TuneCore is a Scam?

[@Dolfyre]

I had the same experience. I uploaded an album to TuneCore and a few days later it was taken down, and I received the same email. I asked them why my music was taken down and this was their response: "Hello Dolfyre, Thank you for getting back to us. Unfortunately, after further review of your account, we have made an internal decision not to release this content. Please do not attempt to upload any additional content on this or any other account. Thank you. Best, Bryan" Thank you, Mr. Helpful!

[@yxvnghxnz]

bro i got the exact same email.

[@SCOTTWESTBAND]

Tunecore did the same to me and to several of my friends! Horrible company!!!!

[@lvmlevure-musicalembourang9222]

I got the same answer from them. They explained nothing to me.

[@arcadeuk]

Wow, your music was somehow so offensive to them that they don't want to ever even attempt to upload any again. I need to hear this content!

[@ЛюблюСебя-ч8т]

Mb problem in the content? For example, you have something offensive in it.

[@yfsincere]

They make it damn near impossible to cancel your account or cancel a release. And lock in your credit card which you also can’t delete and they keep taking your money

[@JoeyColey]

I had the exact same experience!! My theory is the reason they're able to keep prices so low and undercut Distrokid is because they're not actually paying to distribute a lot of their user's songs (since they scam half of them lmao). Seems like they need a lawsuit.

[@idlehi]

They are not even cheaper than distro are they?

[@JoeyColey]

@@idlehi TuneCore is $14.99/yr for their "unlimited" plan while DistroKid is $22.99/yr for their "musician" plan, and they're essentially the same thing.

[@lagosnoir]

S##t! There TOS says you wave the right to a class action. I guess this is their MO so people don't sue them?😮

[@richardmurrey]

class action... let's sue the bastards.

[@ЛюблюСебя-ч8т]

Mb problem in the content? For example, you have something offensive in it.

[@yxvnghxnz]

and I'm a poor person who struggled to buy a package to be able to distribute my music, and I was fooled and it broke my head so much

[@tashirose1244]

Yep, got the same response after my inquiry about the rejected release. I'm going to do a transaction dispute with my bank for the TuneCore charge and file a fraud claim with the FTC. TuneCore has violated our consumer rights protections...they failed to inform their customers/artists. They'll end up being a federal suit if enough of us file fraud claims with the FTC to get refunds. 💯

[@UBvtuber]

How they have not been investigated for fraud is beyond me, their BBB page literally has an F grade and a 1.25 out of 5 score.

[@DestructxMusic]

They should get investigated! I'm so mad I can't cancel my subscription renewal or delete the account! Fuck Tunecore!

[@NirajPundir]

Every single distributor is f$#king artists up, can't even help it.

[@g3mtheremnant]

If there is any formal class action law suit against Tunecore in the future please lmk. I feel the same exact sentiments, like I got ripped off literally. I got the same EXACT Copy & Pasted Email they sent you and I've been suffering from emotional damages and financial hardships because my single was suppose to be published and over 1,000,000 streams as of now =(...lol

[@DewOfficial_]

That's js bs man, i have also released my music on tunecore..but it's been 5 days and they're still processing it and idk wtf is happening

[@idlehi]

@@DewOfficial_ to be fair the processing might be on the streaming service, sometimes it takes a while and the distributor has no influence over that. if tune core hasn't sent you a rejection email then you might just need to wait a little more and you'll be fine

[@Polobag_Shawty]

I never had any problems with dropping music on tunecore

[@tbmviko]

The refund they are talking about is from their past payment model, they don't have updated it yet. In the past it was kinda like cdbaby

[@SeekHisKingdom]

Published 2 albums 1 Ep and lots of singels with tunecore and never had a problem. Very strange tho

[@apoxomfana4243]

Me too. 😂😂😂 I am so confused right now.

[@LaphobaOfficial]

Is it because they prefer more mainstream style stuff? Or electronic stuff?? Idk

[@Blonk0000]

what plan are you on?

[@ankitkaushikx]

publish 41 song within 25 days and 21 of them denied 🤣🤣

[@Yolozomusic]

Do not renew and they take down your release

[@GeorgeArroyoMusic]

Thank you for this video. I've been trying to release ONE song for about a month and they give me NO reason for the refusal. This company is a scam.

