025

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  When I attempted to log into my CD Baby account Feb 22 and again today, March 3, I was presented with a message to do a mandatory password reset (see screen shot attached). I followed the online screen instructions to do a password reset. The email never came to my email on file even though I get other annoucements from CD Baby at the same email. (Nothing in junk folder). I have so far submitted two support ticket requests and have received no response. Similar to another person who posted a complaint earlier on this forum, I am still locked out of my account and don't have access to my CD Baby account. Consequently, I have no ability to control my digital music distribution, releases, nor the ability to monitor and track streams, royalties, update important business information and documents. My ability to do business and monitor what is happening with my intellectual property is costing me valuable time and money. My request is that a human being (not a robot) contact me imediately to help solve the issue that is going on around the password reset. Time is of the essence in this matter.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/05/2025

  Hi. I just sent a email to you at *********************************** (Ticket #*******) here is a copy of that message. 

  Hi, **********.
  
  Thanks for getting in touch with us.
  
  We're sorry you're having trouble logging in!
   
  In order to help you access the account can you please confirm as much of the following information as you can:
  
  Account holder:
  Email on file:
  Username:
  Artist name:
  Album name:
  Physical mailing address on file:
  Phone Number on file:
  
  If there are multiple possibilities and you're not sure which one is correct, list all possibilities so I can match the information to what's on your account.
  
  Once you have provided that info, I can assist you with resetting your password.
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/26/2025

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have 6 singles that I chose not to distribute through CD Baby due to issues with their TOS back around 01/15/25 to 01/19/25; the reason I couldnt distribute through them was due to their own public statements and more primarily, their inspection process, which takes an extraordinarily long time. Their competitors do not have an inspection process, so I went elsewhere!I want a refund for all 6 unfinished releases!Their refund policy declares that I am elibible for full refunds since I did not distribute my music. So I put in a support ticket, and have not received a reply as of today, Feb 26th. Because I didnt receive a reply, I put in 2 additional tickets over the weeks, which have also received no reply. Then the other day I got an automated reply saying due to the amount of time that has passed, the first ticket is being ********* I'm going to end up having to initiate charge backs through ***** (If they dont refund me off this complaint).Extremely disastisfied. I cant imagine how terrible it would be if I had a problem after distributing through them (and received zero customer service).

  Business Response

  Date: 03/05/2025

  Hi I see that we have refunded you for those titles now and we sent an email regarding this on 2/26 to **********************************  Ticket #*******

   

  Here is a copy of that message: 

  Hi
   
  Thanks for getting in touch with us.
   
  All 6 singles were cancelled, and your refund is in progress.
   
  You should see a credit of $299.88 back to your initial payment method in 5-7 business days.
   
  
  In order to keep an accurate record of all sales and accounting that has occurred on each account, we do not have the ability to completely delete an account from our system. This benefits you in case you ever need to access your records or accounting history for any reason, including filing your taxes. However, your account can be closed if you wish.
  Closing your account means you will not be able to log in.
  If youd like to move forward, please ensure that all of your titles have been completely cancelled for digital distribution.
  You may be responsible for additional action related to services including but not limited to Legacy CD Baby Pro, HearNow, Boost services, etc. For a comprehensive list, please visit our help center. ************************************************************************************************************
  
  It is also important to keep in mind that sales can take as long as 6 months to appear on your account. Most sales are typically reported 2-3 months after they occur, but some partners only report once or twice per calendar year, and publishing royalties may take up to 2 quarters to post.
  
  For this reason, it is not recommended to close an account less than 6 months after you have cancelled your titles.
  
  If you choose to close an account before all sales have been reported, we will be unable to pay you directly. We suggest leaving the account accessible (but inactive) in order to allow any residual sales to be paid to you successfully. We have no annual fees and there is no cost to leave an account open but inactive, even if your releases have been cancelled.
  
  If you'd still like to close your account, then please reply to this email with the following information:
  Username:
  Telephone #:
  Mailing Address:
  E-Mail Address:
  Once we get that info, we'll be able to close your account for you.
   
  If you have further questions about CD Baby's management of your data, or need to contact CD Baby regarding your rights under the *************** Protection Regulation, please see our privacy policy here for more information: ******************************************