How do I upload AUDIO and what files should I upload?

Your audio files must meet the following requirements in order for you to use our uploader.

• High quality files in either WAV or FLAC
• Stereo
• 44.1 kHz sample rate
• 16bit

You can also upload MP3 files that meet these specifications, though we don't recommend it.  

Please note that your tracks must meet all of our and our partner's standards before we begin processing your release. If there are any problems, we will email you immediately so you can upload new tracks.

File names can only include letters & numbers, hyphens (-), and underscores (_). Any other special characters ( !,@,#,$,%,^,&,*,?,+,=,~,/,<,>,\ ) may cause problems.

Uploading Audio

Here is how to access the audio uploader for your release:

1. Log in to your account at http://members.cdbaby.com/
2. Click on the tab “Album & Singles” at the top of the page
3. Click on the "view/edit" button to the right of your submission
4. On the Title Overview page click on the tab "Tracks & Audio"
5. Click on "Add/Edit Audio"
6. On the following page, you will be able to edit the audio
7. Remove the old tracks (if applicable) and upload your new audio tracks.
   
   

Checking the properties of your audio files

Follow these steps on your compute to see if your audio matches our criteria.

Windows: 
1.) Right-click on your file
2.) Select 'Properties' in the drop-down menu
3.) In the "General" tab, take a look at your 'Type of File" - Does it say .WAV, .FLAC, or .MP3?
4.) Head to the Details tab and scroll down to 'Bitrate'.  If you have a Bitrate of 1,411.2 Kbps, then your file is 16 bit with 44.1 kHz.  If you have a bitrate of 1536 kbps, then your file is 16 bit with 48 kHz. 
5.) If your file type does not match any of what is listed above, you will need to reformat your audio before you can send it to us. 

Mac:
Something very very similar to what is above, but you right-click and select "Get Info" instead of "Properties"

Why you shouldn't upload MP3s

It's like this: every file is encoded and any quality reduction is locked in. We encode many different formats for our various digital partners. If you upload MP3 files (which are not full quality) the files we send to our partners will not only have the inherent quality loss of the format we encode to but will also have the quality loss of the format you sent us.

So uploading MP3s is kind of like taking a picture of a picture with a digital camera and emailing it to us. Then when we encode it to send it to partners, it's like we print out the picture of a picture, take a picture of it with a digital camera, and email it to them. It makes much more sense if you send us the original picture, i.e. FLAC or WAV files.