Tunecore says this is the “biggest change since opening for business 16 years ago”.
They are now offering new ‘Unlimited Release Pricing Plans’. This means artists and labels to distribute an uncapped amount of music to services like Spotify and Apple Music each year for a single annual price.
This is especially a game changer for labels and artists who release a lot of music annually. A huge savings from paying 20 to 40 dollars per release.
The ‘New Artist’ plan offers artists unlimited release of songs to the music libraries of social platforms – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube (including Shorts, Content ID and access to YouTube’s Official Artist Channel) – for no upfront fee. TuneCore will pay artists 80% of what is collected on those platforms, keeping the other 20%;
The next step up is the ‘Rising Artist’ plan, which costs $14.99 per year and includes unlimited distribution to over 150+ streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer and Tidal as well as social media platform libraries. Artists signed up to this plan will be paid 100% of the revenue earned by their music on these platforms. This plan also includes access to pre-schedule all release dates, official verification on Spotify and Apple Music, and promises artist support response time from TuneCore within 72 hours;
TuneCore’s new ‘Breakout Artist’ plan costs $29.99 per year and includes every perk/service offered in the ‘New Artist’ and ‘Rising Artist’ plans (including receiving 100% of royalties from digital stores), plus free access to TuneCore’s ‘Automator’ feature – which ensures distribution of an act’s music to additional streaming and digital stores that launch / become available in the future. This tier also offers downloadable reports plus a guaranteed artist support response time “within 48 hours”;
The top tier of TuneCore’s new pricing menu is the ‘Professional’ plan. Priced at $49.99 per year, TuneCore says this tier is “designed for labels, managers and artists who are more advanced in their careers and would benefit from more sophisticated release features”. The Professional Plan includes everything from the other three plans plus premium sales reporting, use of your own UPC (universal product code) and a custom label name, access to select country restrictions, exclusive partnerships, and promotional opportunities. This plan also lets TuneCore users add additional artist profiles to their accounts for $14.99 per artist, per year. TuneCore promises a support response time of within 24 hours for artists who sign up to the ‘Professional’ plan.
TuneCore has historically charged artists under a price per-upload model, most recently at USD $9.99 per single, and $29.99 per album.
Now, with its ‘Unlimited Release’ plans, that’s all changed – bringing TuneCore closer in its pricing structure to rivals such as DistroKid which offers unlimited uploads for $19.99.
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