What is the Record Label of Tomorrow?

Jeff great post, I like the idea that you describe, it shifts the focus of a label more to a platform and facilitator mode.

Check out Stereofix.

Thanks for the post Jeff. Nice to meet you. I just became a Tunecore artist and I had no idea of some of the perks you have listed above. I am looking forward to working with you on my new CD, Solo Piano for Peace.
love and peace always and everywhere~
LL

Hi Jeff,
It would be great to have access to video production in the same way you offer mixing and mastering discounts.

I have long been thinking about signing the artists I represent with TuneCorp, and now I will. I represent some successful songwriters that are completely self contained and make their livings selling the fluff you hear on the radio to the largely Low Talent singers that sing them.
As artists, they need an avenue to put the music they want to make in front of the public. Don’t get me wrong, their livelihoods are based on writing “swill” as they put it. As soon as I finish typing this response, the first release from Levy: The Band will be signed up. Think I am joking? There are many millions in sales associated with these guys individually. Just take a gander at their new video “Devil Plays for Keeps” that slams the economy and the corporations that created it. Oh yeah, the everyday Joe is not out of their reach as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvW-nv3Pprs
I have not been excited about a proposed “new avenue” since Unsigned Music Network. KUUUUDDDDOOOOOOSSSSS Jeff! What can we do to help?
Sarah Duvan
Independent Media Network
http://www.imnlv.com

TuneCore is wonderful – no doubt – but getting on to radio and talked about in print media is still amazingly hard work for us DIYers- a big chunk of the mainstream music media still has a signed / unsigned mentality – less so in America with the Clear Channel backlash – but certainly in UK.
Breaking down those barriers to get known to our audiences is the next big challenge for us DIYers – IMO.

I have to say, if Tunecore continues to offer the services it does, I am very happy with it even though I am not making a ton of money (yet! hah!), I like the idea that tunecore only helps me and doesn’t try to control everything I do in a demanding matter. I don’t have to work with anyone I don’t want to work with and I can have a song up and out to the public as soon as I get it done. No waiting on anyone! I love this setup and hope it becomes profitable. If it does, I will definitely stay here.

I am thinking of using you for my upcoming CD. It has 2 originals. My problem is-who do I pay Royalties to for Covers?

Tunecore is without a doubt amazing but it does not promote artists and that’s where a record label comes in. A good label should be able to get artists in Magazines, talked about on Blogs and get plays on radio. This ultimately sells records, CDs and downloads. If your label does not do this then yes you don’t need them.
Promotion and hype is the key to everything. If as an artist you can do this yourself then yes, you don’t need a label. But if you don’t have connections with Radio producers or journalists – it becomes very hard.

I think Tune Core is the Label of the future, if they continue to work for the artist and creativity of the artist; then every other site like it is certainly headed for the can!
Just to have the ability to get music in places where other companies don’t is a plus!
If you build the right label with the right artistic vision the artist will flock to it!
They will come! So will major labels if they see enough revenue being moved around! I am a Tune Core artist and label!

Major Record Labels can smell blood and its their own blood. They have basically killed their own industry by throwing their weight around and acting like A-holes. What does a guy in suit know about music ?
…or they want you to play a solo a certain way…I say give the “suitman” the guitar and say “Here show me how you want it done”..lol.
No, Indie is the way to go..you have absolute/complete control from A-Z of how things get done. (No “suit-man” dictating s*it to you ) You set your own deadlines on album releases- no pressure in other words.(and no contract legalities to deal with for falling short on somthing) So far, I’ve been happy with Tunecores service.

check out http://www.edivemusic.com, and see more Tune Core artist doing it because of Tune Corp

I’ll be distributing my album through TunesCore and I hope to ultimately end up a very contented TunesCore Artist – My initial experience of TunesCore would have undoubtedly been better had anyone replied to the query I had and tried to help me with it. Believing we ‘matter’ as artists to the companies we entrust our work to is important and I’m not alone in that from the hundreds of times I hear fellow artists echo it. TunesCore seems a genuinely fantastic company which will go far – Please dont forget good ol’ customer care ok )

Hi Jeff,
Agree totally. We were one of those SIGNED bands oncwww.hellsbelles.co.uk – and believe you me, they did nowhere near enought to promote the band once the first single and LP were released. Now we’re back and looking to market ourselves this time, so am looking forward to getting involved in this. Best wishes, Paul.
http://www.hellsbelles.co.uk

Oh hell yes, Amazon on Demand is totally the bees’ knees. Please tell me that by “coming soon” you mean it will be here in days or weeks as opposed to months.

