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TuneCore is a Brooklyn, New York–based digital music distribution, publishing and licensing service founded in 2006.[4]
 | |
| Company type | Public Company Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Music |
| Genre | Digital distribution Music publishing[1] |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founder | Jeff Price, Gary Burke, Peter Wells |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Matt Barrington, Andreea Gleeson,[2] Alisha Outridge[3] |
| Products | Online Music Distribution Music Publishing Administration[1] |
| Services | Open platform music distribution and publishing administration. |
| Parent | Believe |
| Website | www |
TuneCore distributes music through online retailers such as iTunes, Deezer, Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Google Play, Tidal, Beatport and others.[5][6] TuneCore also offers music publishing administration services, helping songwriters record their compositions and earn royalties internationally.[7]
Tunecore was founded in 2006 by Jeff Price, Gary Burke, and Peter Wells.
TuneCore's first customer was Frank Black, lead singer of the Pixies.[8] In December 2006, music instrument and equipment retailer Guitar Center bought a stake in TuneCore, giving the company access to the music retailer's customers.[9]
In 2008, TuneCore was utilized by Nine Inch Nails to deliver the music from their album, Ghosts I–IV, to the Amazon MP3 store.[10]
TuneCore 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 alleged that the company may have been insolvent, an accusation that the company appears to dispute.[11]
In the United States, TuneCore represents approximately 10 percent of the 20 million songs on iTunes, and it accounts for almost 4 percent of all digital sales.[12][13]
TuneCore garnered media attention from ABC's World News Tonight,[14] The Daily Mirror,[15] and pitchforkmedia.com.[16]
Acquisition by Believe
TuneCore was acquired by Denis Ladegaillerie's Believe in April 2015.[17] 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 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 to improve their services for their artists.[18]
Also in 2015, TuneCore expanded its presence in the UK[19] and Australia[20] announcing dedicated websites, including localized currency and content for each region.[21] It also introduced its YouTube Sound Recording service to collect revenue for artists when their sound recordings are used anywhere on YouTube.[22]
In September 2015, TuneCore stepped up its live event offerings, throwing LA's independent music community its first ever Indie Artist Forum, focusing 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.[23][24][25]
In July 7, 2020, TuneCore expanded its presence in India announcing dedicated website including localized currency and content.[26]
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 and Lil Uzi Vert 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, collecting revenue from the stream that would otherwise have gone to the performers.[27][28][29]
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