The company has been around for fifteen years and allows independent musicians who want to reach an audience to stream their music on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, or TIDAL.

TuneCore is a major player in digital music distribution, but that doesn't mean they are in a monopoly position, in a market with an exponential number of competitors who stand out by innovating and offering more affordable fees for clients. Oops. Artists.

In this review, we'll tell you everything you need to know about TuneCore, from the history of the company to what it can do for independent musicians.

TuneCores' history

Founded in Brooklyn, TuneCore debuted in digital music distribution, publishing, and licensing in 2005.

That year we were talking about Tunecore in World News Tonight on the ABC channel, the Daily Mirror, and Pitchfork, because digital distribution was still in its infancy and because their first client was none other than Pixies frontman Frank Black. It is also established that the Nine Inch Nails went through TuneCore for the distribution of their album Ghosts I – IV on the Amazon digital platform a few years later.

TuneCore ran into financial difficulties that we heard a lot about in 2012, but they have since rebounded in a spectacular way as reports show that the income brought by their artists is higher every year.

In 2019, the company announced that its artists had taken a symbolic milestone of reaching $ 1.5 billion in revenue, thanks to the growing popularity of genres such as heavy metal and J-pop. TuneCore's list of artists is impressive with 250K of them across the world. At the start of 2019, their artists totaled 200 billion plays and downloads, a figure representing an incredible 83% increase from their results the previous year.

What TuneCore does

Although the company has diversified in recent years to offer more services, TuneCore's core business remains online music distribution.

Signing up and distributing through the TuneCore portal gives you access to over 150 music platforms around the world, from the most powerful in the industry like Spotify and Apple Music to some you probably haven't heard of before.

In addition to offering the usual digital distribution services, TuneCore provides a number of tools that can benefit modern musicians such as personalized mastering, licensing of your covers, promotion on social media, feedback allowing you to hear the sincere opinion of your fans, and much more.

In short, you come to the base for the distribution, but you stay for all the additional benefits, as TuneCore likes to say. Later in this test, we will detail all of TuneCore's services outside of distribution.

TuneCore's reputation in the music industry

If we are to believe the few negative reviews on Trust Pilot, TuneCore would be an evil company whose goal is to exploit innocent musicians who are only looking to make a living honestly.

But if you take a more holistic view, you quickly realize that 30 negative reviews only represent 0.00012% of TuneCore's 250K users. Just as most people don't take the time to praise or publicly criticize their local supermarket, the majority of TuneCore's huge number of customers don't have much to say about the music distributor. We can therefore consider that most musicians enjoy working with the company. After all, TuneCore's overall rating on Trust Pilot is currently 4.4 out of 5 with over 1066 reviews!

TuneCore went through tough times in 2013 and was heavily criticized for not having enough revenue generated by its artists to justify its annual fee structure. The accusations were founded since subscriptions on paid streaming platforms only accounted for 9.1% of the US music industry's revenue that year. Today everything has changed. That number climbed to 47.3% in 2018 and looks set to continue rising. What does it mean? Well, it shows how digital music streaming has exploded in a short period of time, and on the other hand that TuneCore's business model is working much better for artists today.

TuneCore is one of the largest digital distributors in the music industry and this is mainly because of bands and musicians who see the company as a globally reliable and obvious choice. However, TuneCore, like its competitors CD Baby and DistroKid, is increasingly seen as a rigid and reluctant company to innovate in the industry. New music startups offering distribution only or accompanying it with other services are a threat to TuneCore's traditional business model. Indeed, many of these companies offer much cheaper prices than TuneCore and some of them even offer unlimited free distribution.

However, the reason TuneCore has managed to hold its own against its competition (for now) is that these startups are young and their business model has yet to prove its worth. Stem Music's decision to part ways with most of its customers in 2019 is an example of what can happen when a new distributor fails and it affects its users. It's true that TuneCore is quite a classic company, but that's not a flaw for a music distributor.

In order to help you find out if TuneCore is right for you, we'll go through everything there is to know about this music vending machine.

TuneCore pricing structure

TuneCore's pricing structure works well for some musicians, but not others.

By far the biggest benefit you'll find with TuneCore is that the company doesn't require you to pay them a commission on your royalties. Most of TuneCore's competitors require their users to give them 8-50% of the revenue from their downloads and streams. That is, if your music is successful, you will be forced to donate a percentage of your hard-earned money. For example, if you accepted a 10% commission, that means you will have to pay $10,000 if you have earned $100,000.

TuneCore does not ask you to pay a commission on your royalties but does charge a fairly modest upload fee. However, their annual album renewal fee of $50 isn't that low anymore.

If we add them up, between the costs of renewing an album and putting it online, many musicians might be tempted to turn to a distributor whose overall costs are lower, even if they will then have to share their royalties.

You have to do the math and assess the amount earned by most musicians on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. There is no exact data on this, but we can easily say that the majority of musicians do not earn $100,000 per year in streaming revenue. In fact, it's very likely that they won't earn $10,000 or even $1,000.

If you're not a recognized musician in your niche, TuneCore's annual upload and album renewal fees are probably not worth it against a more affordable distributor who will require a sharing of royalties. In other words, if you're not making a lot of money, you might be better off agreeing to pay a commission.

Here's how TuneCore's pricing looks:

• Album: $29.99 the first year and $49.99 each following year
• Single: $9.99 per year
• Ringtone: $19.99 per year

The company also offers discounts for musicians who produce a lot of music through a “Credit” system. For example, buying 20 credits in anticipation of a long-term album release will give you a 14% discount. Most musicians won't use this feature, but it's a nice benefit for those who plan to release multiple albums during their careers.

The TuneCore platform

Compared to those of its many competitors which are often sleek and innovative, TuneCore's platform is somewhat busy, dated, and difficult to use.

Uploading singles or albums is an unnecessarily long and frustrating process. It's clear: simplifying the upload process isn't necessarily high on their agenda. This is a minor inconvenience, unless you are a prolific artist.

The “Album Checklist” page which asks to add the information concerning the release of your album is rather easy to use, until you get to the upload section. The platform needs everything to be absolutely perfect before the music can be uploaded, but this information will not be given to you clearly. In reality, you will see some rather vague error messages and you will have to start over and over again, until the system judges everything to be good. There's also no option to let you drag and drop multiple songs at once, which means uploading an entire album can take from 20 minutes to an hour.