Wait, is this just a TuneCore rebranding of the CreateSpace service that Amazon already offers? What would TuneCore’s take be, compared to what artists would get going through CreateSpace directly? Or does TuneCore just get some sort of affiliate cut?

Hey Jeff,
I’d like to thank you again for being up to date – it’s a pleasure to work with you!
Label of tomorrow? “A TuneCore branded section of Amazon featuring only TuneCore artists; direct emails sent by Amazon to its customers featuring only TuneCore Artist’s releases” – this is promo. And i suppose, most of TuneCore artistst can not afford any promotion at all.
Btw, how will you charge us for it ?

There is only two good things record companies provided;
$$$$$$$$ and a filtering system. The dollars aren’t as big of deal as the filtering system. There are just too many choices of bad music now through social networks like Myspace, One can sing into Garage Band and sell it on iTunes. Not that anybody outside their Mother would buy it, but it is clogging up the system. The filter is good and we need one again.

I thank God for TuneCore!!!
And yES you are a record label.
Keep doing what you are doing and PLEASE continue taking us all to another level.
Let’s Connect Soon
And Remember….
Always Follow Your Heart!!!
Mike Colson

This appears to be the future of recorded music. My question is how do I get some of my work on here. I am not the best when it comes to putting things on the computer.
Wyman Lee

Jeff -
I think you are on to something HUGE here. I love the route you are taking, and the ideas are great. Like someone above said, I think the biggest part of a label would be the promotion of the bands. I think that is the biggest thing with every band out there – they just want people to promote them, to recognize them, and to work with them.
There are TONS of bands that are affiliated with Tunecore, mine being one of them, and I think it may be hard to give everyone the individual attention that they crave. Maybe you could somehow separate all the bands into 1) Genre, and 2) Regional parts of the country. That way similar bands could work shows together, feed off of each others fans, and continue to grow until they reach a touring level, where they could tour together. Also by separating bands into genres and geographic area, someone in tunecore could work specifically with each band, helping them to do all this promotion. Just an idea…

Hi Jeff,
that was a very nice article. yes, I think the label of tomorrow will allow artists to be self guided and self expressive in a deeper, more complete way than the paradigm of old.
Seems like especially during Vietnam entertainment companies clearly saw the threat that a free thinking musician could create to their and their colleague’s agendas (military industrial complex type concerns), and took it upon themselves to take the kind of control that violated musicians to the core. The good labels now will be more attached to pushing art than propaganda, & will service critical areas of the artists career and leave the rest alone. At least this is what I would like to think.

I’m in what more can I say after so many ass-kissing emails to top people in the industry….”Come on I aint the only one!”
All I know is wasnt nobody else gonna get me sales in the UK!
“Tunecore Artist” Hell yeah…I even endorse it to all the people I come across trying to do their thing for the love of it!
Manzo

@ Jai Honeybrook. We offer discounted rates for indy music video production in NYC but will travel also. http://www.urbanmouse.com
I manage an R&B/Pop singer also and we are going the indy route since a lot of what was said above were things we talked about. No label is offering big $ unless they seeked you out by buzz online and they see you are moving units but at that point do you still need them? For some things yes, so my question is when you are a Tunecore artist what happens if a major come sniffing? What are the contractual conditions?
Best
Spike

Jeff – It’s always a pleasure reading your blog posts. I’m excited about the performance guarantees and on demand CD printing from Amazon. Great great stuff!

Tomorrow? Why not today? Please get on it.

