Popular music service iLike has teamed with TuneCore, a music distribution platform, to help artists promote and sell their music as easily as possible.
TuneCore (whose CEO thankfully seems to have stopped handling the site’s PR) actually has an intriguing business model. For a flat fee, TuneCore will help artists distribute their digital music to a collection of music stores that the company has forged deals with including Rhapsody, Amazon MP3, and iTunes. Prices vary depending on how many stores you wish to reach and if you’d like to sell a single song or an entire album, but they are very affordable and bands keep 100% of revenue (you can see the pricing guide here).
While TuneCore isn’t introducing many new features with the iLike tie-in (it has offered the service independently for some time), its increased exposure makes sense for both sites. iLike has geared itself as a platform for artists to promote themselves on Rhapsody as well as a variety of social networks like Facebook and hi5. Giving artists an easy way to sell their music is the next logical step.
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Sounds like a great platform for upcoming artists
Sounds pretty cool. We have also launched a music store. We give artist fans the ability to resell the the artist music. We also give the artist the ability to share their revenue with other members or causes.
Our Store uses Songbird as its music distribution platform.
Ilike.com is cool but I still think its interface is not as sweet as sites like ijigg.com which has a stronger community. With all these song-showcasing websites around doing social discovery, what I feel is really missing is a focus on Concerts. Inde bands should be providing free songs for their fans and earn the bulk of revenues from live concerts and events or even fan memorabilia. That is the way to earn money and distribute your music. DRM is a disease that should be eliminated and what Tunecore is doing is to ensure that the old model of selling songs survive.
You hit the nail right on the head. Even a site like this will do very little when it comes down to how bands are to make a livelihood; and that is live shows and merchandise sales. I do think however, that once the social network aspect of ILike and TuneCore expands, that the concert and merchandise sales will come into play.
It a nice site collecting all info about Coupon.
I use to buy some of these coupon and i need this information.
Thanks for your time to post this article.
Using adelph.us bands/artist can sell and cross sell merchandise.
It shows how the computer, today, is redefining a 100’s old music industry.
This sounds like TubeMogul for music. Is there anything that this company does that individuals can’t do themselves? It could be convenient if you don’t know any sites but there doesnt seem to be any promotional help for artists like you said in the article. Not a whole lot of value but the service is pretty cheap so it makes sense.
The should also partner with http://www.publishmymusic.com
I really can’t believe that Tunecore’s outspoken leader, Jeff Price, would actually be supporting a company like the iLike/Ticketmatser/Rhapsody monster, which limits music fans to 30-second clips, sells recommendation placement to major labels, and pushes Ticketmaster and their draconian fees on all of its users. When it comes to being ‘the man’, iLike comes in a close second to MySpace Music (last I checked, iLike doesn’t even pay a dime to indie Artists when their music is streamed).
Clearly a flat-fee distribution model means that Tunecore needs tens of thousands of customers to make a viable business (and will pay iLike a nice kickback for each and every one they can bring onboard), but have times become so bad in the music business that even a crazed indie music fanatic like Price would sell out? Gee whiz.
We use Tunecore to promote some of our independant artists on http://www.akamusic.com and it works like a charm. Its really great to be able to put an artist on the iTunes store for a fixed fee. Great service !
This is an interesting more, but I still dont see how it is big news. http://routenote.com has been developing these music distribution partners in recent months also.
I dont like tunecores pricing structure, you have to pay startup and maintenece costs and pay extra for each music shop you want to get your tracks to. And do they even care whether the music they distribute actually sells?
I was quite impartial about ilike until i heard your comments Jeremy. Very interesting indeed.
I heard about this new startup called Record Union, they are doing something quite similar to TuneCore but cheaper, without startup and maintenence cost, and i think they deliver to more music shops to. I think its worth having a look at them, their site is pretty awesome too.
Hmmm, it looks as though tunecore are trying to monopolise what is a fairly new market.
I can only wonder why they would need 7 million dollars worth of investment for an online company?
The same happened to CDbaby which was also sold off to investors.
There are still a lot better options than tunecore.
http://www.dittomusic.com cover over 700 sites and are cheaper than both sites, they were responsible for getting the first unsigned UK artist into the top 40 singles charts.
I would suggest doing research and i would say use CDbaby for physical but Ditto for digtial