[@idlehi]

good to know this didn't only happen to me, I was starting to feel bad lol

[@GeorgeArroyoMusic]

@@idlehi update: Distrokid released the song in 24 hours. I'll never recommend TuneCore to anyone.

[@Trezn]

lol

[@tashirose1244]

This is the exact same email I got today!! I sent the same question to them about my album and I'm pretty sure I'll get the same response as you because other ppl have been complaining on the Better Business Bureau site (U.S.) about the same issue and also not getting paid. Tunecore you're cancelled --this was my first and last album submission. Hopefully things will go better with CD Baby.

[@derryrexeld]

i've paid for rising artist plan on tunecore , it's happened to me now they rejected my release

[@armaniofficialmusic1]

They are fckd up man, Im trying to get my releases sorted but they are taking years to reply and they keep on changing those serving clients, They are boring AF.

[@Darkartsmusic]

Tunecore is awful. Would you be willing to share the email address you corresponded with? As far as I can tell, they have no published email address that doesn't bounce back. All I get for customer support is a chat-bot that sends me in a loop of endless frustration.

[@idlehi]

[e-mail] they wrote to me on their own though when they declined my upload

[@jxckonmusic]

They scammed me out of so many royalties and took down all my music. I can't afford any kind of legal action against them but wow they are such low lives

[@Bmwmane396]

Bro when did you request the payout I mean on which day of a week???

[@Bmwmane396]

And how much amount did you requested to withdraw??? I withdraw 326 usd in in 3 discrete amount like first 100 then 100 then 100 then 26 usd I withdraw them on Friday and I got that money on Monday night of next week and after 1 day when I got all my royalties they blocked me 💀💀

[@kpoparabicsubandlyrics]

@@Bmwmane396 could we reupload my releases with another company?

[@guywalkmusic]

Dude. You used my favorite word like 9 million times. Video was informative and fricking awesome. Cheers!

[@idlehi]

What's your fav word?

[@WhirlpoolDestruction]

As someone who wants to make parodies. I use NoveCore, it’s hella easy for me and they give me reasons as to why my stuff gets declined. (Bad metadata, not marked as explicit when it is, blurry cover art, etc.) and I’m doing it for fun until I can start making money off of it because making music is something I’ve wanted to do now.

[@kpoparabicsubandlyrics]

could we reupload my releases with another company?

[@vcru]

Tunecore is not good for distribution music. I have professional plan of tunecore. First two songs upload nicely but after that tunecore asking money for every song. There is a option for remove item from cart but this is an option only i mean this is not working, every time showing an error. I'm trying to release a single song since three days but getting fail. I have paid twice also. Payment is debited from my debit card but till now tunecore asking for money.

[@ankitkaushikx]

if you are on rising artist and above plan you don't have to pay more then annual fee , every song is free to distribute , check again bro

[@payubo]

I've been facing some unprofessional and unreasonable actions and asking them for subscription refund. Fortunately, I got the full refund.

[@nineteen93music]

The same issue, all tracks are on the streaming platforms except Meta. One track was taken down after 1M streams

[@semiontario]

Wheres the song, ?? Lets hear what they rejected !!

[@Witherfall]

Samples?

[@idlehi]

None used

[@TabooRevolution13]

Wooow maybe ill stick with distro..

[@soundofnexus]

Had a similiar experience, they uploaded my track but to a completely wrong artist profile EVERYWHERE. After contacting the support there was no response for one week even though i asked many times and according to their website and auto reply they answer within 1-2 business days. I switched to Distrokid now, much better experience

[@RyryT_T]

They tried to copyright a song I made with my bare hands

[@FOX_TO_THE_4]

Jesus Christh i thought i was the only one who went through this experience

[@SamSteiner]

did you see the video (by Top Music Attorney youtube channel) about Tunecore keeping tens of thousands of dollars from an artists and even calling him a fake scumbag?

[@idlehi]

No I haven't! I'll check it out

[@Juliano_DJOL]

its your album art tho prolly thats the only problem Ive had w them, you cant have any words except the album name or song name I almost switched to distrokid recently and still might but when I looked into distrokid it had problems too so Im still not sure... One thing Tunecore is a pain is that it takes like 2-3 weeks to go live w a song but Ive also hear its a pain to try to switch so...

