2025 Edit:
Tunecore has changed their pricing model since the posting of this blog, so the following is purely for historical and entertainment purposes.
…and no they didn’t threaten to sue; this website isn’t known enough to attract their attention.
I’m not going to sugar-coat it: Tunecore is super wack, and here’s why.
Like most up-and-coming creatives, I don’t make lots of money from my art. I’ve been producing music since 2002 and I JUST saw a royalty check in July of 2014. It was the highlight of my week, but it was literally in the mid-two figures.
A buddy of mine (and fellow musician) expressed her frustration on paying more money to keep her record on iTunes than she actually made from sales and streams. Who distributed her record? Tunecore.
I just check their website, and they charge $29.99 per album for the 1st year. Every year afterwards is $50 per album.
Let that sink in: an artist has to pay $80 so that their album can be in digital stores for 2 years. If they managed to write and produce everything on a 10 track album AND owned the masters, they would have to sell roughly 120 downloads to recover the cost of the Tunecore subscription.
I won’t even touch the fact that Tunecore also offers “publishing deals” that require an up-front fee.
I have a music business degree, so I understand that labels and digital aggregators like Tunecore need to turn a profit in order to survive. However, I am COMPLETELY against selling fallacies and confusion to artists who don’t know any better.
Make your money, but be upfront about it.
Who Should You Use?
I can’t make that decision for you.
However, Ari’s Take did a brilliant in-depth comparison of all the digital distribution services out there. I highly suggest you check it out.
