Tunecore Review 2025: Pricing, Features & Everything You Need to Know

Top Reasons to Choose Tunecore Music Distribution 

Proven Track Record & Reliability 

Tunecore is one of the oldest and most reliable music distribution companies. It's closing in on two decades of service. It’s nearly a guarantee that you won’t have any major issues with the delivery of your music to stores: late delivery, non-delivery, proper metadata, royalty collection, or anything regarding the core functioning of a music distribution company. It provides one of the most detailed royalty reporting dashboards on the market. The presentation is on point, and everything looks great. Beyond White-Glove service and discovery mechanisms - which Tunecore addresses with its Accelerator program, it's at the top of the mountain for distribution options of its kind. 

Growth potential

Tunecore's parent company, Believe, is a Premium distribution company working with semi-established and established acts that have extensive resources it can leverage to grow and develop artists. Tunecore can leverage the resources of Believe to assist with the growth and development of its artists. Believe has been strategically acquiring indie labels globally, bolstering its influence and power.  The positioning of Believe as an indie music powerhouse grants it a degree of negotiating power where it can arrange terms with DSPs that favor artists in ways other distributors cannot. 

Top Tunecore Features 

Tunecore's Sales Reports 

Tunecore's Royalty Report Dashboard allows you to view revenue and sales across releases, countries, songs, stores, and dates, and segment by release, song, country, store, and date. They provide the best reports you'll find at this distribution level. 

User-Generated Content Tracker

If your music is being used on YouTube and TikTok, you can see the performance of the content: number of creations, likes, comments, shares, views, favorites, and average watch time. 

Tunecore's Direct Deals 

Unlike most distributors today, Tunecore doesn't use third-party companies to facilitate distribution. It works with digital service providers like Spotify, Apple Music, etc., directly. It can negotiate deals specific to the needs of the artists on its roster. Additionally, third-party facilitators charge fees that are passed down to artists, so by going direct, Tunecore allows you to keep more money in your pocket. 

Things of note

Tunecore Charges For Split Pay

Collaborators without a paid plan must sign up for a discounted Tunecore account, paying $8 annually to collect their share of royalties. 

Tunecore Primary Artists & Featuring Artists 

Distributing music for multiple artists would require you to pay $14.99 annually for each artist. Distributing joint releases where you and another artist are both Primary artists but use separate distributors would also require you to pay $14.99 annually. To avoid the fee, all collaborating artists need to be listed as Featured artists. Being restricted from adding collaborating artists as Primary artists leads to less impactful collaborations because platforms treat Primary artists and feature artists differently. Much more visibility is gained from having an artist listed as Primary rather than Featured. 

Accelerator Program 

Spotify's Discovery Mode is made available to your releases, where you can centralize streaming activity from some algorithmic sources to selected songs. There's no reason you should have to go through Tunecore for this feature because it's a Spotify feature that was initially accessed through the Spotify for Artists dashboard. Discovery Mode comes with a tax of 30% of revenue generated from participating sources during the promotion. Tunecore adds a tax of 20% of revenue from those sources during the promotion. You end up paying 50% of revenue generated from Daily Mixes, Artist Radio, and other sources with Discovery Mode activated. Additionally, artists must have enough streaming activity to qualify for Discovery Mode, so it's not something that can be used to gain visibility, only boost pre-existing support. 

Music Fights Fraud Member 

Music Fights Fraud is an alliance of distributors and DSPs that have come together to form a database to ban artists that have been flagged for streaming fraud. The ban would extend to every distributor and platform in the network. Many artists are victims of streaming fraud. Scam companies feed them false promises and take their money. The methods of Music Fights Fraud add insult to injury by punishing the artist for being scammed. It exists to protect the interests of major record companies and not indie artists. No major label artist is likely to be flagged for streaming fraud, and there's no way they would be added to any database. Additionally, Music Fights Fraud members are adopting a new policy called KYA(Know Your Artist) that requires artists to upload their state IDs so bans can extend to their identity. 

The Rundown 

Model: Mixed 

Unlimited Distribution for an annual fee. 

Annual fee per release 

Price: 

• Rising Artist: $29.99
• Break Out: $39.99
• Professional: $49.99 

Transaction Fees: 

PayPal: US $0.25 cap | Non-US: $20 cap
ACH: $1 - $5
Check: $5
Pre-paid Debit:$1

Stores: 

Unlimited inventory 

Distribution to New Stores: 

Included for plans starting at Breakout 

Artists: 

$14.99 per additional Primary artist starting at Professional. You cannot add additional Primary artists on any plan below Professional. 

Split Pay: 

Included - Collaborators without a paid subscription must pay $8 annually for Splits Collaborator to collect their share. 

Keeps Music Live: 

Music gets removed from all stores if you cancel or can no longer afford to pay. 

Exclusivity:

No exclusivity clauses in the terms, so you're free to do what you want with your releases. 

Customer Support:

Average. 

Content ID:

Keep 80% of revenue. 

KYA (Know-Your-Artist) / KYC (Know-Your-Customer)

This is promoted as a protective tool and requires you to upload your State ID to verify your identity. The Music Fights Fraud alliance and its members have plans to use this information for their database, which will likely be used for global bans and work as a No-Fly list for music distribution. 

Announced - Tunecore has announced plans to require KYA/KYC, and it may have already rolled out. 

UPC Codes:

Included + You can bring your own

Check the Comparison Charts for the most updated and comprehensive information 

Rating

Transparency: Great - I'm not a fan of some of Tunecore's moves, but they don't hide what they're doing. Customer support: Ok. Payment: Great - transaction fees are capped at $0.25, which is the lowest rate you'll find for PayPal. Stores: Great - extensive library of stores. Features: Great. Longevity: Great. Fees: Poor - The additional fees for Primary artists, the fee for the Accelerator program, and the added cost of Dolby Atmos mixes. Red Flags: KYC/KYA and participation in Music Fights Fraud. Track Record: Good. 

Final Assessment 

Tunecore is a great distributor, possibly the best. It's a perfect mix of high-quality service, pricing, decent support, and growth potential. I've always felt it was one of the safest choices for music distribution an artist could make. KYC/KYA, Music Fights Fraud, the Accelerator program: these are all moves that alarm me. I'm 100% against KYC/KYA with Music Fights Fraud's involvement. It's a nightmare waiting to happen. 

Take a tour of Tunecore's Website: Tunecore.com