TuneCore's upload portal offers options to choose the platforms to which you can send your music as well as an option for your fans to purchase your music before its official release. However, in an age of fewer and fewer downloads, most musicians won't have the need or the inclination to pay an additional $15-25 for this feature.

Available platforms

TuneCore boasts of its ability to distribute music on “the majority of the world's digital platforms.” Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, all are reachable through TuneCore.

TuneCore works with 150 platforms and more are added every year, which is certainly not the maximum possible (some distributors work with 600 platforms), but they want to focus on the online platforms that will provide the most benefits.

In reality, even working with 150 platforms is a bit excessive considering that most of them are small, niche, and probably not able to give the same visibility to an artist as Spotify or Apple Music. The number of platforms TuneCore offers isn't particularly impressive, but that's because there is no point in it being.

As evidenced by their recent collaboration with the major Chinese media company Tencent, TuneCore is good at moving alongside the music industry and signing with new platforms. A useful tool the company offers is the “Store Automator” option, which will automatically send each of your new songs to the platforms that have just been added to the TuneCore catalog for $10 per song. You can also do it manually, but it is ultimately more expensive and it wastes your time.

TuneCore can distribute your music to all major online music platforms, but it is true that on this point DistroKid, CD Baby, and many others can offer you the same. However, the company is renowned for its ability to foresee and anticipate the needs of artists. At the end of 2019, TuneCore was one of the first major international distributors to enter the Chinese market through Tencent.

Their support

Contact TuneCore customer service and you will realize how big a company you are dealing with. The company works with 250,000 artists but employs only 215 people.

Of those 215 people, it's hard to know how many work in customer service. This means that to get a response from a human being regarding a problem encountered on the platform, sometimes takes weeks. Good luck if you need urgent help. The company relies on the fact that a very large amount of users will move through the upload and distribution processes smoothly because its employees would not be able to handle the full workload if it were not the case. If you are one of the unfortunate ones who are having trouble using TuneCore, the assistance you receive will likely be effective, but by no means fast.

When it comes to changing certain elements of a song after it has been distributed, TuneCore will essentially tell you that they will attempt to make the changes but recommend that you remove the music and start all over again.

This is obviously frustrating, but there is no clear rule of thumb for changes to already released music and each distribution company has its own approach. When you release a song through TuneCore or one of its competitors, you are paying for a service that allows you to distribute your music on digital platforms, not to make changes after the fact. The problem with post-broadcast changes is that each music platform has its own policy in place and some will make the changes for you while others won't. Imagine having to communicate with more than 150 platforms about a small change that a single artist wants to make to a single or an album. Now imagine having to do the same, but for 250,000 artists and with a limited number of employees. There you go, you understand.

When working with TuneCore, be careful when entering the title of your tracks and uploading them, because if there are any errors, it is more than likely that you will have to start all over and it could take weeks before someone will come to your rescue.

Speed

With an average of one business day to analyze a song, TuneCore is among the fastest digital distributors.

However, each platform it serves has different deadlines. Some distributors claim that they can post music in a day on a selection of platforms, but with most large companies it takes a minimum of two weeks for the music to be made available to the public.

Artists should think about this before choosing to work with TuneCore or any of its competitors, since posting music instantly to Spotify or Apple Music is neither realistic nor possible in most cases. The speed at which TuneCore processes music is fine, but this process is subject to the rules and working methods of the 150 platforms they work with.

Stats and reports

Lots of distribution companies come under heavy criticism for not providing detailed data and analytical information about the music they distribute, but TuneCore is pretty good at it.

The company offers multiple ways to analyze your streams, downloads, money earned, and trends for music that is played on different streaming platforms. When sales are published (sales include everything from individual streams to album and singles downloads), a dollar amount is displayed in the platform's dashboard. Clicking on this section of the platform will take you to a page which details your Balance History, mainly the inflows and outflows of money on your TuneCore account. This part of the platform can be a bit buggy but it gives you a lot of information: which of your music works best, how many times it has been listened to, and even in which countries of the world it is streamed the most.

By the way, TuneCore lets you pay for its services directly with funds you've acquired through your account, which is handy. The idea is that artists can rack up enough streams and downloads to fund distribution services without having to dip into their bank accounts, but that's not necessarily possible for everyone. TuneCore makes your work available to the public, whether or not people listen to your music depends on factors beyond their control.

TuneCore offers daily, weekly, and monthly trend reports which are helpful in getting a good perspective on how audiences are interacting with your music. However, compiling information from different companies and presenting it in a consistent and actionable way is not the platform's strong point. Nonetheless, some of TuneCore's biggest competitors have little interest in the analytical side of music distribution, so this is an area where the company stands out.

In 2019, TuneCore announced its partnership with Apple Music and implemented a feature that allows artists to access detailed analytical information about their music's performance on this platform. But while being able to access the Apple Music artist platform directly through TuneCore is nice, any artist who distributes at home can use it as well, so it's not that interesting. The only real benefit TuneCore claims is that the artist verification process is faster than for non-TuneCore users.

Additional services and benefits

TuneCore was one of the first and largest distributors of digital music since its inception in 2005. Since then, the music industry has undergone radical changes and the number of music distributors has exploded. Generally, what differentiates them is their offer as well as their distribution services.

TuneCore claims to have a broad offering for their artists, but just like the Apple Music partnership which isn't that revolutionary when you look at it, a lot of its additional services aren't going to change artists' lives.

In order to help you get a better idea of ​​what TuneCore has to offer besides distributing your music, let's take a look at its additional services.

TuneCore Publishing

According to the TuneCore Publishing site, “The music you wrote might make money without you knowing it. We can find it and collect it for you. ”

This service allows you to get your hands on royalties that PROs such as ASCAP and BMI cannot collect, such as mechanical rights and direct licenses. They also claim that through them, artists gain access to lucrative syncing opportunities with major TV shows, movies, commercials, and podcasts.

TuneCore Publishing uses Sentric's RightsApp technology to track where and when its artists' works are released around the world and collect the corresponding royalties. They claim to be members of rights management societies around the world, which gives them great international reach, making it easier to trace music.

TuneCore allows artists to keep 100% of their copyright, but their publishing services aren't free. For a single price of $75, artists can be represented for as many titles as they wish. TuneCore takes 15% commission on royalties and 20% on sync contracts. But is it worth it?

