TuneCore

Review: I narrate my experience with tunecore, [redacted] and [redacted] in sadness. I had a very terrible experience with tunecore, [redacted] and [redacted]. It started in 2011 I went to the internet to make my music career better because most of the musician go to the internet to promote their music. First I stumbled on tunecore without making proper research on the scam company, so I was excited that this company will help me distribute my music all over the world for people to hear my voice not knowing that they are nothing but thieves and liars. First they will tell you to sign up for free and distribute you music all over the world, then the next thing they do is to tell you to do is sign up for [redacted] account to help with the royalty collection. Once you have signed up for the [redacted] account which is not a free sign up they will ask you to link the account together. The moment you link the account together you have lost control of your royalty. They fill the royalty for you and dividing the money made from the royalty into two and also make sure that you don’t get a cent from your money. the next thing they do is to show more stores that you need to sign up for.

Now let talk about ‘‘[redacted]’’. Once you notice that you don’t have control over your royalty, you try telling them to unlink your [redacted] account from your TUNECORE account. [redacted] will tell you that they can’t unlink the both account because if they do tunecore will stop to bring artist to their website for signup. So they simply tell that they can’t, which is another lie. That’s what they did to me. So I wrote to tunecore demanding that they separate the accounts, tunecore told me that I have record contract with them and that it cannot be terminated, so they refuse to unlink the account. All of sudden Tunecore has changed from music Distribution Company to a record label. Tunecore and [redacted] are in this together and tunecore is the one in charge of the scam game.

Now let’s talk about ‘‘[redacted]’’. The only difference in [redacted] music Distribution Company is ,you only pay for you music distribution once and once payment is made your music will be in stores forever except you wish to take it down, which is not so in tunecore they make you pay every year for you music to remain in the internet stores. If you fail to pay your yearly music distribution in tunecore, they tell you that they have taken down your music from the store which is another lie. They will be selling your music behind your back and give you the impression that they have taken down you music. Now back to [redacted], do they really care about artist the answer is no. they also want you to sign up for [redacted] pro so they can be in charge of your royalty. Whatever they tell you about your music is what you take to be the ultimate and final answer making themselves music god but the truth is they are no music gods but music thieves who steal from artist.

Now let’s talk about the almighty ‘‘[redacted]’’ they are the once that publish music sales report and their report is the final answer so most people see them as angels but they are no angels they are worst than the devil. they are also part of this evil games .I have tried many time to get the data of my music in the internet but they refuse to give it to me. The truth in the music business is that sale of music has drop very low so most artist make it from streaming, radio airplay and shows. The reason why I mentioned this is because most [redacted] artist like me have made the mistake of asking for sale record from [redacted] and when you do they will give you a record that will frustrate you, making you regret the you first day you entered the studio to sing. Ask [redacted] for your airplay, streaming data they will try to scare you away with their price and frustrate you. I have sent many email but they refuse to give me my radio airplay and streaming data. BEWARE OF THEM.Desired Settlement: they give me full details of all the music I have published with them and they pay all the money made from my album

Business

Response:

To Whom It May ConcernFirst off, I'm sorry to hear about your negative experience with TuneCore. You also mention having a negative experience with [redacted], and [redacted] and although our Publishing Administration service works with [redacted] to help collect money on your behalf all of those companies are completely separate from TuneCore so unfortunately we won't be able to help with any issues you've had with them.With regards to signing up for [redacted], there is no fee for registering with [redacted] as a writer, so I am not sure if he means that he registered with [redacted] as a publisher instead where there would be a fee associated with this sort of sign up. If that was the case, he would need to contact/deal with [redacted] directly to rectify this. [redacted] did do the correct thing in not terminating the agreement with the client because since TuneCore is his administrator of record, only we can end the agreement so long as his anniversary date of 11/**/2015 has elapsed. The [redacted] and TuneCore Publishing connection is necessary so we can collect worldwide on behalf of our clients. Adding TuneCore Publishing Administration as his administrator allows us to be the payee on record for his publishing share which essentially is granting us exclusive rights that is required from the global rights societies to collect on his behalf.Regarding this customer's Publishing royalties, his earnings are accurate considering that we received work registration numbers from all applicable sources that we register his compositions with – [redacted] being one of them. In reviewing his distribution earnings, 70% of his sales came from within the US. This means that he was receiving the majority of the mechanicals automatically through his distribution sales and there would not be much residual publishing royalties.The client did write to our Publishing Administration in November 2014 asking us to terminate the agreement immediately and we explained to him that per the terms (http://www.tunecore.com/index/terms#publishing_administration_terms) we are unable to until his anniversary date and we even sent him a screen shot of the terms and conditions that states as such (also attached to this response). Even though we were following what's stated in our Terms & Conditions and his termination date is 4 months away we are issuing an immediate termination for him. The client will receive a letter confirming this within 1-2 business days. We will also inform [redacted] that we are no longer the administrator of record.In terms of adding additional stores to a release, this is completely optional. As a company we're always looking to add more stores to our Distribution service and again it's up to the customer if they want to take advantage of these new stores or not (and there is a fee if they do wish to add more stores AFTER their initial distribution).Regarding TuneCore's Distribution prices we are a subscription service so you pay yearly for distirbution and this is clearly explained on our pricing page here: http://www.tunecore.com/index/pricing Again, we have no affiliation with [redacted] and the pricing models they offer.Yes, if a renewal is not paid the content is removed from all stores. However, all stores report sales on a 2-month delay so it is possible for a customer to recevie money from sales up to 2 months after content is removed from stores (or possibly longer is a store is delayed in reporting. On April [redacted] this customer contacted our Support Department stating they could still see one of their releases in some stores. We responded the same day (Incident [redacted]) asking the customer to let us know where they're still seeing content available for sale but they never responded. If the customer lets us know where they're still seeing their music available for sale we will absolutely look into the issue and get it removed ASAP. But regardless, and sales made from the music being available will still be placed in the customers account and TuneCore never takes a percentage of music sales.As previously mentioned, [redacted] is a separate company from TuneCore so we cannot speak on any issues this customer had with them.At this point we have responded to all open incidents the customer has had with us. We are making an exception and terminating his Publishing agreement with us 4 months early and all of his content has been removed from our Distribution service.SincerelySean D[redacted]Manager of Operations

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

[Your Answer Here]

Review: Tunecore has incorrectly claimed that they are the "Sub Publisher" for works that were registered with [redacted] and performed well after my agreement with Tunecore ended. They informed every foreign PRO that they had a deal with me and have been collecting money that was intended for me for the past year. They never informed me that they were collecting this money. I only learned of this because of a discrepancy in my [redacted] Writer and Publisher statements. Since I informed Tunecore Publishing of this issue, they have taken little to no action to remedy it. They are STILL collecting royalties that are intended for me. I haven't seen any of this money since I learned about this and contacted Tunecore in early August 2015.Desired Settlement: I need to know exactly how much foreign royalty money has been paid to Tunecore that was originally intended for Skisty Cent Publishing

Business

Response:

To Whom it May Concern:[redacted] was a client of TuneCore Publishing Administration from 2011 until July 2014. During that time, we advised every foreign PRO of our rights to the 11 works [redacted] submitted to us, as was our contractual obligation. In August of 2015 TuneCore was contacted by [redacted] concerning certain compositions that were erroneously registered to TuneCore within the territory of Australia. It should be noted that we did not submit these registrations. In an effort to correct this registration - though the error was no fault of ours- we contacted Native Tongue, our sub-publishing partner in Australia, who then worked in tandem with [redacted] to amend the registration and recover the funds. This error was expeditiously corrected to properly reflect [redacted] Publishing as the sole administrator of the compositions listed below. In addition, [redacted] was provided with the dollar amounts for each composition that was erroneously sent to Native Tongue, our sub-publisher. An adjustment was processed by Madeleine R[redacted], Copyright & Royalties Assistant of Native Tongue through [redacted] and she confirms that the earnings will be accounted to the client in Quarter 1 of 2016 due to the adjustment being part of the Quarter 4 2015 process. [redacted] Additionally, the client inquired about earnings for the compositions we previously administered and he has been explained that until his new administrator updates his records with the global rights societies, TuneCore will still be displayed as the administrator. He has been instructed to have his new administrator assert their claim which would then cause the source to contact TuneCore for confirmation of his termination that took place on 07/**/2014. This is standard industry practice. Any royalties sent to TuneCore will still be accounted to our former client through our normal quarterly accountings.SincerelyTuneCore Publishing