I think it’s great with what TuneCore has done and offers, as well as the new generation of being able to sell music without a label, BUT there are some musicians (real musicians like myself) who are not sales people nor are marketing people and need someone, like a label, to promote their music. I could have 10,000 friends on MySpace, but in the end it really means nothing because all 10,000 are not going to read my blog, messages, status updates, bulletins, etc regarding my music for sale. PLUS, marketing your own music is a distraction to yourself. It takes a lot of time, effort and money. Not taking anything away from TuneCore, and I have used TuneCore in the past, but I’d rather sacrifice some of my rights and be singed to a well respected major label (indie labels are not there yet) than having my work not be heard at all. I can just be a musician because I know nothing about marketing. Zippo. Nada. As I said, I have used TuneCore. I had one single up for a six month period with only two purchases. Would I use TuneCore again? Yes, but there are some out there who still believe in labels.

Thank you for taking the time to post!
There are a lot of questions, and I am not certain I am answering them all but here are some answers.
First with Amazon/Create Space – Minipop, we will NEVER EVER charge anyone to be promoted in ways like the emails out to Amazon customers. It’s our job to work for you as your “label” to create these opportunities. And its the collective power of all of you “signing yourself” to TuneCore that lets us do things like this.
With the Create Space/Amazon offer, you will get to set you own sale prive as long as it is above $8.65. When it sells, as always TuneCore will take NONE of the revenue paid out. You will receive 40% of the sale price.
We will charge $0.99 to distribute to Create Space/Amazon. Coinciding with the launch of the Amazon offering will be the version 2.0 of the TuneCore artwork tool. You will be able to choose from hundreds of TuneCore pre-made album cover images customized with your band and album name as well as pre-formatted templates. So in a nutshell, you can choose to use the TuneCore art tool for all your album art. Later versions of the art tool will give you the ability to change fonts, styles, colors etc.
Fluffy – it should be ready to go May 1st.
Next question – Bobby, to answer your questions about cover songs, go here – http://www.tunecore.com/index/faq#Cover
Sue – we suck if we did not respond to you. I am sorry. I try to make certain every single artist is answered and given the support they deserve. There are eleven full time TuneCore artist support people – Taylor (head of artist support), Helen (also provides artist support for video), Justin (English and Spanish as well as in charge of mixing, mastering), Jesus (English and Spanish, also in charge of advertising and banners), Jake (the same one you see in the tutorial videos and the one that sends the newsletters), Mike (he is putting together “How To” articles for Facebook, MySpace etc), Tai (head of artists support for CD manufacturing and any other physical thing you want made), Cedar (works with physical manufacturing artist support as well and had an article in the newsletter two weeks ago) and Cedar (come from the world of merchandising, making T-shirts etc.)
Jimmy, we do promote artists, its our job. There are constant promotions and marketing going on. For example, the in-store radio play at Guitar Center as well as the free ads in the Guitar Center buyers guides mailed to three million people promoting TuneCore Artists.
here’s a short list of some TuneCore Artists that have gotten selected for promotions
iTunes spotlight featuring (homepage – new releases, indies, what’s hot, etc)
sleepy sun
William Fitzsimmons
Brett Dennen
Meiko
Ghostface Killa and MF Doom
Pt Walkley
Obi Best
Rosi Golan
Ingrid Michaelson
Katie Costello
Oren Lavie
Lykke Li
Itunes single of the week and/or ‘Discovery Download’
slo-o
boxer rebellion
Crooked Stilo
Shawn Smith
John Robinson
Foxtail Somersault
Inclusion on Itunes cross promotional samplers:
(Rolling Stone, Facebook, Ticketmaster, Itunes U schools/universities, Cafe Bustelo, allhiphop.com, KCRW, Alpha Kappa Alpha Fraternity, Bebo, HBCU, Madden 09, RedStar, Essence Magazine, Vibe Magazine, New Era, Dose.ca, and many more)
Ziggy Marley
William Fitzsimmons
Maria Schneider
Ingrid Michaelson
Kovas
Jill Scott
Public Enemy
Common Market
Gabriel Reodros
Band of Heathens
Delta Spirit
Fonzworth Bentley
MC Lyte
Talib Kweli
Goapele
Vaughn Anthony
Thunderheist
Pistolera
Jean Grae
Grand Ole Party
Speck Mountain
Ivan Ives
WIlly Chirino
Blue Scholars
amazon sale/featured
MGMT
Nine Inch Nails
Jackopierce
girl Talk
Rhapsody>blender mag playlist give away
Airborne Toxic Event
White Denim
Rhapsody cross promotional playlists
Ali Harter
Rhapsody featured
AMy Kuney
In addition, we put together a promotion with Yamaha, PayPal, Obedia, iTunes and Guitar Center where we gave away hundreds of thousands of copies of a 34 song album featuring one song from 34 TuneCore Artists called 34 stars – all the bands were promoted by all the companies involved.
We have just locked down another promotion with Guitar Center where 20 TuneCore Artists will have one song each made available for free download in iTunes. There will be over 100,000 cards manufactured and handed out in the over 210 Guitar Centers across the country with posters featuring the TuneCore Artists and their album covers. Each card will have a code on it to redeem at iTunes to get the music.
Josh – good points! I want to make this more of a community. You are all part of the same team with other TuneCore Artists that include NIN, Aretha Franklin, Keith Richards, Public Enemy, Nine Inch Nails, Ricky Skaggs, Paul Westerberg, Izzy Stradling, David Byrne, Joan Jett and tens of thousands more We do have a Billboard chart, but part of what we are going to start doing more of is surfacing music in new ways.
Adam, I dead on agree.
EnglishWob, I’m trying!!

