I see it fell off our site (we had to pull it when our phone tree was down during an office move), I’ll make sure it gets back up there. Thanks!

–Peter
peter@tunecore.com

All press is definitely not good press (for a company) especially when potential customers are watching.

However, all info is good info escpecially if you can get it BEFORE you have to make a decision.

I’ll keep researching…

-PLUG Head

While it is true that Tunecore offers a good service, I read that the FBI is going to start monitoring Tunecores accounting

processes.

Why? Isn’t Tunecore a great service?

True on all accounts but why does a musician need to use tunecore to put their music on iTunes anyway. Tunecore doesn’t pay a fee to

iTunes…or do they.

Tunecore pays a fee to iTunes, and other online stores to keep the littleman out. Therefore they can charge a fee. This seems

innocent right. I’ts only a mere 9.00 per single and 35 to 50.00 per album. That’s where the 7 million in financing went.

After doing the math and subtracting all the paypal transfer fees, I am wondering how Tunecore stays in the black.

Aahh! The truth is revealed…Now…

This is how they do it..aside from there state of the art automated processes
.

First you sign up.. they don’t care what type of music you put on and they don’t even check to see if the said music is copyrighted.

They do let you check the box saying you agree that selling music that you don’t have permission for is illegal.

All goes well and believe it or not in less than 3 weeks all your music is in the stores…Wow!…

You then every 5 minutes, check all the online stores to see if you moved in chart position or sales rank.

Then 45 days latter you receive your first 30 dollar royalty check. Wow you are really siked and pumped.

Another 45 days goes by and now you receive a 300 dollar royalty check. Wow..

This keeps happening for the next few months till finally you are about to hit the $1000 dollar mark and you do.. You log into your

account to initiate the paypal transfer. You type in your email..and wait for the next 24 hours to see your cash…but….2 days go

by..6 days go by then 2 weeks go by and no money.

You are pissed so you email support and no one answers you. There is no phone number but after calling and the 2 hrs of googleing

you find the address of tunecore. You then call the attorney general. The attorney general, connects you to the better business

bureau. You get the number.

You call and…Someone answer the phone right away…Wow. You think. They must be busy processing payments.

They explain to the rep that you want your money in the kindess tone.. He put you on hold..and then a guy named Tai comes on the

phone. He tells you that they aren’t going to pay you..because you don’t have permission to sell your songs that you wrote.And…if

you want your money..you need to produce the licenses for your songs. Now you are confused because you wrote all the songs, and

registered them with the copyright office. You are indeed pissed, but since you live in California and they are in New York, you

can’t strangle them. You yell you scream, but they just laugh. You hang up. Not knowing what to do. You wrote those songs. How can

they do this to you you wonder. You call back and try to remain calm. You tell them there must be some mistake. They laugh again and

say if you have a problem than go get a lawyer.

You hang up, call and think to yourself, I am going to get me a lawyer.

You find who you think is a good lawyer and you are confident until he says that he charges $500 dollars and hour. Saddend you call

around to find a lower priced lawyer but the fees keep getting higher and higher. YOu only made a little over $1000 dollars. If you

hire a lawyer you will receive no money because of the fees they charge.

You call Tunecore again..This time you keep getting tossed around. Finally you are transferred to a fellow named Peter. He seems

like a good guy. You explain the situation to him.. he pulls up your account..He tells you that it is illegal for you to sell

unlicensed music. Again you argue that it is your music and it is original. YOu ask for the anme and number of the person who says

your are stealing music. He blows you off and says you will need an attorney to get that info. YOu think about the lawyers fees and

now in your heart you know that you are fighting a losing battle.

You are so pissed by this time that you asked speak to the Boss. You are than transfered to the CFO, Gian…He says he ain’t gonna

pay..You need a lawyer to get your money. You then in the calmest way tell him that it is yours music. And you tell him that you

signed up at Tunecore so you want have to deal with lawyers. You thought they were on your side. He then laughs and says, “Buddy,

Music isnt about you..It is all about Money and Lawyers.” Almost in tears and barely able to speak you threatened to sue them which

is a lie.

He then yells “don’t call here again.” And don’t you threaten my staff. And slams the phone in your face.

****

This is a True story…And this happens to a lot of Tunecore customers.

Tunecore will only steal money from those who cannot afford a lawyer. They know you can’t sue because it is too expensive. A record

company won’t sue them because of the lawyer fees as well. So who keeps the money. Tunecore!!!

I am writing this to warn you about this practice. It doesn’t matter if you have licenses or not for your songs. If you samples

someone, do a cover of a song, you are really not safe. Tunecore is trying lock down the independent artist sector and steal there

money because they don’t have lawyers or money for them rather.

Tunecore has done this to thousands…and made millions in this shady practice.

It is a good service on the outside. But shady on the inside.

The Truth Exposed…

If this has happened to you or you feel your royalties are a bit low for your efforts, feel free to email me tlance28@yahoo.com

We independents are only strong together..We can file a class action law suit and at least get a court order to audit there books.

I have been emailing such distribution companies as my band is releasing an album soon, the company i am leaning towards atm is Ditto Music (www.dittomusic.co.uk) as they seem to genuinely want to help, they are a bit cheaper than most companies and don’t take a % of your sales, so ideal for unsigned acts such as myself. I would suggest contacting them about press as their emails tend to be nicer.

Tony Pytleski

They’re truly tearing down all the gatekeepers that major labels keep to themselves and sharing it with independant artists. Esp when companies like CDbaby are doing the same thing but charging their clients up the ass.

This company is run by 4 guys, 2 of them i know are from Toronto (so they wouldn’t know who the fuck techcrunch is, heck i’m from toronto and I don’t know who you guys are) I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t have “press” people to do PR.

You put words in their mouths, they didn’t tell you to fuck off. He just wasn’t interested in who you were or what you had to offer, i don’t think in anyway his email told you to fuck off.

After reading the endless comments here, I am struck by lack of discussion with respect to the music industry and the huge seismic shift that Tunecore is helping to create with new business models. In recent weeks, we have seen what people who only care about money have done to the world economy. I think making money is incredibly important and it can be used as a metric of your success. But, I have a lot more respect for someone who starts with a passion for solving a problem and then figures out how to make money doing it, than the other way around.

FWIW, my first hand experience is that Jeff Price really is a good guy. Every time I have had the opportunity to sit down with Jeff, while he was not being pulled in many directions, he has shown himself to be someone who is looking to further the power shift in the music industry towards the artist. And he is someone who is very open to working with others to create the new business models necessary to accomplish this goal.

Full Disclosure: Tunecore is a client of my company Loud Feed and we wrote a lot of the code used to deliver music into Amazon MP3, iTunes, Emusic, Rhapsody, etc.