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

The issue is not just that Australia's PRO ([redacted]) believes that I have a sub publishing agreement with Tunecore. It is unclear HOW MANY FOREIGN PROs are working under this incorrect assumption. For example, I have been paid writer's share royalties from France's PRO SACEM, but NOT publisher's share royalties. This is the same thing that happened with [redacted] (Ireland), and several other foreign PROs. Where is this money? Tunecore will not tell me whether or not they have been mistakenly paid money from OTHER foreign PROs that was intended for me.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted] - `We have been researching this issue further with [redacted] and are currently awaiting a response from them. We will be back in touch as soon as we have further information (hopefully by next week).Thank you,TuneCore Publishing Administration

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Review: Tunecore [Incident: [redacted]]: A release was submitted to Tunecore for distribution from our company, Some Cutz Up, OK back in July of 2013. TuneCore submitted to stores OK. Stores listed Artist name incorrectly. Now [redacted] from their customer service team wants us to check each store to find out where the error was. This should be their issue, not have it fall on the customer. They have 20 different stores plus hundreds of territories and would take a huge amount of time to run a search for the artist to find out if it was listed correctly. Artist was submitted as "[redacted]-" and was found on iTunes as “[redacted]”. We have not confirmed error is happening on additional sites. It's now been 11 days and nothing has happened. We paid $49.99 for the release to be distributed correctly as submitted. It is currently being sold as another artist, an artist that is not related to our label, [redacted]. Tunecore needs to take responsibility of the issue happening with their clients. Many of the stores they distribute to are subscription only and would be impossible for our company to check each one of those stores since we do not have a subscription. To be clear we can't run a search for these artists unless we have a subscription. Yes, Tunecore submitted ok but we are paying for their services and now have an issue that is not getting corrected. [redacted] Owner Some Cutz Up LLC [redacted]Desired Settlement: I would like a phone call at ###-###-#### Monday – Friday from 10AM – 4 PM to sort this out and to avoid additional delays.

Consumer

Response:

We wanted a phone call from Tunecore or if handled through the Revdex.com there is no direct contact needed.

Business

Response:

August **, 2013

To Whom It May Concern:

In regards to Complaint ID#: [redacted], please note that we have contacted the customer directly via email and phone about the issue he mentions in his claim and resolved all matters.

In summary, we delivered the album in question successfully to all stores as he uploaded it to TuneCore according to our Terms & Conditions. Unfortunately some stores can list a release's Artist Name differently based on their own internal ingestion process (outside of TuneCore) in an attempt to list content by the same artist together. As a result, some store posted the album with a different variation of the Artist Name ("[redacted]" vs "[redacted]-").

This is a mistake that stores make from time to time, but we can always reach out to stores to request the correction (with the exception of Amazon MP3 who is unable to separate artists). We just ask that the customer let us know where they are seeing the mistakes. The claimant was not willing to do so.

At this point the majority of store this customer is distributing to are showing the correct name including: iTunes, Amazon MP3, Amazon On Demand, VerveLife (IMVU), Myspace Music, Rdio, Sony Music Unlimited, Wimp, Google Play, and Deezer

The following stores have been contacted about correcting the artist name: Spotify, Rhapsody, Simfy, eMusic, Shazam, Nokia, and Xbox Music

Regarding other stores, iHearRadio editorially selects what content is searchable in their store and this album was not selected. MediaNet can take 6-8 weeks for content to go live and that time-frame has not passed yet. Nokia has not published the release yet but we have reached out to them in order to have it go live as soon as possible.

A TuneCore representative spoke with the customer over the phone earlier today (8/**/2013), and the claimant was satisfied with how we handled the situation and stated he would contact the Revdex.com in hopes of retracting his complaint.

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,

Manager of Customer Care

TuneCore