Time to distribute your music, huh? Awesome and congratulations on creating valuable art for your fans! There are two distributors that I recommend, including TuneCore, and the other is CD Baby.
* Article updated for 2015 *
TuneCore 2015 Review – The Good
First, the artists receive 100% of the net profit from all sales. If you sell a lot of music, this is definitely a lucrative aspect for you.
Second, you get a TuneCore Media player for the specific purpose of promoting the release of your single / album. This means that you can share it on social media sites, your website, blog, etc.
Third, you will receive weekly trend reports from iTunes in addition to official music sales reports from all the stores that sell your songs. This is essential if you want to have an effective marketing plan.
Fourth, are you missing cover art? No problem, TuneCore will do it for you.
Fifth, TuneCore is associated with all the big digital companies like iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon MP3, Simfy & Deezer.
Sixth, TuneCore will collect publishing royalties for you, including mechanical and public performance rights for a one-time payment of $ 75.00. (TuneCore’s cut of your publishing royalties is 10%, but you retain sole ownership of your songs.)
Important extras: ringtone distribution and something that is absolutely critical: 24-hour customer service response because inevitably something will go wrong.
TuneCore Review 2015 – What’s Not So Good
First, they don’t provide UPC barcodes for their songs; this means that you will not be able to rank on the “top” sales charts of Billboard and other music news publishers.
Second, TuceCore charges an annual fee as long as you sell your music through them. For example, you pay $ 49.99 per album for each year that TuneCore distributes it.
Third, TuneCore will only distribute your music digitally, with no physical sales. This may not be that important depending on how your fans consume their music.
Fourth, there are not many extras compared to CD Baby.
TuneCore Review – Pricing
Sale Type (All Digital): Single Album
You get: 100% of net sales *
TuneCore Cut: $ 29.99 the first year; $ 49.99 every year thereafter (this is for each album you upload)
Sale Type: Single Song
You get: 100% of net sales *
TuneCore’s Cut: $ 9.99 the first year and every year thereafter
Sale type: single ringtone
You get: 100% of net sales *
TuneCore’s Cut: $ 19.99 the first year and every year thereafter
Extra: Post Management
You get: 90% royalties **
TuneCore Cut: $ 75 one-time fee; TuneCore takes 10% of all publishing license fees, including mechanical and public performance royalties.
* Please note that you receive 100% of net sales. The digital distributors that TuneCore is associated with take their part first. For example, iTunes makes about 30 ¢ for each song sold for $ 1.00. This means that your take would be 70 ¢. Please note that this rule applies to all music distributors.
** TuneCore offers some benefits in addition to its 90%. If you have music distributed by other companies like Ditto Music, you can still register your copyright through TuneCore. The one-time service fee covers all the songs you may compose in the future. In addition, TuneCore collects royalties around the world.