[@sunfran_shamanmusic]

I paid Tune core for the rising artist plan, and I've also bought the publishing, and they did exactly the same thing to me. I've received exactly the same email this night. I spent in total 98 euro, I honestly feel totaly robbed. Was my first release. Thankyou for have published this video. We really should do something on this.

[@Vibedebmusic]

same shit... we should do something against it

[@Hen_Bo13]

Did you solve it? or just leave it?

[@blackscorpion111-]

What happened?!

[@kpoparabicsubandlyrics]

could we reupload my releases with another company?

[@kiragoldmusic]

They do account all my singles but I have not drop album yet. Been using it since 2021 but I have problems with changing payouts there no way u can change it 😢so bad, and my song have not been on ig and facebook this days

[@powersnake]

The worst website I've ever known in my music life

[@brianpennymusic]

They released my new album on everything except Apple Music. Still don’t know why it isn’t on Apple Music and I even pay for the “pro” account to avoid this kind of crap

[@briangaten7643]

did they ever fix it?

[@brianpennymusic]

Yes, it took over a month of trying to deal with customer support. The payment reporting has been solid with the album sense then at least

[@PulseRepeat]

This particular experience didn't happen to me, but their artist support is pretty awful. After months I'm still unable to claim my Spotify for Artists/KZbin artist channel (I have videos that I made specifically for singles that no one will see because the auto-generated KZbin channel for my music always come up first in the search engine) despite qualifying for both. Someone also posted my album on their KZbin (not the biggest deal) and I asked TuneCore to claim it and they were completely useless and kept dicking me around and eventually I just gave up. They way I see it, if I can make back the $15 I spent on TuneCore thru either streams or purchases I can call it a day and move on to another distributor but this is a really sad way for me to finally release my albums after a ton of hard work. So tired of middle-men scraping off of people who actually give a shit about their art and want to push it forward and have an audience. But anyway, glad other people are catching on to how bad their service is. Just wanted to share my experience so far.

[@asilhunkaroglu]

Bruhhh this was so intense lol thx for the heads up man I hope everything goes just best for you

[@sunfran_shamanmusic]

To me it happened the same. I spent 98euro (plan + publishing rights) and i got blocked to the first release, it totaly feels like shit.

[@DestructxMusic]

They need a Lawsuit! Their support email is no longer taking questions, you can't cancel the subscription (the button just doesn't exist) and when you try to remove your payment method, you just get an error! Such a scam

[@IamVLD777]

Just cancel your credit card & get another. You’re welcome

[@altermoremusic]

Thank you to save my time 🤣 I choose CD Baby for my two upcoming releases. And then I'm planing go to LANDR to release a lot of music a year. But I'm not sure actualy.

[@idlehi]

СD baby has a good rep from what I know, don't know anything about LANDR though wasn't it that automatic online mastering app or smth?

[@altermoremusic]

@@idlehi yes I heard a lot about CD Baby, they are good but if you planing release a lot of music per year, they are little bit pricey. Yes, LANDR does those things but also now they have distribution management. Spotify also recommended them for distribution.

[@MikeBrayton]

what is going on? I typed 2 comments, one with a link to tunecore support page (which I then removed), and both my comments are now gone?

[@idlehi]

i can only see this comment, not sure what happened

[@flozartbeatz]

Looks like they have an AI running thrue the releases to check if it will be approved or blocked. And then the AI is not good enough (yet) to make decent decisions about approval or blocking of releases and make wrong decisions. But Tunecore is not willing to take responsibility of that and try to give an answer that keeps them away from problems. I think an honest answer from Tunecore to the blocked release issue would be: 'Our System blocked the release we don't know why but since it is just a small percentage of releases that is blocked and complains rate is comparable low we keep going like this. If people choose another Distributor we don't care since there is 100.000songs uploaded everyday on this earth, so we will have enough customers anyway. Between i am just a random guy getting paied for giving answers to customers and i have such an easy job by giving just some standart answer, since nobody is willing to take further actions anyway and i won't work here forever and also get paid low so my aim is not to make this company a better place but do my job and answer customers.'

