TuneCore is a
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
–based independent digital music distribution, publishing and licensing service founded in 2005. TuneCore principally offers musicians and other rights-holders the opportunity to distribute and sell or stream their music through
online retailers
Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the ...
such as
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
,
Deezer
Deezer is a French online music streaming service. It allows users to listen to music content from record labels, as well as podcasts on various devices online or offline.
Created in Paris, Deezer currently has 90 million licensed tracks in i ...
,
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
,
Amazon Music
Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights man ...
,
Google Play
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android (operating sys ...
,
Tidal
Tidal is the adjectival form of tide.
Tidal may also refer to:
* ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple
* Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim
* TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music
* Tidal (servic ...
, and others. TuneCore also offers music publishing administration services, helping songwriters register their compositions and collect royalties internationally.
The company currently operates out of its Brooklyn headquarters with offices in
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
,
Burbank,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
,
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
.
History and background
TuneCore garnered media attention from
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
's ''
World News Tonight'', ''
The Daily Mirror
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'', and
pitchforkmedia.com. TuneCore's first customer was
Frank Black
Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV (born April 6, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the frontman of the alternative rock band Pixies, with whom he performs under the stage name Black Francis. Fo ...
, lead singer of the
Pixies
A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...
. In 2008, TuneCore was utilized by
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...
to deliver the music from their album, ''
Ghosts I–IV
''Ghosts I–IV'' is the sixth studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by The Null Corporation on March 2, 2008. It was the band's first independent release following their split from longtime label Interscope Recor ...
'' to the
Amazon MP3
Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights m ...
store.
In December 2006, music instrument and equipment retailer
Guitar Center
Guitar Center is an American musical instrument retailer chain. It is the largest company of its kind in the United States, with 294 locations. Its headquarters is in Westlake Village, California.
Guitar Center oversees various subsidiaries in ...
bought a stake in TuneCore, giving the company access to the music retailer's customers. In the United States, TuneCore represents about 10 percent of the 20 million songs on iTunes, and it accounts for almost 4 percent of all digital sales. TuneCore reportedly fired Jeff Price, a co-founder and then-CEO, after the company faced a "cash-flow" crisis in 2012. Price has sued TuneCore for severance compensation and has alleged that the company may have been insolvent, an accusation that the company appears to dispute. Tunecore reported that their artists have earned a total of $83 million in Q1 of 2019, a 21 percent increase from Q1 2018. Last year, distribution income for artists reached $308 million, a 28 percent year-on-year increase.
Joe Cuello, formerly an executive at
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
was TuneCore's Chief Creative Officer from 2014 through at least 2016.
Chris Mooney, who worked with Jeff Price at spinART Records, joined Tunecore in 2008 to establish the Artist Relations team. In 2018, he left to join Ditto Music as their Head of US Artist and Label Services.
Acquisition by Believe Digital
Tunecore was acquired by Denis Ladegaillerie's
Believe Digital
Believe (also known as Believe Music; previously known as Believe Digital) is a global digital music company headquartered in France which provides digital solutions for artists and labels. Believe has several brands including TuneCore, Nuclear ...
in April 2015. The acquisition opened up artists' access to Believe Digital's wider distribution network and label services. Both of the companies remained operationally separate, while jointly claiming to represent of 25 to 30 percent of the new music uploaded to iTunes each day. After the acquisition, TuneCore and Believe used their newly increased leverage in negotiations with digital services including Spotify and
Tidal
Tidal is the adjectival form of tide.
Tidal may also refer to:
* ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple
* Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim
* TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music
* Tidal (servic ...
to improve their services for their artists. Also in 2015, TuneCore expanded its presence in the UK and Australia announcing dedicated websites including localized currency and content for each region. It also introduced its YouTube Sound Recording service to collect revenue for artists when their sound recordings are used anywhere on YouTube. In September 2015, Tunecore stepped up its live event offerings, throwing LA's independent music community its first ever Indie Artist Forum, which focused on educating and fostering collaboration amongst aspiring professional musicians while engaging on a dialog around the ins and outs of the current landscape of the independent music business.
In the fourth quarter of 2015, TuneCore saw sustained growth, with independent artists earning over $142 million through TuneCore including $36.8 million from digital streams and downloads. During this time, TuneCore also expanded its presence in the United States, opening offices in Austin and Atlanta, and internationally, launching two new international sites in Australia and the UK featuring localized currencies and experiences. TuneCore also added Saavn, Nmusic and Zvooq—services targeting emerging markets—as partners through which artists could distribute and monetize their music. TuneCore also enjoyed notable growth in new customers in the Latin American market and the African market. TuneCore's YouTube Sound Recording Collection Service was also a key driver for increasing 2015 yearly revenue. In May 2016, TuneCore acquired artist social media management startup JustGo and re-branded it as TuneCore Social. Later in the year, it expanded its presence and launched its services in France.
Copyright fraud allegations
TuneCore has had multiple instances where their services are used to commit copyright fraud through online services like iTunes, Spotify, and Youtube. In one case, independent artists represented by TuneCore uploaded unreleased tracks by artists
Playboi Carti
Jordan Terrell Carter (born September 13, 1996), known professionally as Playboi Carti, is an American rapper. Carter was initially signed to local underground label Awful Records prior to signing with ASAP Mob's AWGE Label under Interscope R ...
and
Lil Uzi Vert
Symere Bysil Woods ( ; born July 31, 1995), known professionally as Lil Uzi Vert, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. They are characterized by their face tattoo, facial tattoos, facial piercings, eccentric hairstyles and androgynous ...
to Spotify. Plays of these tracks resulted in revenue going to the independent artists who were not the original owners of the music. In a similar case, TuneCore was sued by
Round Hill Music for uploading and collecting revenue from iTunes for compositions owned by Round Hill. In a third case, TuneCore submitted copyright claims over a streamed performance of public domain classical music by Brett Yang and Eddy Chen of
Twoset Violin
TwoSet Violin is a musical comedy duo consisting of Australian violinists Brett Yang and Eddy Chen. The pair is best known for their musical comedy on their YouTube channel, which has reached over 3.8 million subscribers and 1.2 billion views a ...
, collecting revenue from the stream that would otherwise have gone to the performers.
[Tan, Cecilia. ‘A dream come true’: TwoSet Violin’s ‘4 Mil Subs’ Concert, November 18, 2022 The Strad.co]
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References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Internet properties established in 2005
Online music stores of the United States
Digital audio distributors