Unfortunately, this is where things get a little confusing. For example, a 20% commission might seem high, but that depends on factors that TuneCore is not very clear about. How intensely do they work to get licensing contracts for their artists? When an artist signs up for their publishing services, are they forced to sign an exclusivity contract? This information is surely available somewhere, but it is not easy to find. Whether or not you are interested in signing up with TuneCore Publishing depends on the specifics of your career and your motivation to dig for this information.

Partner Services

From duplicating CDs to promoting on social media, TuneCore has a lot to offer artists who distribute their music through their platform.

However, each “Partner Service” that TuneCore offers is totally different and some are, quite obviously, sponsored partnerships that seem to benefit the company more than the artists. In order to help you decide if they are worth your giving of your time, we present each of them to you in-depth.

YouTube Revenue Collection

This service allows an artist's track to be submitted to YouTube and tracked when it is used in videos posted on the platform. For an initial fee of € 10, TuneCore works with YouTube to find out where your music is used on the platform and pay you the royalties you get. In addition to the upfront fees, TuneCore takes a 20% share, which most artists find hard to digest.

Is this a good deal? YouTube is reputed to be the most famous streaming platform that pays artists the lowest, so it depends on how popular your music is on it. Companies like ASCAP in the US explain how musicians can collect their royalties themselves, but it's a process that will take you a long time. Others offer the same service but take a higher percentage. CD Baby for example takes 30% but does not charge you a setup fee.

Tunecore Social

This service targets artists who rely on social networks to promote their music. In addition to their 30-day Starter Offer, TuneCore offers Pro-level social media promotion services for $ 7.99 per month or $ 85.99 per year at a 10% discount. These services include the ability to download social media analytics reports, schedule a post to multiple platforms at once, and an app through which artists can access reports and schedule posts on their smartphones.

The idea is that TuneCore technology helps artists save time and understand their audience better, but giving away a portion of its hard-earned profits to gain access to it doesn't seem worth it if we are to believe the many artists who gave their opinion online. There are many other ways to streamline and schedule social media posts, and sophisticated analytics reports don't change the fact that organic visibility on major social media is no longer free.

Your Band Page

It is one of the social media promotion services offered by TuneCore. Via a template available on its platform, TuneCore allows you to create your public page that you can share on music platforms, on social networks, and through the press. This is a good point, but if you already have a website then this advantage is unnecessary.

However, for non-established musicians who are sharing their music for the first time and who don't have a website, this is a great way to share their music and identity for the first time.

Personalized and Instant Mastering

TuneCore is in partnership with AfterMaster Audio Labs which provides its users with low-cost mastering options. Exclusive rates are offered to TuneCore users. Paying $9.99 per song gives you access to “Instant Mastering” services, which are comparable to LANDR's innovative mastering services. For a price of $75 per song, the “Custom” offer opens the door to mastering services by experienced engineers.

In comparison to LANDR which offers unlimited free distribution through its platform, the Instant offer is not such a good deal, unless you prefer AfterMaster technology to theirs. When it comes to the Personalized offer, you will find as many good as bad reviews online. Therefore, it is better to listen to examples of their work in the studio and make up your own mind.

TuneCore Fan Reviews

If you're dying to hear what fans think about your music, TuneCore has you covered.

In partnership with the company Soundout, TuneCore offers three levels of services that give you access to your fans' opinions and data about your music. The “Starter” offer gives you access to 40 reviews for $ 15. The number of reviews and analytical data increases with each level of the offer.

More experienced composers will not necessarily be interested in this service. It is the same reason which pushes many musicians to flee the site specialized in the submission of music, Submithub. Feedback tends not to be detailed and sincere when a listener is primarily motivated by greed, which prompts him to give his opinion on as much music as possible.

Honest and detailed feedback can help composers, but that's unlikely to be what they will get with this service.

Partnerships and Special Offers

TuneCore is in partnership with companies such as Feature.FM, RadioAirplay.com, Bandzoogle, and Qrates. From artist websites to vinyl making, each company offers different services and promotions for TuneCore users.

Discounts are small, ranging from 5% for vinyl manufacturing to 15% on the Bandzoogle website. There is nothing inherently useful for artists here, but if you are not yet established and are looking to promote your debut album, for example, the promotion services offered by TuneCore will be a definite advantage if you already have plans to create your own website or to simplify promotional efforts through a service such as Feature.FM. But given that the discounts offered by TuneCore are so small, it's hard to consider them to represent any real added value.

The RadioAirplay.com service provides Internet radio broadcasting to all TuneCore users who register for the service. It starts with a free limited trial and then it turns into an incentive to purchase the paid monthly subscription. The amount of this subscription depends on a complex credit system. Between the complicated pricing structure and the fact that it is very likely that an internet radio which broadcasts any artist who wants it is bad, this is a service that serious artists will not resort to.

Feature.FM, that's another story. They provide marketing tools to streamline promotional efforts and analyze data from multiple delivery platforms. And the 5% off Qrates is offering TuneCore users is a nice bonus if you've already planned to release a vinyl version of your album. In the end, there is nothing to be really happy about here, but there are still some benefits to TuneCore partnerships. It's a bonus, after all.

CD manufacturing

You might think CDs are a thing of the past, but that's still a big part of how artists promote their work to the press and radio, with much better sound than in MP3 format. TuneCore offers its own CD manufacturing services with prices comparable to those charged by other providers.

They offer their subscribers a $50 discount on any service with a total amount over $500, which is no small feat. There are surely other great deals out there, but if you're looking to make your album release easier, TuneCore isn't a bad choice when it comes to making CDs.

License Agreements for your Trade-in

Cover versions represent a huge market for artists looking to reach new audiences and fill their portfolios in the process. The number of distributors who are offering cover licenses is growing and TuneCore is just one of them.

When an artist plans to cover a song, the process of distributing and collecting royalties is completely different from when it comes to their own music. The service offered by TuneCore aims to clarify the sharing of royalties and copyrights and they fairly pay the original artist and the cover artist.

The company offers two license levels: Standard and Limited. Limited licenses are priced at $15 and are for artists who think they're selling less than 500 downloads or “units.” Standard licenses cost $ 59 and are aimed at those who think they are selling more than that. The main difference between these two types of licenses is that the Standard option covers artists indefinitely while the Limited option does not.

It is true that the world of royalties and music licenses is extremely complicated, but TuneCore's page on this subject doesn't clearly explain why this service is necessary or how it offers them better than that of their competitors.