[@odd31covers]

I wish I saw this video before I decided to upload my first single to Tunecore. Damn this really sucks. I'm sitting with 3 days "Processing" still no content review email. Status is sent. Just hoping for the best at this point.

[@idlehi]

It might be fine for you, it's hard to tell how the decide what to let through and what to block, 3 days processing is pretty normal so don't start worrying just yet lol

[@vt8532]

Your song is posted ?

[@MIIIKA08]

Is your song live yet?

[@harshdhiman9720]

yo did you get you song on or is it blocked now ???

[@TechnobyKeidaux]

@@harshdhiman9720 my song got posted everywhere so I guess it really just depends on who is uploading from where maybe? (switzerland btw)

[@marek-maria-lipski]

Well, times are coming by almost every musician ,each band, Any composer has own Distribution,

[@pure_pianno]

thanks for your opinion. I'll think before use it

[@centhiva]

I also hate their yearly fee for uploads thank God if you dont pay they taken your song down. Thank God for the new plans. I paid once on Cdbaby and it's still there till date. Tunecore need to review a lot and I think they are beginning to.

[@hadjiazure]

What is your medium of recording? Do you use app or live recording why they blocked you?

[@idlehi]

my DAW is reaper if thats what you are asking, it shouldn't really matter though

[@dynastiixvxofficial]

I can't even delete my tunecore account

[@idlehi]

Same! Let me know if you figure it out lol

[@Metaman9000]

oh wow, i was just about to release with tunecore but now im leaning towards distrokid

[@oshifshushi282]

Bro, it's true and I agree with you. I'm an EDM Artist and I signed up for their rising artist plan. So, I have been trying to release two of my music. But Tunecore says My content is removed and unable to distribute to all of the stream platforms.

[@flowsy5294]

what do you use now?

[@CountJayeAndTheHardBeats]

They also upped their pricing again recently.

[@Space_Titan-u3v]

I hate the UPC/EAN codes I don’t have one and it’s annoying 🤬

[@JUSTiCE_22]

EXACT same thing happened to me, can't believe this is still happening

[@talonwoodson7947]

I’m having a similar problem but my music is live n it says it’s released but hasn’t been distributed anywhere and says not available in this country pls helppp

[@idlehi]

What country are you from?

[@channelgeovanne]

Same experience I'm going back to distrokid

[@SteppedUpStation]

I got the same exact email reply by "Ashley" by tunecore.

[@Lfgtraders]

Bro my music is rejecting lol if u find a soultion tell mw

[@latyshevmusic]

Спасибо бро, это было последнее видео, чтобы принять решение не обращаться в TC.

[@idlehi]

пж

[@mac5stacks]

"My Main Question Was, WTF." 🤣Sorry Bro.

[@moonlightval13]

Happened to me too! :( What do I do??

[@politicalweaponryTV]

This is crazy. ALSO… I heard tunecore will charge per album!? Even though you have an annual subscription to “unlimited” releases, if you have 4 albums you get charged for all 4 each year! Can anyone verify this? Thanks

[@idlehi]

didn't get the chance to experience that lol

[@rajantmonroe]

Tunecore gets crazy expensive.. distrokid ftw

[@user-vg1ch4hu3o]

that is incorrect

[@vilouamjec9578]

Correct. And they take your money straight from the bank account you created with them.

[@user-vg1ch4hu3o]

@@vilouamjec9578 no

[@lucaa6006]

I had a similar experience with Tunecore, stay away from them, Distrokid is fantastic

[@chaoticfairy8126]

How do I cancel my unlimited Breakout artist plan 😢 I do not think i’m gonna be releasing music anymore for the time being and I don’t want 34.99 to be sucked out of my account

[@idlehi]

no idea bro, good luck tho

[@IamVLD777]

Ahmm, why don’t you simply close your credit card & change it with another? You’re welcome

[@oscarhobs]

legit almost got their service today thank you

[@Alinichtlachen]

Bro they don’t let me outcash my Money they blocked it its like 2.500€

[@mrturnerzambia]

I check everything too, and now I can't even upload any music after paying, these guys are scams. Their platform is wack and have no proper way to fix people's problem, they keep deducting money

[@anil_kumar75]

report complait in court

[@rollingthunder-AI]

Once they have your credit card they won't let you delete it.

