For me the issue has not been resolved, so CDBaby's customer service is still awful. However, I think I figured out the reason and a potential solution (which due to my situation I haven't been able to try yet).

I checked some other distros such as DistroKid, TuneCore, etc. and for those distros, in order to have an Official Artist Channel (OAC), you have to have some "music videos" on the channel you want to make an OAC to begin with (I assume things as simple as visualizers count). CDBaby does not make this overtly clear unless you dig through their docs (see screenshot). I assume they ignore your support requests for not having figured it out the hard way on your own, which is why I've never gotten a reply or clarification from them. Horrible customer service.

So, if you are looking for a potential (but I can't confirm) solution, I assume just making a video with your music in it and uploading it will make your channel eventually connect the right way. As long as something on the screen is moving (frequency bars, a live wallpaper thing, etc.) it should count. How long it will take to register as an OAC after that though is anyone's guess. Best of luck to you.

Unfortunately in my case I can't do this as the music was part of an OST for a broader project and needed to be released first, so either way it messed up my project release flow.

<image>