Looks interesting because it's a one time charge based system (except for yearly maintenance).... Possibly better than CDBaby's deal, tho' I haven't crunched the numbers yet, but it looks better on the surface.

Interesting... Indeed. Thanks for pointing this out! :)

We have been using them for about 18 months or so...

They are great. It's easy to post, they are pretty quick to get your stuff up, they are responsive if you have problems/questions, they have detailed reports...AND it's easy to get your money.

I support 'em 100%. One of the best things we have done.

i dont pay any annual fees on cdbaby.
just a one time $35 album upload setup charge.

FYI
Gearslutz just did Q&A forums with expert guests from CD Baby, Tunecore and Nimbit.

@Stevil: CDBaby over here partly for the same reason... and their customer support has been great, too. I don't do annual fees, thanks. :\

I've heard that Tunecore is great... they don't take too much to setup, and they give you all the money from the digital sales... we have a snocap store set up for Diverje thru Myspace, but they recently merged so they're working to get everyone on board. What I originally heard about Tunecore was that they didn't take any rights at all, and that they were easy to break away from if the need arose, I think all the digital providers are moving towards this model now because it's the only way to keep users on board.

wow, babyland? or someone with that as a name. If yer babyland, "hi, and thanks for making great stuff". if yer some guy with that as a username, ya got good taste/

-eddie

It's trune, at TuneCore we pass along 100% of your earnings, whereas other places take a cut--and a cut with no ceiling. If your album sells even a few, you'll be paying a lot more every year to them than you would to us. Also, beware of hidden costs at other places: some charge you $20.00 for a UPC, which TuneCore gives free. And you don't have to mail us anything, it's all upload.

Thanks for all the kind words. I really do think TuneCore is the best way, but I'm biased, I founded the company. ;)

--Peter
peter@tunecore.com

Hi Peter. Welcome to the forum!

I have to mention, if I read correctly, that with TuneCore there's a delivery fee of $.99 per song, and $.99 per album to each company delivered, which can end up being an up-front charge of, well, in the case of many of my records, they're on several dozen services... so perhaps for a 10 song record, like $30-$50 pretty easily. That's not too far off from CDBaby.
If TuneCore delivers to all the same places CDBaby does, that can be upwards of 50+ outlets - or upwards of $70/album for a 10 song record. CDBaby? $35 flat fee... in setup charges.

Then, $20 per year, essentially, for maintainance per album.

Many of us just don't sell that well, and believe it or not, with a catalog of 11 albums (and growing) that I manage the digital rights for, that's almost $220 a year in maintainance fees. Which cuts pretty heavily into what we'd earn from downloads. Where CDBaby, taking 9% of what they bring in from the digital download stores, well, that ends up being far less for us. Now of course, we wish we were selling so much that that 9% was more than what a $20 annual maintainance fee per album would add up to, that would be great. But for many of us smaller artists, it isn't the case. (Believe me, I'd love to be selling around $2500/year ($225+ or so per album per year) in downloads - which would make that 9% look worse than the $20/year/album...)

I would recommend TuneCore to anyone who A) doesn't need the physical CD sales outlet CDBaby provides and B) has expected earnings (not just for the first year of a release, but for the long tail as well) high enough that the $20/year/album maintainance fee would be smaller than CDBaby's 9% cut.

Just wanted to make sure that this info is clear to all here who haven't decided on an aggregator service... not trying to piss anyone off! :) I mean, all these services have to make money somehow. I just want to make sure that people somehow don't get mislead by the very cool "we take nothing of your sales royalties" statement to mean "we take nothing at all" on some kind of periodic basis.



Of course, math isn't my strong suit, so if I'm way off, correct me and I'll happily concede that I'm a math moron. :)

Let me clarify one thing. :\

Then, $20 per year, essentially, for maintainance per album on TuneCore, no royalty cut otherwise. 9% per sale on CDBaby, no annual fee otherwise...

Oh, and it should say in the first paragraph...

If TuneCore delivers to all the same places CDBaby does, that can be upwards of 50+ outlets - or upwards of $[b]60[/i]/album for a 10 song record. CDBaby? $35 flat fee... in setup charges.


What did I mention about my math skills? :D

The free barcode... ahh, cool..!

Well, some of my releases did need one, so some were $55 in setup fees. Add in postage and some were $60 or so total to get 'em in to CDBaby. So setup wise, the two companies are comparable, for differing reasons.


Notice I'm tying to be fair about this! :)

Thanks, Out Out ("damn spot"?), happy to be here.

Your math is pretty solid, but let me tweak it a little, and show some hidden details.