Times have changed…

…and the record companies will do well to adapt and change their business model. In an age of greedy corporations with fat cat execs being exposed for what they are, there is a growing worldwide sentiment of resentment in lower to middle class families.
The same is also true for the aspiring musicians/artists. The thumb of the record companies we’ve all been under is being pulled away by a shift in our ability to communicate with the world, thanks to the potential of going viral on a world wide web; being able to reach out to people on the otherside of the world…
I really appreciate what you’re doing; putting power into the hands of the people instead of the privileged few.

Jeff Lane
Heart of Cygnus
The amazon thing would be great!

this is a good place for the future of distribution as long as your commitment to the artist is always paramount and its really a distribution place not a replacement for a record label. There are too many things involved in promotion which come from many different approaches and that is mainly what a record label brings together. Its good what you are doing in aiding artist that need to have control of their work but artists should relies that music alone is not enough to bring success. only the very lucky few get ‘discovered’ the rest work hard and with passion and belief in what they are doing.
Having been independent since 1988 and sold hundreds of thousands of real records and cds over the years on my own record label I know that if you are determined enough and have that magic mixed with a bit of narrow minded self determination you can do anything in life. tunecore has, by replacing the distribution stream, cut out a lot of the fat but its up to the artist to fill in the missing links that make for success.
as the retail has also got smaller for the music leaving less in the pot to create the promotion needed to reach those success goals
I believe there are other areas to be replaced before a good direct stream to the public can be achieved by the artist alone and money is always the biggest issue and really the main power the old record companies had a lot of, but tunecore are helping in new and innovative ways so I commend what your doing in this new undiscovered territory.

I love what Tunecore has done so far – I made several thousand dollars just through you guys last year, and your interface is fantastic. What I hate, though, is Amazon’s pricing system. You’ve obviously got a good working relationship with them, so I would really encourage you to use your influence to pressure them to change their pricing system to be more like iTunes. My albums on iTunes sell for 9.99, but on Amazon they sell for two or three bucks because Amazon charges based on the number of tracks regardless of the total length of the album. And that’s just not a fair system. Being meditative music or hypnotherapy tracks, some of my tracks are half an hour long, so a full, hour-long album may only have two or three tracks. And because of that, Amazon just doesn’t work for me, so for the past year or so I’ve been using iTunes exclusively with each new album, drastically limiting sales.
Second, if it would work for you, I’d love to see more genres represented, or even special divisions for specific genres. You don’t even have “Classical” music as an available genre (which I understand from the FAQs), much less have specific divisional representation (that I can find) for different genres. One thing that I really used to love about labels is that they’d often specialize in a genre or style (like Putumayo with great world music), and I think Tunecore could do the same, having different branches of Tunecore representing different genres, which would make it easier (and cooler) to browse Tunecore artists by genre, rather than all of us being lumped together.
Anyway, those are really the only two things I’d like to see added to your already stellar service.

Jeff,
Your plans sounds great. However, as your M&P page points out, and as others have pointed out here, marketing and promotion are still important, even if a label isn’t:
http://www.tunecore.com/index/m_and_p
One concrete suggestion: Obtain favorable pricing for promotional services for your TuneCore artists.
Thanks for your M&P page, by the way.