[@Prof.Albusdumbledore]

You kept it so real here! 👑 so be real with me. How good is distrokid really? How the customer service and do they really take your song down without warning

[@idlehi]

If you stop paying they do take your songs down, but they warn you if your card gets declined or something and give you a couple days to fix it. Also you can pay an extra fee to keep a specific release up forever even if you stop paying for distrokid which is kinda lame that you have to pay twice. The customer service is mostly automated meaning mostly useless, I have yet to have a serious enough issue to need their help though. Overall it's def not perfect but I just personally prefer it to the competition

[@donnas8408]

DISTROKID SUCKS!!! RUN!!

[@jackstone4825]

Just don't forget, as soon as you publish anything on any of these platforms, you forfeit any copyrights to your music. These websites are publishing companies, you upload on their platform, your music stops being your music!

[@Kshitijj]

​@@jackstone4825That is not at all true. Which rights are you talking about?!

[@leo6659]

yea that sounds very wrong @@jackstone4825

[@Gauravkumar-qk5uj]

i got same but when i am say the reason very politly and send them some proofs of making process of my song [screen recording], and i am begging them to upload it , then they upload my song to all platforms. And then they do it again for my next song and i do the same thing again and then they again upload my next song. may they only check that this song is yours or not maybe.

[@Lfgtraders]

How ? My song are rejected too

[@chichomusic]

Distrokid blocked all my music too ...

[@magikarpgaming6397]

that's not even counting the fact they abuse the youtube copywrite claim on youtube. they said they claimed music from kingdom hearts which is absolute bullshit and disgusting. they don't own it and kingdom hearts music is under fair use!

[@thisislilalice]

The train could do that if you for example where wasted and disorderly at least in Canada and the us. Curious what the content was or else it’s impossible to tell if it’s cause they felt it reflected there platform badly

[@idlehi]

well they are not a platform per se, they are a distributor, all they do is put your content on other platforms like spotify and like I said I was able to distribute the exact same music to all those platforms through a different distributor - distrokid. So it can't be about the music itself, or if it is then its dumb

[@thisislilalice]

@@idlehi ya but the representative you and you represent them. So they may feel it doesn’t reflect what the want to distribute.

[@thisislilalice]

@@idlehi just like a label can dictate what you put out they are in essance the label regardless of if we term it distributor

[@idlehi]

@@thisislilalice not really how it works, they do not represent me in any way and neither do I represent them, their service is simple a means to an end - getting your music to streaming. Now streaming platforms themselves could reject me if they thought it somehow reflected badly on their platform sure, however in this case i was able to get that same music on streaming anyway so it doesn't look like that was the case

[@thisislilalice]

@@idlehi you represent them. It’s the other way around ;p

[@jay-sealz]

Ive never had this porblem

[@jettookoff]

hmm

[@Lfgtraders]

Bro my music is rejecting lol if u find a soultion tell mw

[@jay-sealz]

@@Lfgtraders just make sure u have everything right and copyright

[@clementeen]

Well, I like your face, so you’re good 😂 thank you for saving me from a huge mistake. I won’t be going with TuneCore

[@mradriantang828]

same experience here. tunecore is so fked up

[@jasoncg]

It's too late for me; I already paid for the pro version. My three albums were sent almost a week ago, but they still haven't been released. I hope my tears won't be wasted on the result. Can everyone please recommend either CD Baby or DistroKid?

[@itsmiangelo]

Have they been released now?

[@chhanycls]

Not yet

[@itsmiangelo]

They released mine on apple music but not on spotify I'm still waiting

[@RingChaan]

@@chhanycls Now your music is live or not?

[@donnas8408]

CD BABY!!

[@yoykepasa]

Tunecore didn’t submit my music on instagram, someone plis help me😢

[@rollingthunder-AI]

They don't pay you anyway. Makes no difference.

[@LuxEliteNetwork]

They did the same to me

[@idlehi]

good to know i'm not alone in this

[@MusicHouse77-MH77]

ditto, with tunecore, should have went with Distro Kid to begin with, I will never use Tunecore again, ever! Consumer beware!

