TuneCore, the music distributor for self-releasing artists, has announced the launch of an unlimited distribution plan. The change will allow users to upload, distribute and monetize as many songs as they want for a flat monthly fee. TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson and hip hop artist Papoose joined Cheddar News to discuss what the change could mean for artists whose release schedules are evolving to become quicker and more seamless. 

Between Bells

Rapper Papoose Endorses TuneCore's New Unlimited Distribution Plan

Welcome back to Between Bells music distributor for self releasing artists, ton Corps has announced one of the biggest changes since the platform was created. Its new unlimited release pricing plans is the first flat fee, paper release distribution model on the market. So joining us now to talk more is Andrea Gleason Ceo of tune core and musician Pappas, an artist on tune core. Welcome to the show. Andrea, I am going to start with you. This is a big announcement for you. How is this new unlimited release plan? Changing the game for your artists? Yeah. You know, um we saw just a big change in how artists are releasing music and how artists who are successful are releasing it and becoming successful, which is that they're releasing all the time. Uh you know, gone are the days when um, your release plan as an artist was really tied to physical space on a shelf or to uh, manufacturing constraints. Now, music is consumed digitally and from an endless aisle. And um, and all the platforms reward constant music creation. We felt that our pricing before was a paper released model where you would pay for a single at a time. And uh and we wanted to remove that limitation for artists where they should be creating all the time because that's how they're going to be successful. And so we're very excited. We we made this roll out about a month ago and um, you know, uh, who's who's on here with me is a really, really great example of how releasing all the time is is such a great strategy. He released one album per month, all of last year. And um it's it's about staying constant within top of mind with fans. Uh if you think about it, social media is the same right when you put out a post, uh you create an opportunity to to essentially make a new engagement and for that fan to know more about you and in digital, putting out music the same way and making it available, creates the same as that thing in the streaming and download platforms. And you couple that with animating with social media, giving teasers before after during telling a little about the album or the release. And it's changing the game. And so we were very excited this rolled out and uh it's that it's been about a year in the works and we're very excited about it. Well, it is very exciting papoose. She did mention the one album a month Strategy and I have to ask you, as someone who did the traditional sort of record label route in the past. And it didn't, it was okay for a while and then you needed to do something different. How does this really change the game for you as an artist especially to be able to reach those fans who have this sort of endless appetite for content. Yes, I think, Andrea said it best. Um you know, for a long time now, artists have been bound have been tied to, I feel I like to say like a dated dated format of releasing music and you know, we as artists, we're so different, we're so creative and we're constantly creating, but when it comes to sharing that creativity with the world, we have to wait, you have to wait for a slow process. And I just think that with this new um I did that has has come up with, it gives us freedom, it gives us the opportunity to to share our creativity with the world instantly. So to answer your question is it's changed my career tremendously because You know, me being able to release 12 albums in one year, something that was never done before in hip hop history. I wouldn't have been able to do that without tune called Giving me the freedom and you know, to to be able to release my music on a constant, a consistent basis. So purpose, I want to ask you about that because, you know, for someone who's not in the industry and let's be honest, I certainly am not. Why is it so hard? Why is there this barrier for people between releasing the music they want to release and the audience that wants to listen to it, because it seems like if someone wants to listen, you just you just release it right? But it's not that simple. Yes, I just I think everyone is just following a traditional way, but like I said previously as artists, we're always being different, we are always being innovative, we're always being creative and that old traditional way, it just doesn't work anymore for us. You know, also like Andrea said, you look at social media instantly, you can follow your favorite artist, you can see what they're doing at that in real time. So why can't releasing music have that same effect? Why are we still following a data format of sharing our music with our fans? But we're on social media and we're using all these different platforms which are amazing for us, but we have to change the format of releasing music needed to be updated as well. So I think this is brilliant what the court has done because it worked for me. It changed my career in so many different ways and opened so many doors for me as an artist and I covered your artist. No, come aboard. Andrea according to you all, this is the first flat fee paper release distribution model on the market. How does this impact the user experience and sort of the end experience. And I also want to ask you about the finances, right, obviously you're doing it because it's sustainable. What does it cost an artist? How do you all keep making money? And how do the musicians make money? Yeah. And um so so we were the first, we were all about disruption. So 10 core has been around since 2006. We were the very first to introduce a flat fee distribution model that didn't take a percentage. So we actually don't take a percentage on the artist music sales. Uh, you know, whatever Spotify pays out for that release, we pay it directly 100% to the artists. And that has been our model since the beginning. What we've introduced now, we continue to have the paper release model, but we also have added to that this unlimited component where you can choose that for one flat fee per year. Um, and there's three different plans that you can do. You can do like a plan that's 1499, 99 or uh 49 99 depending on the level of sophistication you want to do with your releases. Um, you can release an unlimited amount of songs. And why we felt this was really important is to remove that barrier for artists. You don't like, they need to pick what they put out and be more cheesy because actually what we have found, um, you know, we're an open platform. You don't need to be signed to a record label to use to court, anybody can go if you want to sign up and put music out and get it out of Spotify. Um, but what, what's really, what what we wanted to do was at that level of confidence for artists to be willing to experiment. We are living in an amazing age for where you do get that immediate feedback with social media. And what we wanted to do was essentially make make a way for artists to be more comfortable experimenting and not have finances, be a barrier to that. So how, you know, you asked how to artists make money, you know, they're making money by putting the music out and we then bring all the platforms that that were distributed to, which is over 100 and 50 and bring it all together in one central account for the artists to be paid into how we make money is just from all of the artists that use us and pay us that flat fee. And um, and uh, you know, there's just, we, we serve hundreds of thousands of artists and that's essentially how we make money. And one piece that is also very interesting and very unique for our services that we also have a free tier. And um, when we survey our users the biggest, um, when we asked them, why haven't you released your music yet, the thing that they tell us all the times, they don't feel it's ready. But what we were observing is actually the music that is not ready is the ones that were actually going viral on social media on Tiktok. And then the artists were scrambling to put the music up onto all of the platforms. So what we wanted to do was, okay, well, you don't think it's ready to go to Spotify, but you know, put it up onto the social platforms on the free tier and it's like a focus group in your pocket, essentially, and they'll let you know if it's good and then you can seamlessly push it over to the other platforms. And so uh and what's great about that is you actually start monetizing on that right away, because we have, we have partnerships with Tiktok with instagram and Youtube, where you actually start monetizing on those, those interactions right away, if you post it directly to just your channel, you are not going to make money from that. But with this, with the, with the free free plan, you actually start monetizing on that immediately. So, um, so yeah, we're all about helping artists have choice, helping artists make money and getting all the money that they're okay Andrea I'm gonna have to leave it there, Thank you so much to you and to propose Andre Gleason, the ceo of tune core and musician purposes, an artist who uses tune core is on tune core