TuneCore currently delivers to 10 stores (the five iTunes stores worldwide and AmazonMP3, Napster, Rhapsody, eMusic and GroupieTunes for ringtones). So an album delivered to all stores would have a maximum delivery fee of $9.90 (that's $0.99 per store x 10 stores), one time charge. The per-track charge ususally comes to about $4.95 (that's $0.99 per track x 5 tracks), one time charge. It's that low because for every 10-song album, we also get a lot of singles. Then add $19.98 for the first year, and it comes to just about $34.83 average first year, then $19.98 thereafter, 12 months after the album goes live.

THAT'S IT. Your costs are limited, known. The scary part of the percentage model is that it's unknown, has no cap. What if your music starts doing really well? What about the fact that, the harder you work to promote your music, the fatter you're making that percentage for someone who's done nothing--you're effectively working for them, at least in part. Personally, I can't stand that thought. We all pay taxes, shouldn't that be enough?

I don't want to get into a direct CD-Baby vs. TuneCore comparison, since in many ways we're very, very different companies. They do indeed deliver to more stores, but we hit the "top 10" that are still taking content at all. The total amount you're going to make from all other stores combined is going to be minimal, unless you've got a real niche. Also, the expense for other companies like CD Baby has to include the cost of the Bar Code (you mention this), the cost of the ISRC numbers (if they charge--they're free at TuneCore!), the cost of the shipping of the disc (someitmes multiple discs--you caugh this too!), the "membership fees" and then, of course, the percentage cut.

Also, remember: there's nothing permanent or exclusive about TuneCore. You've got 11 releases--put them up! See how they perform. If any are doing so poorly that they can't make up the cost of their $19.98 in a single year, just don't renew them. There's no charge to have them taken down at the end of a year, just let us know you don't want it up. It's self-limiting, because any album that's not pulling its weight you can just let go.

It's not tremendously surprising that digital distribution costs are about the same across multiple companies. We know to the penny just how much it costs to digitally deliver and maintain an album, and fair companies who let the market decide will wind up settling into close proximity. But I find that percentage cut is just plain unfair--after all, it doesn't cost any MORE if the album is selling well, why should someone get paid more? It lets them "fish," and gives them incentives to work harder for some albums because they might make more money (NOTE, I'm not saying CD Baby or anyone else does this!). The little guy trying to break in has enough troubles, they don't need the deck stacked against them.

Then there are the million other reasons why TuneCore should be first choice (in my humble opinion), from how we promote our artists, to our awesome royalty accounting pages and the ability for you to pay your band mates, or heck even the rent, right out of your TuneCore account.

You ARE being fair, OO, that's what attracts me to a forum: real conversation, not flaming or astroturfing. It's an incredible new industry, we've always tried to let the musicians show us how it should move forward.

Thanks!

--Peter

There's one other thing here that was not mentioned - CDbaby requires that you have an actual CD to sell. Tunecore or other online distros do not - and being that not everyone has a CD anymore, that leaves CDbaby in the dark in many ways.

possibly the most useful thread on the forum in a year...excellent. i was sort of on the fence about this tunecore business, but now...it looks a lot better.

must investigate further.

@ viktim187 - Thanks for the kind words!

@ PeterWells - I'm so happy you joined this forum and are spreading the word; Your service is a huge help to independent bands like ours (and spinART is one on the great indie labels, too!) I wish you continued success.

Thanks, BABYLAND! I have to say, responses to TuneCore have been huge and almost universally positive. I think we're on to something here. :)

--Peter
peter@tunecore.com

Thanks for this topic, as I hadn't heard of Tunecore until now. Looks like we'll be trying it out soon @ Crunch Pod for some Caustic stuff.

Ah, the power of word of mouth:)

Drop a line to volume@tunecore.com if you've a lot of releases, Euroticaustic. Actually, I'm the volume guy, so it'll go to me, but it sounds more official if you send to "volume@tunecore.com"

Aren't titles fun?

--Peter
peter@tunecore.com

It'll actually be a bunch of remixes that have been released in a couple different places but never digitally, but I'll be sure to have the label shoot you an email.

Thanks, sir.

Careful! When I hear the word "remixes" my spider sense tingles.

If these are remixed versions of someone else's performance, you CANNOT distribute them without permission. When most people say "remixes" they mean they took a chunk of music off a disc, usually something famous and big like Pink Floyd or 50 Cent or heck, anything, and added their own beat, or mashed it up, or in any other way SAMPLED it.

Sampling requires you to have a license from the holder of the masters. They're almost always expensive and hard to get. This is completely different from a COVER, but just as important.

Make sure you do things legally! I'd hate to see anyone get in trouble.

--Peter
peter@tunecore.com

Like I said, TuneCore is gonna make a lot of sense for some folks. Just not all. ;-)

I think that both TuneCore and CDBaby are doing well for all the right reasons. Viva la new industry model! Viva la independence!


Regarding the math tweaks. My mistake for overlooking the fact that you submit only to the top 10 sites (which in a lot o ways makes sense...)
However, for acts like mine, the average release length is more than 10 songs, so the average signup will still be more like $20. Still, not too expensive... just tweakin' back.