Jeff,
Your plans sounds great. However, as your M&P page points out, and as others have pointed out here, marketing and promotion are still important, even if a label isn’t:
http://www.tunecore.com/index/m_and_p
One concrete suggestion: Obtain favorable pricing for promotional services for your TuneCore artists.
Thanks for your M&P page, by the way.

Tunecore empowers you and that is something very special.
And it cuts out the distrib middle man. Having been on a record label in the UK before, I know the pit falls of been on a label, and there are some horror stories out there but mainly i find its artists who expect too much and do not keep their feet on the ground. I love Tunecore and been in control of your own destiny is brilliant. You have to do your own marketing though, which can be tricky ! but worth it for owning your music.
itunes is the domain where i sell most, but their pricing is a little adhoc, like one example its 79p to buy a song but then £6.99 to buy 5 ! rather odd.
I sense the older music biz has been collapsing the last 2 years, its like we had the credit crunch 2 years before everyone else ! The labels have messed up bigtime, not moved with the times, and wasted money, typical greed ! thats does annoy me, so for now Empower yourselves !

You guys have totally changed my life! Thanks for the hope and manifesting my dreams into reality! I have not accomplished much with promo yet… as my time permits I intend to grow in this area, but my numbers are increasing. Finally in the last three years and a half years of hooking into your system my stuff is out there! Do you even know what you have done? Because of you guys, the lives of everyday people are being transformed.
Everyone at Tune Core is a part of this dynamic process for my listeners. Please Know that YOU have made a positive impact on humanity! Looking forward to growing with you Jeff. Nameste

Tunecore has opened a door for me, no more distribution problems, however, can you recommend or help with a marketing plan/deal or suggest some online marketing companies to contact? Collection of songs (album) ready to go
Thank you

Jeff,
Thank you so much for the services that you render. I avoided Itunes for years, because i did not want to use an aggregator to put my music up there…….with them taking a percentage in perpetuity. Made me angry.
I found you, and the problem was solved.
I believe “Adam” said that he would take a “major label” over this option any day. Well, i was on A&M Records in it’s heyday in the 90′s, and if you really think that by being on a major label that you can switch your brain off and “just be an artist”…..well, you are mistaken.
It is a whole other level of mind**ck, and you are constantly navigating your way through treacherous waters of lawyers, business managers, agents, general managers, product managers, head of the label……………and one has to know how to deal gracefully with all.
I didn’t like it.
Now tens 15 years later. I do all their jobs, and i’m happier than ever with my little cottage career.
Furthermore, if anyone here is an independent artist…….you must get comfortable with connecting with your fans in a myriad of ways…….myspace, facebook, twitter, etc…….or, like Adam…….you will have “one song up for six months, and sell 2 copies.”
So, Tunecore/Jeff, thank you for making my life a little easier.
Sincerely,
Kevin Montgomery
http://www.kevinmontgomery.com

For a band like State of Revolution we tour constantly and have to haggle with every promoter and club owner for five dollars just so we can give everyone in the band a buck to get a burger for dinner. Its crap and hearing that you are instituting a min. of $100 guarantee for tune core artists in select cities is amazing. Thank you so much. I hope those select cities become A LOT of them. We roll hard. Thanks!

