Digital music distributor TuneCore is introducing new plans that will allow artists to release an unlimited number of singles and albums for a flat annual price, it was announced Tuesday (June 7). That’s a shift from the company’s preexisting pay-per-release structure.
The unlimited release pricing plans are an acknowledgment that the way music is released today is markedly different from how it was released when TuneCore was first established 16 years ago – from an album/EP-oriented strategy to one consisting of multiple singles releases throughout the year.
The unlimited plans give “artists at any stage of their careers the freedom to choose the plan that works best for them,” said TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson in a statement.
There are a total of four new plans to choose from:
The New Artist Plan (free), which allows free unlimited release of songs to the music libraries of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube (including Shorts, Content ID and access to YouTube’s Official Artist Channel). The plan includes no upfront fee and pays out 80% of what’s collected to the artist.
The Rising Artist Plan ($14.99/year), which includes everything covered under the New Artist Plan as well as unlimited release distribution to over 150 streaming and store partners including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer and Tidal while paying artists 100% of revenue collected. It also allows artists to pre-schedule all release dates, access to official verification on Spotify and Apple Music and artist support response time within 72 hours.
The Breakout Artist Plan ($29.99/year), which includes everything covered under the New Artist and Rising Artist plans plus free access to Automator, which automatically includes artists’ releases in all streaming and digital stores that will be available in the future. The Breakout plan additionally includes downloadable reporting and artist support response time within 48 hours.
The Professional Plan ($49.99/year). Designed for labels, managers and artists who are more established in their careers, the Professional Plan includes everything from the other three plans plus premium sales reporting, use of an individual UPC and custom label name, access to select country restrictions, exclusive partnerships and promotional opportunities. It also offers the ability to add additional artist profiles ($14.99 per artist/year) and boasts the fastest artist support response time within 24 hours.
“We’ve spent a year speaking directly to artists and labels about how we can make our service better for them. What emerged is: artists want to be able to test their new music for free before distributing to all services and they want to release the music they are creating instantly, regularly, and seamlessly with one annual subscription enabling unlimited music distribution,” continued Gleeson. She added that the new pricing “gives self-releasing artists at any stage of their careers the freedom to choose the plan that works best for them.”
“It is exciting to see that TuneCore values its artists enough to give them the freedom of consistent creation and I truly believe that this will change the face of the music industry,” said TuneCore artist Papoose. “TuneCore has always been the best distributor and now everyone can afford it.”