[@EjazRahmanMusic]

Ok thank you ❤️

[@cosmin_ofc]

good insight. glad I caught these scandals before I started releasing on multi platforms like this. I'm curious though, what's the actual purpose of TuneCore and DistroKid? Only that they do the upload for you on some 20 music platforms, and you don't have to do that by yourself? or are there other "benefits"?

[@idlehi]

You can't do it yourself, Spotify doesn't allow it. So you either have a label do it or need to use one of those distributors like distrokid

[@sidharthmittal01]

Can you please tell, did you generate a new UPC for reuploading your song on distrokid (after Tunecore rejection) or you just used the same UPC that Tunecore generated.

[@idlehi]

New one

[@czfidde]

Wait... is this how you are supposed to do it, to use a new id? Spotify then has the same song with different UPC... Fair cause for rejection if the unique id thing works as I suppose it does (which it probably doesn't btw 😂)

[@nicoMystic]

They took my money for renewal and i did not give them the ok.right now i Don't like them

[@rahulroaringrc]

You are 100% right 👍

[@umbramatte]

Same here They will go on until they play this prank on a black swan, so that he gets angry stressed and mortified that he calls into question what they don't expect, for example, like me signing up for something that I claim to understand, doesn't mean it was the same as they intended me to understand, if I am not provided with all the elements to do so.

[@aronabadph]

damn man. too late. I just submitted an album yesterday to tunecore. I wish I saw your video sooner....damn it.

[@idlehi]

well maybe you'll get luckier than me who knows

[@4ynn]

Did it drop?

[@manaupdate9370]

Same crap, Tunecore ate my money and canceled the release for no reason. The appeal to support did not work, received an extremely vague answer without indicating the reasons for the cancellation from Jack.

[@HiTasso]

Same problem i got today

[@briancouture6033]

why do they ask for credit card info if its free ????

[@TheZapota]

Kind of weird, I've never had any problems distributing my songs.

[@dmitrymontana2128]

exclusive? rights on all album?

[@idlehi]

Yep, it was all written and recorded by me

[@darylladdicson2363]

Thanks for the heads up

[@richardkelly9156]

It is a ripp off. Im having issues with the TITLES that are allowed. Im releasing political material. Political album. Its exempted from regulations. Its also illegal to intervene in a political campaign. I wanted creative titles like long ones. Like scottish folk bagpipes albums. Medleys. Really there is special law. Also the staff are not very knowledgeable. Its interesting to know other people are having issues. I thought the music used to be lifetime distribution once it was released for $200 😮

[@BlackJpeg]

Same happened with me . They are worst . We help our clients is a trap . Switching back to distrokid

[@karankatyal656]

Yes, I have faced this kind of issue on tunecore

[@Ihykyxto]

Yu released w tunecore?

[@gustavedelior3683]

God, Remy is just the worst! They have claimed I'm using a sample that I don't have the license to. I haven't used anything I don't own the rights to. So I ask what licence do I need, can you provide a timestamp or who this alleged sample belongs to. I told them it could be as simple as a mistake on my end and I just need to log into to a service a use to retrieve the license if something in my library got mixed in. 7 days later I'm getting the same response over and over. I own hundreds upon hundreds of licences, I just need to know what they are looking for. Then they asked a question, is this AI? And I'm like my mastering program has AI assistance in auto leveling but that's as close as I get to that beyond what's on Photoshop. I ran a file analyzer on my music and the only thing that pinged was a single whispered word on a different track than the main vocals, that's my whisper, it's just the word pronto. I feel insulted, upset and I'm afraid that I have less rights using them.

[@JustRayless]

thats why distrokid is king

[@idlehi]

haven't found a better alternative personally, although its certainly not perfect

[@donnas8408]

Bs!! You work for distrokid rip off!! And F distrokid and their rip off subscriptions!!

[@reomaadox5687]

Same here with me bro, it fucking stressful

[@derickmartin3832]

AHHHH, SAMMEEE! Wtf is this!!

[@PRO9IX]

U r right bro😞😔

[@100061801]

I wonder how I still keep on uploading music on TUNECORE! There's a platform where it shows 1 million+ streaming just for one of my songs and I haven't seen royalties money or at least to get someone who to talk about it no one answers

[@SlightFlexJet]

royalties take 9 months to claim i think and streams take 2 months to claim

[@tolunayofficial]

Halbrand? :D