Jeff Price’s posting about the record label of tomorrow is bang on.
So much of the old industry methods of operation were based on illusion, and not grounded in reality. We felt great when we first signed to Virgin all those years ago. We thought we’d really made it. That is what the music press and media have you believe….selling us all a dream of artistic fulfilment and creative heaven in partnership with our new label…and the finance to pay for creative space, studio time, promotion and to survive. A dream which might be a reality for a very small minority of artists, but not the majority.
However, we soon realised that we were doing worse than when we were totally independent! The reality was that we were touring, getting radio play, and then finding there were no records in the shops, because as new act we were coming very low down the list in terms of promotional/marketing budgets. Not necessarily anyones direct fault, but the consequence of being a new act on a very busy label with a stack of other artists all vying for their slice of the PR, press and promo cake.
Ultimately, the artist pays for everything one way or another, and in those far off days the 5 percent of the successful generated the finance to invest in the 95 percent of the hopeful. In the present economic climate, new and creative ways to promote and build a following are the order of the day.
What, I ask myself sometimes, was the point in spending £60,000 (some $90,000) on a promo video to be played a few times on MTV at peak viewing, and therafter I suspect on some one-dog-bin-bag town TV station the middle of the night when no one was watching? The glorious excesses of an industry which most definitely needed reform.
At least now everyone has the chance to be heard, to be given an opportunity, and not be made or broken on the whims and personal preferences of a few labels, distributors, A&R and marketing departments.
Regarding the post by MT Studios about ‘filtering and clogging’… Hideous records were made and released alongside the great and the good….this has always been the case with every record company. Just check through some back catalogues one day!
Real talent will always shine through. People vote with their feet and their pockets, and when originality, hard work and initiative create interest and inspiration, everyone benefits. Tunecore provides a simple (from a busy musician and composers perspective) means of distribution which enables minority interest music to be available and stand alongside that with a wider appeal, and I haven’t yet found anyone who is doing it better.

From what I have seen and read Tune Core and others like it seem to be the way to go. Jeff seems to be “on the ball”. While having several opportunities to sign my portflio over to a third party in the past I hesitated over hearing horror stories from both successful and not so successful artists posessing contract deals. If music and recordings are any halfway good to begin with, they are no darned good sitting on a shelf either and the vanity along with it is one dimensional. Therefore it has to get out there one way or the other. I see the current state of music in a revolutionary state. I do feel however that when given the chance many posing as law abiding citizens will still seek to attain things for free even if they, in their own mindset see it fit to do so. Having said that and spent my entire life and whatever money I attained and put it back into the music bus., I maintain that in order for the new system to succeed in the long term there must be a process whereby peer to peer copying is controlled. Having said that and having constructed prior satirical natured posts we all must look positively ahead with optimism. Most of us can agree that there was alot of great music which came out of the old system but at the same time its ways are tired. I agree that the new one in concept is more fair and just but sadly it all still boils right down to promo. There are two new Featherwheel CDs coming out soon via Tune Core some time this month and another earlier this summer. We are busy at promo so we’ll see.
best regards,
Robert Seagrove
inventor of “The Electro Acoustic Sound Diffuser” patent pending
http://www.featherwheel.com

There is another company that started a label like this too! Tate Music Group, they do everything for the artist and give them a true chance to succeed! It is neat to see all these changes in the industry and Tate Music Group and TuneCore seem to be working on the model of the future. My cousins just signed with Tate Music Group and said that you get all the benefits and distribution of a major label but the freedom you need to be proud of your work.

i have not yet tried tunecore out of fear of becoming one of those artists who pays for an account, only to have two singles or eps sell during the time before having to renew the account again.
i miss the days of labels, to be honest, having ran my own label (robotique) since 1988, and having been an artist since the mid ’80s and had real radio airplay internationally, and international fame, before the internet and all this, for my project, the fashion police.
after 1992, things have changed….and when the internet came along, there was potential for labels to grasp it and use it to advantage, but we all know what happened when they dropped the ball with napster and the rest!
so, like many artists who once made a real living off music, i had to try to re-invent myself and use the internet the best i could.
however, i have tried many sites to put up music and i find that all of them are flawed:
since my own site i had in the late ’90s has been ruined by hackers, i use myspace, ilike, and reverbnation.
each one has good things, myspace, for instance, doesn’t charge fees, (fees would be a deal-breaker) they have millions of users, and it is easy for fans to find you, and their site lets you use wma files, which, for those of us who only have dialup, is better than mp3s, as it allows you to load a seventeen minute long-format ambient track on a limited size file, while still sounding acceptable.
however, they only let you put up six songs, and no way to sell your songs directly, to do that, they have a deal with snocap, which requires up-front fees, and a credit card. (which i don’t have, nor want, or even qualify for if i did)
i would much rather be able to sell my music online, by allowing a site to take a commission from each sale, rather than having to pony up the quid for fees, for a track that might only sell a few before having to pay fees again, blowing any profit margin. that, to me, is the deal-breaker for every site i have tried, to sell music on.
ilike, was good, as there was no limit that i was aware of for number of tracks, and was great that they let you use wma files, till they changed it recently to only take mp3s (which for me, ruined it, as i was till then, able to put up half-hour tracks) but, not many fans use it, and they, like myspace, have no way to sell directly, and they have a deal with itunes, the same pay-for-play scheme…deal-breaker for me to try to sell music.
reverbnation, also good, in that they let you put up unlimited songs, and the site is user-friendly, but, most of the ‘fans’ there are fakes, set up by most artists, to up thier ‘fan counts’ -however, it syncs to myspace and facebook. the downside, is they limit you to mp3 files, and at the eight meg per song limit, an eight and a half minute song is all you can put up…a ploy to get you to pay for ‘mega-song’ storage. (so, i only use them for shorter tracks from my label) and, as usual, no way to sell music directly by allowing them to take a commission off each sale, but they have a deal with a third-party…i think itunes or tunecore, at a higher price. no thanks!
why not have an option to have your music selling without any up-front fees, but by allowing you to take commission? have the pages supported by ads (in a discreet way that does not hog bandwidth, for users with dialup to be able to use it) and stand to make some money for yourselves that way, and be more friendly in our global depression-era times, for struggling artists? then, i would definitely try tunecore! (as would thousands more like me)