Still, if you're an artist who works with TuneCore, you might want to find out about their cover licensing services.

Monetization of Videos

In addition to TuneCore's services allowing you to collect YouTube revenue, the company allows artists to collect royalties when their music is broadcast on Facebook and Instagram (Instagram is owned by Facebook).

In today's social media culture, this feature is not an option, but a necessity for artists looking to multiply their sources of income. Facebook has come a long way over the past five years making it difficult for artists to reach their audiences for free, but what users download and how they interact with music on the platform is another story.

Despite the social media problems, Facebook and Instagram still have just under 3.5 billion users. That's barely less than half of the world's population. Video and audio content is a huge growth engine on social media, and services like TuneCore seek to know when an artist's music has been used and pay for them accordingly. Here is how it works. By signing up for TuneCore's Facebook and Instagram Monetization program, you give users permission to use your music on the content they post on these platforms. Fans can access your work through a large audio library. There is even a lyrics checking system that allows users to post your song lyrics to their Instagram and Facebook content.

To use this service, TuneCore users do not pay an upfront fee but return 20% of their royalties. Is this a good deal? CD Baby takes 30% and DistroKid claims to offer this feature for free, but this claim looks suspicious (the digital distributor is known to “surprise” its users with fees they don't expect). A 20% commission is a significant price to pay for accessing Facebook's audio library, but TuneCore is betting that you won't have the time or resources to do so without their help.

In the end... 

TuneCore isn't the most obvious choice when looking for a music distributor, but it does the job well.

We can consider that the emerging business models of distributors offering their services for free or at low cost are too experimental today, posing a risk to artists who could see their music deleted overnight.

TuneCore has its flaws (their services are a bit expensive, their customer service is relatively slow, and they don't offer the same benefits as some of their competition), but the company is a trusted distributor that doesn't force artists to accept. to pay a large commission on their royalties.

In the end, this is the main element that differentiates it from its competitors and that makes the company interesting in the eyes of artists who generate a lot of listenings.

The choice is more complicated for artists who do not generate a lot of listenings and who will instead be better off working with a company that offers lower upload fees, but with commissions. If you don't earn much, you have nothing to lose anyway.

In short, while TuneCore isn't as new and sexy as the latest hottest startup anymore, it's still formidably comprehensive and effective. In short, a safe bet.

France, unlike other European countries, and probably on a larger scale, other countries of the world, is a country that suffers from a terrible paradox. We often hear that France is the country with the richest cultural offer in the world. And yet, it’s also the most closed country, in terms of music. Why?

Blame the media?

The media plays a huge role in the closure of France and its musical isolation. It’s not 100% their fault if our country is so closed musically, of course. But I've worked in so many different radio stations and noticed something. Radio stations and TV channels seems to agree to broadcast pre-designed products. Yes, we are talking about products. And not artists. Because the goal of the game, for them, is to release the most profitable product. Some examples ? Jenifer, Kendji, Slimane, Amir, Frero Delavega. You may have never heard of those names of course, cause they never crossed France's borders. But they all have a common point: they are TF1 products, which we see mainly on TF1, which is the first French TV channel. We rarely see them on other TV channels. And we hear them all day long on NRJ, TF1’s historical partner. NRJ is the first radio station in France. The circle is complete. TF1 manufactures the product, NRJ markets it. TF1 is the first historical TV channel in France. When you turn on your TV, it turns on with Channel 1. And NRJ is the first radio station in France and covers all the territory... You got it?

Blame the listeners?

The musical isolation of France is certainly accentuated by the media. And of course, we can't really blame the listeners for that weird situation cause it's not their fault. 

Sometimes I just have the feeling that France operates on a simple strategy but often passed over silence: "I don’t know it, so I don’t like it". Oh. This is what I call sadness with a big S. Yes, some French people are undeniably very closed to discovery. You may think, on the other hand, that Spotify could help us to get more curious about what they don't know. But here in France, Spotify is almost unknown and most people don't know what it is. We have a kind of French Spotify that is called "Deezer" though, and a lot of people are using it. So everything's not lost :) But as people were used to hearing the same songs on the radio, again and again, they will just add those songs to their playlists and won't really use the discoveries features of those apps. Even those words: INDIE MUSIC. They're unknown to most French people. When I tell my friends that I'm promoting indie music, they just look at me in a strange way. And their first question is "what is indie?".

The fear of discovery

Come on, enough blah blah. Now, we will talk concretely with an example.

Once you had a listen to that track, make someone from your entourage have a listen to « Different » from The Academic band.

A Dutchman, a German, or an Englishman will tell you « Amazing », « I love it! » While some Frenchmen will tell you « It’s not famous? So, I don’t like it! « . That's quite a very sadly reductive point of view. But so sadly real. And you don’t need to go far to try the experience: try with a French guy you may know. Fortunately, it's still possible to find some French people who will love this song.

So, French people are going to tell us »  yeah, well, they’re Irish, so we just don’t know about them. » OKAY. In this case, we will follow this way of thinking, with another example.

Bon Air is a French duo. They come from Guéthary, in the Basque Country, a beautiful village perched on the Atlantic coast. Do you like it? It’s not aired here in France on the radio. And honestly, the track has every chance to be exported abroad: the writing in English is great, the almost imperceptible French accent, and the melody is rich. The band often travels abroad, especially in New Zealand where they find inspiration to write and compose sumptuous melodies. Because music is a way of life, a culture. And they had the good idea to look elsewhere for the culture and openness that France lacks.

Did you say « fear »? Yeah, I said « fear »!

Some French listeners won’t make any effort to dig novelty. Novelty scares them. It’s an unconscious feeling. On the other hand, what they know reassures them. And what they know very well, even more. Why do we still hear from Jean-Jacques Goldman every day on RFM? Because this is the most famous French singer, and everybody knows about him here. He also wrote hundreds of songs for other French artists. And French listeners love to be served again and again of what they already know. Because it reassures them. And in terms of radio, a song from Jean-Jacques Goldman, is called a « strong » track. Because he reassures. But we can bet that this artist is totally unknown elsewhere... On the other hand, our little Irish band from The Academic, or our French favorites of Bon Air, won’t be aired. Because for French radio stations, it’s what they call « risk-taking ». Yes, you read that right. We talk about risk when we broadcast an unknown song. It must always be « secured » between two very well-known tracks. While abroad, spreading discoveries seems to be a daily practice, and seems perfectly rooted in morals. Maybe it's because French radio stations added something important in the game: very high rotations, like playing the same songs every 90 minutes. Here, if you listen to a radio station from 6AM to 9PM, you'll hear the same songs... 15 times. Human brain is made like that: loving something it's used to. So just try the experiment by yourself. Chose a song you already heard and thought "I don't like it". Start to play it 15 times a day for 3 or 4 days. At the end of the experiment, you will love this song. And even sing along.  Just because your brain is now used to hear it. This is one of our psychological weaknesses. And the media perfectly know how to take advantage of this weak point. 