And I fully understand about the 'no cap' thing. Which is great for labels/bands/catalogs that consistently average above a certain amount of income per year in downloads. Many of us don't. (Sadly...!) For me, it looks like I may never average enough for it to make sense. (Sadly...!) But, hey, that's another reason why both companies can exist at the same time and thrive. Two differing models. Choices. Cool! :)

@ Peter-- they're remixes of MY music.

No worries. All legal:)

Wow, I'm glad I started this. Thanks to everyone for all the relevant comments and very useful information.

It's safe to say I've made my decision...

After a few bad experiences with digital distributors i shopped around a fair bit, there are loads of different aggregators with a much better service model than tunecore.
www.dittomusic.com cover over 700 stores including places such as Spotify, LastFM, Play, Amazon with a far wider reach.
They are currently doing a free unlimited tracks to Spotify package.
From what i see with tunecore they seem to think that their business model is the only one that makes sense but in fact its very limited.

I've been using TuneCore for all the 23db releases for about 4 years now and have nothing but good things to say about them. Fantastic (and fast) customer service, an easy to use website, and my yearly maintenance fees are paid for with a fraction of a month's sales. As I've said many times, I'm a fan of CDs, but the writing is on the wall, and the growth we've seen in digital sales each year seems to reinforce the fact that digital is the future of music distro.

Now if they'd only get the streaming player back online again! They took it down to revise it right after I finished uploading it to a number of sites. : /

The player's coming back, Tshear23! We really want it to be awesome when it comes, so it'll be worth the wait. We learned so much on our beta release.

And as for other distributors--awesome! We've always taken it as proof that there's a huge market out there, that people really want their music into stores, and in a fair way. I'm quite happy to see how other places do: if they care about the artist, if they work hard to make tools so artists can take their success as far as they can go, then they'll do fine.

So it's eyes still focussed on that, for me and for the TuneCore team. So far, it's working great. More than half a million songs in iTunes alone! The trust of artists like Aretha and NIN and Jay-Z. Reporting tools, marketing tools, everything a band could want. Whoever gives that will take the ribbon in this race, and no matter what, the artists win.

Thanks again!

--Peter
peter@tunecore.com

Are Digital Booklets in PDF now supported on TuneCore?

I read from a google search some postings from mid 2008 stating the feature is expected soon.

Yes, Mathieu! For iTunes. It's not automated yet, but we can do it by special request. BE SURE to write support@tunecore.com BEFORE you finalize your album, they'll give you instructions.

--Peter
peter@tunecore.com

@botkiller

CDbaby requires that you have an actual CD to sell.

CDBaby does allow you to sell digital only.


However, if you are going digital only, then TuneCore is the cheaper outlet. If you want physical and digital.. then CDBaby. Unless you have another distribution method, such as a full-fledged physical distributor. (Like Ryko, PaterNoster, Cargo, etc. etc..)

Not any more, Sigsaly!

TuneCore now has Amazon on Demand. I didn't want to bring it up here, because I really don't want to use this forum as a platform for "selling" TuneCore. I'm here to answer questions, talk about things, be a part of the discussion. But I do have to correct a mistake when I see it.

Because now we'll put your MUSIC FILE in Amazon's regular CD store, along with artwork, etc. When someone wants to buy your CD (yes, physical CD), Amazon will MANUFACTURE IT, put it in a jewel case, shrinkwrap it, fulfill it and ship it. You just collect the cash. It's our window into CreateSpace, but with a better deal.

Anyway, just wanted to let folks know, since it came up. As always, write me with questions and I'll be happy to answer.

--Peter
peter@tunecore.com

@Peter Wells


Thanks for all the kind words. I really do think TuneCore is the best way, but I'm biased, I founded the company. ;)

I thought Jeff Price founded the company....

Peter - Where is the info on Amazon On Demand on the TuneCore site? I'm interested in finding out more about this...

I left of the "co-" didn't I? That's bad, sorry. Jeff Price, Gary Burke and I all started TuneCore together. TuneCore is, and always was, Jeff's idea and the great driving force in his life. Jeff came to the two of us to help him realize his vision. For the first year, the three of us built the company, so we three consider ourselves co-founders, but I'd still call Jeff "founder" without the "co-" in front of it.

Tshear23, why not write me? I don't want to drop URLs on here, I don't want to make it seem like I'm using Side Line. But I can tell you more! And of course, there's always our site's FAQ.

Thanks!

--Peter
peter@tunecore.com

@ PeterWells

No, mistake... I am referring to distribution to retailers of replicated discs. Not the one-off, on-demand CDR's.

Don't get me wrong, that is a really handy option for independent artists! On-Demand music and merch. are excellent tools and are fast becoming more and more common. As well as digital download cards...