the ‘airplay’ scheme in guitar center could be a good idea, but do they ‘say it when the play it’ -or do the tracks just play, with the artist and song un-named…like radio does nowadays?
that, to me, devalues airplay, because listeners do not know who the artist is that they just heard…and that was part of the death of the record store. much of my records, i bought because the song played, and the dj said it after and before each song.
radio in the 1980s to around 1991 was great for this. (and they played longer tracks, and were not afraid to play the b-sides and longer dance remixes…now both commercial and college radio, they try to up the play count numbers, and squeeze their short radio-edits in between each ten minute commercial set.)
sure, sometimes they may say who it was, after playing a long set of music, but that doesn’t work because most listeners tune out to another station before this, if a ‘crap’ song or commercial break, follows that cool song they just heard.
being played in guitar center, again, is good idea, but you need to tell what the song is and who it is, if it was to do any good. is this being done?

Osiyo,
I seem to be finding with all of the online ways to market music there is no connection for American Indian Flute music to be marketed. I am one of those starving artist in painting and muic business, playing the American Indian Flute. I do not have $$$$$$$$$ to through away and would love to find a online promotion connection for my music.

The major labels still have a lot of financial resources at their disposal. I think once the old guard dies off, you’re going to see a lot of the younger people at the labels splinter off and form niche operations with small numbers of artists. It’s beginning to happen already

You guys rule…that’s it!

I agree I am one of the many artists who has sort of a fan base and still i might have sold only 10 downloads.. how can we make promoting indie artists better. I’m almost done with my project and i want it to be a success…

Tunecore is the best! I do believe the conglamorates/big labels still run the industry but their is a slow shift of power towards independent artist. Now that we can produce music for cheaper and distribute it by tunecore gives us an opportunity to live our dreams and let our music be heard. However, for us to compete against major record label, the cost of making quality music video need to lowerso that the average independent artist can afford. Then we think of our music being promoted on a larger scale…getting it played on radio stations internationally and not just local station. Thus being an independent artist we can run a profitable business but we are bound to a small market because because of monetary and networking limitations.

I have been a Tunecore artist for almost one year and so far I couldn’t be happier!

Sounds good but what do the numbers look like on paper.

thanks for starting TuneCore and continuing to expand and improve it. It’s not yet exactly like a label of course (if only for the immense scale – so many artists) but TuneCore definitely has created a very fair, affordable and useful way of digitally distributing one’s own music. Rock on!

We need some money to pay our producer and studio costs, $1-2K should finish our EP. Then we could use another few $K to pay for some local promo spots and press CDs to hand out at live shows. Without funding for this stuff, you’re still just a distributor. Not to mention tour support.
We are funding as much as we can ourselves, but to do a bang up job takes a ridiculous amount of financial resources for musicians struggling to pay the bills. Otherwise the recordings will sound like camel dung. Hence without funding we’re taking 6 months to do what the big guys do in 2 weeks. Such is life, we’re close to finishing anyway.
I considered SellaBand.com for funding, but their terms are 1 sided in their favour.
http://www.BigBlueX.com
- Carl

I uploaded 2 singles from 2 different bands on TuneCore. No promotion nothing. Sold 2 songs. I like to think the music is not totally worthless, just that without promo sales = 0.
The bands are Mugwump, song “Friend in Famine”, and 98DA, song “Get Outa Here”.