French exception?

Almost. As we said before, our Belgian, Swiss, and Luxembourgish neighbors are drinking from the French media, and the same thing is going on there. But just pass the Channel and go for a ride in the UK. Turn on any radio station, even the most popular. Of course, you’ll hear today's biggest hits. But not only. You would be surprised to hear the Spice Girls, always scheduled daily, alongside artists completely unknown from the public. Because Great Britain seems to be musically more opened to discover something new. At least, that's what I felt when I went there.

Do France export its music?

Oh yes, fortunately, we manage to export French artists. And contrary to popular belief, foreign media don’t go to excess with Edith Piaf or Gainsbourg. As proof, some British radios like the BBC already pushed on air Christine and The Queens, Daft Punk, or Phoenix, for example. However, they have never heard of Johnny Hallyday or Patrick Bruel. We experienced it in the UK. After a quizzical look, they gave us a spontaneous "Who’s that?"... Rather disconcerting for any French people. It was a strange experience: at once scary because it feels like you’re talking to people who are a bit ignorant, but also reassuring, because you realize that you’ve set foot in a country more open to discovery because they have many more artists to discover, than us. So, we can tell that « popularity » has a different meaning, from a country to another. But hey, after all, maybe English people never heard of Johnny Hallyday, but I have to admit that I'm not able to name the most famous German singers. So this may not be only our fault haha.

Will it ever change?

Bad news: probably not. And the reason is simple: you can’t change the whole culture of a country. Because it’s really a matter of culture. Musically, France looks a bit closed. United States, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Asian countries, are open to what they don’t know and are very curious and eager to discover. Unless a radio revolution happens. If tomorrow, NRJ starts broadcasting Kodaline, Sunrise Avenue, or Flo Chase, these artists will become huge stars in France. For now, they remain perfect strangers for almost everyone here. Because the French media works on a strategy: they don’t play hits, they create them! It is by putting a song every 2 hours on air, that the song becomes a hit.

Even if we create a web radio?

Unfortunately: no way. When you read all that, it’s tempting to create a web radio that has the right balance of hits and discoveries. We have already tried, our web radio closed in 2018 after 13 years of existence (which is already a record). But it never took off. Because you have to live with your time. We are in 2020 and the Internet radio is out of date. However, creating playlists on Spotify, or a YouTube channel, is easier to do and really cheaper. But we didn't discourage ourselves and launched our IMC Radio station though. Cause it's still a powerful tool to promote indie music and we didn't want our artists to miss it.

Can we make any song a hit?

Well… yes! That’s why, if you're an artist, please don't discourage yourself. Everything is possible!

A recent example is shouting truth: Come and Get Your Love, from Redbone.

France has heard this track a lot last year on the radio. A real huge hit. Yet, it’s a 1974 track! Who would’ve believed that?! A French phone mobile network, Bouygues Télécom, used this song in a Christmas commercial, broadcasted from October to December 2018 on French screens, so the track got more and more Shazams. And more and more streams on Spotify. So the radios stations wanted to follow the trend and start to play it every day, with high rotation. Then they marketed the track on CD compilations. And the song finally became known in France, 45 years after its release.

Shared wrongs?

From this concrete example, the Redbone’s track, we can see the power of the media here. Because television has given this old track its nobility. And radios just have surfed the wave. And this explosion of streaming plays (nearly 10 million, like that, suddenly!) is due … to France. The song didn't get a huge peak of streams out of France. And foreign radio has always played since its release, no one has forgotten it. In France, we didn’t even know about this track. Because TV discovered it, then radio discovered it, and so, French listeners discovered it. The wrongs are therefore shared. The media contribute to this cultural closure, and the French people seem to agree.

Can a French artist break into the international scene?

Fortunately, yes! Of course, speaking correct English will be your best weapon. If so, then yes, an international career is possible. If your writing in English is fluent, and your composition is neat, you can succeed. When it comes to exporting, there are a lot of things to do. How to write correctly in English? How to develop a good digital strategy? Where to send your music? On all those points, we can help you!

Some other artists don’t need our help anymore, and that’s good! We can use this fine example of French success abroad, with the Lyon-based band Nazca.

But I am open!

Great! That’s the best news we’ve heard for a long time. You will enjoy your life, having a much richer musical culture. We invite you to take a look at our music blog, Indie Music Center , which is full of nuggets that will stay in your mind all day long. Music is a universal language.

We don't have to be ashamed about money. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here, reading this! Let's be honest.

Many people are unaware of this, but the selling process of your music only has three steps.

Unfortunately, too many artists/bands rush to the last step and forget steps one and two, really important steps to make money from your artistic project.

If you follow this carefully, I promise you'll be able to make money as a musician.

1. Getting fans

Of course. No fans = no money. 

First, you have to find music lovers and catch their attention before going further.

Indeed, what's the point of releasing an album, doing a crowdfunding campaign or making a video, if you don't even have fans?

It may sound obvious, but we saw it a hundred times.

Bands going into studio, spending a few thousands dollars, while their fanbase is only made of colleagues, friends and family members.

Good job!

Now, I want you to repeat after me : A real fan is someone I've never seen before. A real fan is someone I've never seen before. A real fan is someone I've never seen before.

Great. Now you have that magic sentence in your mind, you absolutely need to find and target potential fans, directly where they are.

This can be on socials. This can be through Adwords advertising or Facebook. Or when you're opening for a bigger musician or playing at a festival.

This can be on a music blog (hey hey, thanks so much to the music blog section of the Indie Music Center!), this can be on Soundcloud or Bandcamp, as long as you have the opportunity to sustainably get these fans. But get them!

So, just don't focus only on what you will produce ("what to sell"), but on potential customers ("who to sell").

