Comments on: A CD Baby for Europe?

Question: A CD Baby for Europe?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:00:32 -0800

I signed up for CD Baby (as an artist) but feel the shipping costs might be a bit steep for non-North America customers. Which similar services can you recommend for the European market?

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:10:37 -0800

I recommend taking money with Paypal and shipping the CDs on your own, unless you're getting more orders than you can handle. That won't get you on iTunes, but there are other services which will do that for you without handling physical CDs if that's what you want (but I don't know one off the top of my head).

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:29:45 -0800

Do you handle your own orders, ludwig_van? I'm not quite up to my neck in orders, but I'm ever unorganized, always busy and notoriously lazy, and if I could 'outsource' I'd gladly hand over a percentage of my revenue.

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 18:54:08 -0800

Yeah, I do. I think CD Baby is way too expensive when it comes to physical CDs. They take $4 from every sale, and they charge the customer shipping on top of that. Shipping a CD usually costs me $1.50 in postage plus 30-50 cents for the envelope, so I charge $2 for shipping. Paypal takes $0.65 from my $12 sale so I end up with $9.35. If I wanted to get the same amount from CD Baby the customer would have to pay $15.35.

I also get to put handwritten notes in with people's CDs, which I like doing.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 18:57:51 -0800

Ooh, I second the handwritten notes thing, that is nice. But I reckon this is within the US, right? Doesn't shipping go up significantly if you have to ship to say, UK/EU?

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 19:17:33 -0800

I found that shipping a lightweight package (i.e. an envelope with one CD) to Europe is only a few cents more than doing it domestically. But with a heavier package it gets significant.

By: ninazer0

ninazer0 — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 19:46:11 -0800

While I can't suggest an alternative resource for you, I can at least pop up and say that I live in Australia, I use CD Baby from time to time and I don't think the postage costs are too awful. Living at the bottom of the world tends to give you a bit of perspective. Postage is ALWAYS more expensive here and I don't consider CD Baby to be completely out of line. They ship promptly and they get their orders right. Which is more than I can say for the local mob who ship CD's for some Sydney bands....

By: winston

winston — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 20:17:27 -0800

but feel the shipping costs might be a bit steep for non-North America customers.

Compared to what? CD Baby's international shipping rates are lower than any other site I've seen. e.g. Amazon to Europe is $7.00 for the first CD and $2.50 for each additional CD (more for other continents, while CD Baby worldwide is $7 for one or two CDs, $8.50 for three CDs and about $1 for each additional CD.

Nobody ordering your CD from outside North America will be surprised by the shipping cost.

By: winston

winston — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 20:18:03 -0800

Clarification: I meant Amazon.com, of course, not the other Amazon sites.

By: nicolin

nicolin — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 02:34:18 -0800

hi,
so far, cd baby is the cheapest website I've ordered my cds from. They offer to send the cds without the crystal cases to lower the shipping rates.

By: patricio

patricio — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 03:14:54 -0800

I think there are two questions - one is do you feel like non-US customers are getting ripped off by CD Baby (and by association, you) because of the rates, and the second is, are the shipping costs so high that non-US customers will be put off from ordering your CDs. I can only answer the second, but I've ordered from CD Baby before and not been shocked by transatlantic shipping, and would do so again. At the margin it will always make a difference but I think it's not a major factor - OTOH the strong pound effectively halves the cost to me.

By: Martin E.

Martin E. — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 03:52:28 -0800

Also, with the state of the dollar being what it is, ordering CDs from America--even with hefty shipping charges--is in the same ballpark as ordering from Europe.

Handling orders from home, especially for uniform-size items (like CDs) isn't too difficult even for the disorganized and lazy. When an order comes through, print the Paypal email and wrap it around/tape it to the CD, and put it in the outgoing stack/pile/shelf.

By: acro

acro — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:43:44 -0800

If you go the ship yourself route, (!CDs) Kevin Kelly has pulished a great howto here. (This is often linked here at metafilter, but still a good resource if you haven't seen it).

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:55:51 -0800

FWIW, I ended up setting up a simple web shop and tend to refer NA customers to CD Baby.

Thanks for your insights, all.