“The internet has leveled the playing field,” says Terry Copley, Founder and CEO of Local Scene Record Label. The veteran musician is geared to the needs of the artist, after, of course, the end user, “the listener.” I was fortunate to sign with LSR this past month and I am already experiencing that our company will go the extra mile for the customers and us artists. The majors simply were too big to provide the home atmosphere like the smaller independents.
Since winning in music is a function of a positive mental attitude and persistence not the size of the Label, a good musician with drive and a sense for his/her audience will make it regardless of who they signed with.
Now, thanks to the internet, to TuneCore, and the internet independents, we now have the freedom of choice of listening to and discovering the stars of tomorrow.
Thanks, so much, Jeff
Wild Bill Austin

Even though my band Atomic Fury doesn’t really “tour”, we just gig locally, and we don’t have a huge fanbase, we’ve had decent sales through Tunecore, and I’m glad for a service like them.
For those complaining that they’re not selling, you have to let people know your stuff is available, any way you can. We’ve put out all different kinds of YouTube videos set to our music and at the end of each of them is an add to buy us on the different stores Tunecore provides. They cost almost nothing to make, but we have sales spikes every time we put one out. And they’re not all music videos, or people getting kicked in the balls.

Tunecore is a wonderful company and I’m proud to say I run with you guy’s, but with that said, I’m not quite sure tunecore can do anything about changing the music industry for up coming acts.
Any type of new act weather they be rock, rap, soul, jazz, metal, etc etc are all stuck with innocent thoughts in regards to how the industry operates. Anybody who knows a little about this industry know full well how corrupt and rigged it is. It takes money to make money, and the bigger the record company, the more money they have.
Though record companies these days may well be considered to be ‘uncool’, what people seem to forget is that they have always provided funding for promotion (how else do you think new acts obtain MTV airplay!?), without a good label, acts would never see any kind of radio play, publicity, marketing etc etc. Labels have the money that is really needed in order to really push an act to where they need to be. In order to get a spot as the musical act on Letterman – you need to be fixed up with a very reputable publicist or publicity company – which, by the way, costs a LOT of money. ONLY record labels and companies can afford this kind of necessity. This aspect of the music industry will never ever change, I don’t care what ANYBODY say’s. How do you think the garbage we hear on the radio and MTV manage this kind of relentless publicity? New, unsigned acts will never beat this, they’ll never come close. You either need a driven, financially capable label behind you OR a whole batch of cash in the bank.

Thank you for your great job!
Just two wishes at this moment:
1) Let TuneCore accept payments from credit/debet cards like Visa.
(Runing Paypal account in some countries is, well, “tricky”.)
2) Let TuneCore send accounting reports in something more like “electronic tables”, not coma-separated-values in lines of text. It’s a nightmare to sort hundreds of lines of text “by eyesight” when it comes to calculating royalties for different authors of a dozen of songs…
(Though it’s good there’re hundres, yep.)
—
And our special thanks to Tai Morita for excellent cooperation!

JEFF, contact Max Gousse 310-228-7549

There’s an artist to look out for named Zkunk.The best commercial hits that I’ve heard in years.Forget everything on your roster this is it!Jealous ears in motion! This is the one act that will bring in the whole world.Guess what?They really don’t want to sign!Now this act can write some hits.They’ve had a few offers but passed,No Bob Barker the Price wasn’t right!Zkunk/Lower Realm.

I HAVE HEARD FROM MANY ARTIST THAT YOU ALL STEAL PEOPLES MONEY!…………..YOU WAIT TILL THEY PAY FOR IT…THEN AFTER IT STARTS SELLING YOU FREEZE THEIR ACCOUNTS!…………..I DON’T THINK I WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU!

However, for us to compete against major record label, the cost of making quality music video need to lowerso that the average independent artist can afford.