You won't go anywhere if you remove fans from the equation.

2. Get your fans engaged

There is a huge difference between having hundreds fans and having hundreds real fans engaged in your career.

Let's be realistic : their involvement is not linked to chance. You can light up a candle, and pray. It's your decision. 

But I personally don't believe in that method.

It's about the time and effort you invest in your community, by giving them chances to get involved.

Whenever you can, give them the opportunity to:

Did you got it? That's cool! You made a step ahead.

But you have to be really careful, and not doing this randomly. It could be considered as spam.

Keep it relevant, especially because a fan can detect value.

That said, you give your fan something that is worth more to him, than the time or money he gives to you.

There are so many ways to give value as a musician, but one of the most powerful methods is to give time and respect to create a sincere and friendly relationship.

It's to be available and reachable for your fans. See the third of our 5 tricks to become a successful indie artist.

Care for your fans, have fun with them and consider them as friends, or even members of your family.

If you frequently engage your fans by creating value for them, then you'll build their loyalty.

And they will only wait for one thing in step 3 of the process, that is, to invest money in your project.

A cold and uncommitted (or bought) fanbase is almost as useless as not having a fanbase.

3. Monetizing

Now that you made some friends, all you have to do is selling something to them! EP, album merch, gigs, downloads...

If you took enought time to build an engaged fanbase for months, then your fans will find a kind of value in what you offer them.

And it will help your sales.

Let's be honest, I didn't mean you'll get billions right after the release date of your first EP. 

If you want to keep your musical project, you have to offer loads of products and services, but also expand your discography.

You have to add incoming sources and and many different offers for your fans.

But if you do this while you're working on getting new fans, and engaging fans you already have, then you'll be the winner.

To sum up

As you can see, it's like an apple pie recipe. You can't remove any ingredient.

Keep in mind that I'm only giving you ideas to help you out.

But it's all up to you to get fans et engage them.

Because creating and growing a fanbase on socials is essential in an artist's life.

Some artists, musicians, or bands may, therefore, be tempted to resort to shortcuts or take this dimension lightly. 

Unfortunately, this doesn't lead them anywhere and even slows down their career. Too bad.

We could not see them do it. And wanted absolutely to help.

1. Buying fake fans

This is probably the worst mistake ever. If you think the power of social media is only about your number of fans and subscribers, you're absolutely wrong.

Only the commitment of your community really matters. Buying fake fans may artificially increase your fanbase, but no one will interact with your posts. 

In the end, nothing will have really changed. In addition, unfortunately for you, this trick will be easily spotted by music professionals and even your own community, for whom you will appear to be far from professional. So don't waste your time and money on these obvious scams and be patient in your strategy.

2. Talking about you, you, and you. And maybe you, if you can

Wow, wow, wow, you're amazing! You're beautiful, said James Blunt. You're making good music. You're fantastic. Surely.

But as you may know, we heard "You're Beautiful" so much that James Blunt is now summed up to this song, and no one cared about all the other fantastic songs he made.

It's all the same here. In any post on social media, please don't constantly put yourself under the spotlight.

Talk with and about your fans, ask them about their tastes and opinions, and share news that might interest them and that they might like.

How do we know that? By knowing your fans. And how do you know your fans? Have honest conversations with them, consider them as friends and faithful supporters, and the loyalty of your audience will only grow. But, as we said previously, never consider them as a number.

3. Annoying people

We've all already seen on FB and YT artists who spend their time promoting wherever they can, their band, their page, or their YT channel. Let's be clear: you will annoy people, and it's a pure waste of time. And above all, a total lack of respect. This is one of the worst methods to get new fans. Such an attitude immediately discredits you towards communities where you publish, and social media's algorithms will identify you as a spammer.

Create a connection and use your own page to communicate at first. Think about posting regularly, however, take into account that each platform has its own limit. For example, it's not recommended to publish more than twice a day on FB. Then, focus on quality over quantity to gain the trust of your fans. Never forget that when your fans start to share your posts/content, you're becoming much more visible to your audience.

4. Not using the right content on the right social media

Too many artists repeat themselves in their content across platforms. Republishing the same content on another social network is not enough: you have to adapt to the media.

Indeed, each of these social networks has its own rules that your fans expect you to follow. This will bring you a better visibility guarantee.

For example, sharing an Instagram picture directly on your Twitter or Facebook account will have less impact than if the picture was published to the base from these networks. Republishing your tweets on Facebook is a waste of time and, ultimately, of fans because it's not useful. At all.

You absolutely have to know that each network has its own audience and that we don't share the same things on all platforms. 

Twitter users are very different from Snapchat or Vine users. You're not going to deliver cars to a truck seller, right?

By diversifying your content depending on the media, you will give even more reasons to your fans to subscribe to all your pages and profiles!

5. Seeking to sell, sell, and sell

Whether it's to sell your music, your concert tickets or your t-shirts, do it sparingly on socials.

It will only reduce the organic reach of your posts on Facebook and, of course, will annoy your fans again!

If you think it's all about "Hey, listen to that song! Watch this video! Buy this t-shirt! Have a listen to my album!"... You're wrong.

People hate to receive orders! They're not your toy. And not your soldiers. On the contrary, consider them as friends or members of your team.

And, to be perfectly honest, people already see that kind of posts, all day long, on all socials. I'm the first complaining about this. It's really annoying.

So, they're hoping for a real relationship and want to share some of your world.

Bring value to them through your music and your daily life (songs, stories, covers, pictures, blog posts), and you will have a much better chance of making them die-hard fans who are likely to want to support you. Don't forget: a super fan can always become a customer.

As we already said: take time to answer every mention, every comment, every DM. Time is money, right?

To sum up

You got it, it's very important to work on a real strategy for your social media. It helps you to promote your project. Think about the goals you want to achieve, but also the expectations of your community, then implement your action plan.

If you need more advice, don't hesitate to reach out and book a consultation. We're available to analyze your promotion strategy, and see what we can do together to improve it, so you can really grow your fanbase and your career quickly.

Growing musicians need to learn to evaluate themselves to identify what's going on and what is not, and to become aware of the current state of their careers.

The better you know yourself, the easier you'll build and promote your brand!

The right answers come when you're asking to yourself the right questions. 

Here they are.

1. Is your music attractive enough?

You can set up the best promotion campaigns, you can have the best possible team behind your project, if the music itself isn't OK, then you'll just... FAIL.

Before even thinking about anything else, you have to make sure that your sound is up to your ambitions.

Because your music, that you can also call your "product", is your 1^st marketing tool to get fans, live from your passion and make you known.

Therefore, before going further, practice, compose, repeat, and be sure you can captivate your potential fans with your lyrics, melodies and harmonies.

2. Who is your fanbase made of?

You made  beautiful music, that's cool! Congrats! But now, you have to understand who it was made for.

Of course, it can't suit to everyone. So, don't promote your music to everyone! It's a loss of time, and a lot of money.

The more you can precisely target your promotion campaign, the more effective it will be.

To be short, define what your average fan looks like : What sex? How old ? Which socials? Which passions? 

You must be aware of these things. If you don't, your campaigns will turn to a huge loss of time and money...

3. What's your brand?

Too many artists believe that their music will define their branding. No. You will define your branding. Your music won't.

But it's only a tiny part of your musical project's identity.

Think about how you look like, about your visual identity, about your universe, about the message you want to deliver...

Which emotions do you want to give through your music? How do you want to be remembered?

All of these things matter in your branding.

4. Are you promoting your music in the right way?

Unfortunately nowadays, many musicians and even labels promote their sound in an inappropriate way.

It may be for example to use methods not recommended such as spamming blogs, or purchasing fake fans...

Never forget that your main goal is to bring potential fans to your music and your brand. Nothing else.

You only have to remember 3 words : exchanging, listening, sharing.

This means that you have to choose the right communication tunnels to reach your potential fans.

Not sure a hard rock band has a lot to gain on Soundcloud. Will a country band make it on Bandcamp?

That means you have to be proactive, go out, and expand your network.

You must give your fans, bloggers, and radio stations what they want.

5. What is your content strategy?

Let's talk about what you create and release.

Did you ever think about a strategy for that? Or do you just let chance decide?

You need to set a content strategy up, which will be consistent and tailored to your market, by defining your editorial line and your content schedule.

What are you going to share? When will you do it? How will you do it? Which target ? Why are you doing it ?

You need to regularly create and share new sounds as well as new posts, so don't miss this.

6. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

As we already said, be honest with yourself. Nobody's perfect. But knowing you better, you can go further.

If you want to become the best version of yourself, you need to be aware of your assets, and be aware of what are the elements to work on.

Maybe you're better than some other people when you're on stage? Maybe you're a good composer? Maybe you're better at writing? Maybe you have some troubles dealing with socials, or booking?

Discover your weaknesses, and then decide about them : seperate them and place them in 3 columns : weaknesses you need to train, weaknesses you need to delegate, weaknesses you need to forget. Eveything is a matter of importance. According to you, which weakness is more important to work on? Which weakness should you forget about?

Well, as you'll see, you'll be much more confident in your project, if you know yourself better than you thought.

7. What are your short-term and long-term goals?

If you don't even have goals, and just think your luck will make the job, hoping something amazing is going to happen for your career, then your results will disappoint you.

You need realistic and precise goals to move forward.

You need goals short-term goals (amount of YT views, subscribers, amont of downloads, sales) as well as long-term goals (over a year), which are more ambitious.

8. How do you measure your success?

At first, to achieve your goals, you need to know exactly where you are.

You must be able to measure and understand what's happening right now, around your musical project.

And you should keep an eye, especially on of your email list's size, because it's the most important information about your career development.

9. Are you surrounded by the right people?

Even though you're a solo artist, you need to be surrounded by people who can give you feedback and help you. That's what we're doing daily on Submithub, helping artists to know what's right and what's wrong about their tracks. If you currently have a team, is everyone sharing your goals? Are you working with people who motivate you and inspire you? Are you working with honest people, who could make everything to achieve your goals? If a member of your team (or band) is currently slowing down your project, then it's an emergency : you have to make a decision right now.

10. Do you invest in the right things?

As you must have realized, starting a musical project requires a certain amount of money.

Knowing that, you can't use external funds, it's up to you to finance the most important things.

And so far as we know, an artist or a band doesn't have millions to spend.

So here are the most important investments : you have to invest in your music, to get a professional sound. Invest in your brand, to be sure it's catchy. Invest in your promotion (for your merch, your PR...). But don't invest in CDs, for example.

To be short, you must invest in all the things that will provide you a result.

Buying a seventh guitar, a new fashionable plug-in, or thousands of fake likes, are not things that will bring you closer to your ultimate goal.

To sum up

We strongly recommend that you ask yourself these questions, several times a year, to make sure your project is moving in the right direction.

Being able to identify what's going wrong, to identify opportunities, will definitely help you out to define your musical strategy and reach more people. 

And of course, if you're afraid to do that, just ask us. We're here to help you out.

If you're on this page, it's probably because you're talented, motivated for your musical projects. (If not, then you're probably not in the right place.)

Here, we'll see how to succeed in music, a kind of eternal subject which stays on loads of indie artists mouths.

Is there a miracle way? Is there a step-by-step method to follow? First of all, you have to know what you're talking about.

What means success, according to you ?

Artists often fill their heads with goals and dreams that are not theirs, thinking that there is only one way to succeed in the music industry.

For many artists, success means signing a contract with a label, getting aired on national radio stations, turning worldwide, becoming rich, being famous, getting millions views on YT...

Hey! Wake up! This is a fairly "mainstream" point of view, about success!

But there are many other ways to succeed through your music and making money.

After all, this last element is essential: for musicians who don't seek a mainstream success, the success is more about being able to get up every morning and do something we love, without any  constraint or fears about tomorrow.

It's only about living thanks to music.

But what about you? What does "success of a musical project" mean to you?

It's really important to answer this question first, since your answer will determine the different actions to be performed.

Are you looking for glory and celebrity? Fine. There's nothing wrong with that, but... Come on! You have to be honest with yourself!

The big deal: being visible

By following this way of thinking, if you still read this article it is most likely either because you didn't get signed by a label, or didn't get a project that reached the national level, either because you're

not earning enough today thanks to your musical project to devote yourself to 100% in a serene way. Well, in both cases, the real deal is about your visibility.

Indeed, no label will deal with an artist or a band with low money potential. And of course, it's quite hard to live thanks to your music when the audience for a project is a few dozen or even hundreds of people.

So, how to look forward? The truth is, and we can tell: you're not alone in this case. 

Thousands of artists and more or less ambitious bands try each year to break through and achieve some success all by themselves. 

Even though we should not consider them as a competition, it's unavoidable to distinguish ourselves from them. 

Your voice must be heard and recognized despite the rush.

Fortunately, it doesn't mean making a bad buzz, wearing extravagant outfits, or clashing at all costs.

Through your branding, your universe, and your marketing actions, you'll give movement to your project.

How to succeed in music ?

Having goals and dreams is not enough to succeed. You need a strategy. And this word is not only suitable for a CBD, a bank, or a big company. You also need to know what you have to do!

Waiting, and doing nothing won't help you, for sure!

So, depending on your ambitions, it is important to use the following tips correctly :

- Performing: concerts and festivals are the best way to build your fanbase locally

- Building an online marketing strategy: getting new fans on your socials, and your website

- Getting your fans email addresses : in the Internet era, nothing can be more powerful than email in terms of communication power for no money. Spend time on your newsletter and your marketing efforts will increase every time.

- Build a network: get out! Meet other artists. Meet professional people to create faithful relationships and getting opportunities.

- Build a team: it's almost impossible to succeed on your own. You can be helped in a temporary way, but please don't do everything by yourself!

- Diversify your incomings: There are many more ways to make money with your music than you think. Don't just sell CDs and perform.

To sum up

Your success depends mainly on building your strategy and making efforts.

If you still think it depends on luck, then it's necessary to train yourself and change your way of thinking!

Of course, there's much more to do, to succeed in music than the actions outlined above.

That's why we invite you to get in touch via Instagram. We can definitely help.

But what do you really need to stand out and put all the chances on your side?

We're often asked which pieces of advice we would give to an indie artist who just began and wants to become professional.

Some even ask us if it is possible to succeed if we have no time, no money, and no network.

Even though there's not only one way to become a successful musician in this specific industry, we listed here for you the 5 major pillars in our opinion that every musician should capitalize on to make sure to boost its performances and chances to succeed in music.

1. Your work

In a world as saturated as music, talent is not a rare commodity. So, please don't be surprised if no one knocks on your door to offer you the contract you dreamed of, and above all, if no one wants to work on your project for you.

Starting a career is the hardest thing to do, so managers and labels prefer to wait until they see a mature and advanced project before proposing anything.

Therefore, at first, your have to focus on your musical business (yeah, we're really talking about a "business") and, please, for God's sake : forget, at least for now, labels, or even managers.

It means at the same time that you have to invest (and for sure, lose) time and money to start your project, if you think it will eventually lead to something great.

Like a lot of people are setting up their own business, in most professions, this implies significant initial and daily investments, both to professionalize your business and to develop partnerships.

If you can only give a couple hours, each week, to your project and if you don't want to train or invest, then understand that your project may be on the spot as long as you maintain this way of thinking.

Nothing is impossible, for sure. But, again, we are talking about starting a real business around your music, if your goal is to become a professional musician.

2. Your way of thinking

Let's face it, you're not going to become Ed Sheeran overnight. You can try ... But we prefer to warn you in advance, that your impatience may make you lose your motivation.

Because loads of mainstream artists who seem to get out of nowhere actually have many years of hard work and failures behind them.

It isn't, for sure, what you see at first glance, or what you want, but that's the truth.

So, be patient in everything you do. By focusing on the long term, you will make sure you have a clear mind. And you're not going to skip essential steps of your artistic ascension.

3. Your audience

If we could sum up this third trick in only a few words, we would say that audience means career. Building a strong relationship with your fanbase is essential to become successful as an indie artist/band.

Nowadays, we're using a new word : "direct-to-fans". It means : managing your fanbase is like managing your career. Your audience can make your success. But also break it. Depending on the relationship you have with your audience.

And to maintain and make your fanbase grow, we advise you to connect as much as possible with your audience, online, of course, but also in real life.

Playing live as often as possible and in many different places, with a professional and engaging show is a great way to win new fans and keep your current fans. Make a good impression on stage and make sure the audience remembers you.

And of course, connecting with your online fans is also something you have to work on. Not only should you regularly post inspiring and maybe fun content on your socials, but you should also answer and interact with anyone who mentions you (in a post, or in comments).

If someone interacts with you, it's a golden occasion to create and build a relationship!

And a happy fan then becomes a faithful fan, and then... a buyer.

So, let's focus on your fanbase and you will always know where to lead your career.

4. Your network

Establishing strong relationships with musicians who have the same goals, or sharing your way of thinking, won't only teach you about them, but it will also open your mind to many opportunities.

You may not realize it yet, but Facebook groups, professional events you attend, and gigs you play are just as likely to generate dozens of strong, win-win relationships.

This goal of bringing opportunities and contacts to you is to become, yourself, an opportunity for others.

Work on your network by offering collaborations, partnerships and tips, then you will see your network grow and you will become a magnet to opportunities.

In the meantime, it is essential that you work to grow your network on your scale. Don't be too ambitious from the start.

5. Your knowledge

Whatever the business model you're aiming for, you should learn something new every day, whether it's related to music (production, recording, live performance...) or managing your music business (marketing, communication, management, booking...)

This knowledge can only help you to make better decisions to develop your project within music industry. Investing in skills and knowledge is probably the best investment you can make to progress.

Indeed, at that point, you don't need to buy this extra guitar (ask yourself how many guitars do you already own?) or bundle of plugins that you won't use a single time, isn't it?

No, at this point, you need to know exactly how to move forward in your career by proceeding step by step. And that requires training and learning.

Knowledge is a weapon and your best friend in the music business world.

Of course, we're thinking of your marketing, communication and sales skills, among other things. Musicians often entrust these tasks to someone else, which can quickly become quite expensive and not necessarily justified.

That's why, with a good network (see part 4) and solid knowledge, indie artist can build a career without any problem.

And then, if you decide to still delegate some points of your career, you will still be able to understand and judge the work of your providers if you are trained for that, rather than being unable to separate good and bad.

Train each day through blogs, books, trainings, meetings, conferences or even coaching, and your project can only grow.

Conclusion

To be short, your work, your way of thinking, your closeness to your fans, your network, and your knowledge are the essential tools you need, to build your career properly.

That's easy to say, but not so easy to do. For sure.

That's why, only the most determined artists, can hope to break through! And if you're not determined enough, maybe we could help you out! Don't hesitate to reach out!