TuneCore Finds A Way To Contribute To The Cesspool of Mediocrity: Tunecore claims it can get unsigned artists on digital stores including iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, and Rhapsody, for roughly $30 an album.
“Twenty years ago, an artist with an acoustic guitar and a four-track demo would need to find a label to get her album on the shelves at Tower Records. Getting that contract was a long and painful process for the few who could navigate it; for most, it never led to anything, and that four-track demo was heard only by friends, family, and patrons of the local coffee shop”.
(Ars Technica)
Jeff Price who heads TuneCore tells Ars Technica that “the music industry changed” on the day that TuneCore went live. Any person on the planet “can have access to worldwide distribution; there are no filters,” he says, and he says it with energy.
Ladies and Gentlemen, allow us to re-write the story. Twenty years ago, an artist with an acoustic guitar and a four track demo couldn’t get the album on the shelves at Tower Records because in MOST cases, it wouldn’t deserve such a prime placement. It wasn’t a distribution problem, it was called mediocre product problem.
Distribution won’t increase your popularity and certainly won’t increase sales especially if you’re an unknown artist. Jeff Price sees a marketing opportunity what he calls ‘worldwide unfiltered distribution’. Price is contributing to the cesspool of garbage and certainly doesn’t seem to care about the consumer or the music. Filling iTunes with unfiltered music is comparable to dumping raw sewage in our seas. We don’t need more music, we need better music.
If you’re a serious passionate artist looking to build a fan base and hoping to bring your music to the masses, then getting your songs on iTunes is not the solution. The solution is writing great songs and finding a producer that will attack the songs, making them even better. The next step is to play live and putting on a killer live show. Sell your CD’s at a live show for 5 bucks and you were certainly make a return on your investment. If your worthy and fans want more of you, then consider a line of merchandise including t-shirts. When you begin to feel the buzz and you’re getting hundreds upon hundreds of legit emails requesting music, then consider iTunes; or sell your songs on your website establishing a direct relationship with the fans.
If you’re that person with an acoustic guitar and a four-track demo wanting worldwide distribution, consider yourself a dreamer, certainly not an artist.
We want to hear new music. Send us great songs and make our day. Email tips@kingsofar.com with link to your myspace and let us know what song we should be listening to.
There will never be good news for shitty artists. For GOOD artists though who have struggled to compete even online, things like Tunecore help level the playing field. I think this is good news.
You’re absolutely right though, Dean. This is meaningless when it comes to the actual quality of music. Being on every free artist site and selling your crappy songs on iTunes won’t make you famous. Great songs will.
“The solution is writing great songs and finding a producer that will attack the songs, making them even better. The next step is to play live and putting on a killer live show. Sell your CD’s at a live show…”
You couldn’t have said it better. MOST young artists don’t think they need a producer. They believe that recording their record on an Mbox in a living room and posting it for sale online will get them “discovered” boost them to the top. The days of recording a few songs and instantly getting a deal are extinct. You have to have great songs, a well produced product to sell, you must be touring and developing your story. The rest will fall into place.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Great f’n post.
You guys have never had the pleasure of working your way to a major label deal…I have. Tunecore will help artists. If an artist plays a show, invariably someone will come to him and say “Where can I get your album?” By your logic, he would have to say “My album is not in stores or on a label, therefore it is mediocre product.” NOW, if an act is good it can at least secure distribution and then push the product on the road day after day. A product has to be on the shelves BEFORE it can sell. Paying off your student loans while writing a website wouldn’t teach you that though.
By the way, it will help both good and ‘bad’ artists, since those perceptions are unique and economically a market exists for any product…you just need to reach it.
How is having your music available for purchase on iTunes muddying the waters?
iTunes is a digital retail outlet — unsigned music, shitty or not, isn’t taking up ANY shelf space…
Most people don’t use iTunes as a music discovery source — they hear something elsewhere (whether it be radio, MySpace, TV, or live), go to iTunes knowing what they want, and they buy it.
No harm, no foul.
On another note, Jeff Price is a standup guy, he’s in it for the right reasons, and his company does a lot of great artists a service.
This is the single stupidest blog I’ve ever read on this topic.
Sell your music at shows but not on the internet?
OK grandpa.
Turn down world-wide distrobution through a legit, well-known middleman? Wow. By what you’re suggesting, it shoots the little guy in the foot, and gives the gun to the big guys. Fans find us on iTunes because we promote it. We tell them to go there. I’m surprised you didn’t attack SNOCAP on this topic. SNOCAP is integrated with MySpace, and is definitely sailing the shit seas. You want to talk about tripping over mediocre sales shelves, then look there. Not iTunes. To add, TuneCore has been in operation on or before Jan. 2007. Times are changing, no doubt. Let’s deal.
The point is, not everybody needs to be on iTunes..
Glad to see some voices of reason out here. Scott hit on *the* key issue — Dean is on the side of the ‘big guys’.
Dean is a band manager, so when the Web makes it easier for bands to manage their own careers (such as being able to distribute their music without having to be signed), it affects his livelihood. Hence all the ‘technology is scary and killing music’ posts you see out here.
It’s in Dean’s best interest for the industry to stay as is (or even regress back 20 years). If the industry continues to evolve as it is currently — making it easier for artists can get their music to fans without a label (or manager) — he’s out of a job.
I think that’s a little ridiculous. I don’t think its wrong to be skeptical of ‘free for all’ outlets. It seems Dean’s larger point is not that iTunes is a bad thing, but access to iTunes will not improve the quality of music. It’s a valid point.
So who’s putting a gun to people’s head and telling them they must buy the “sewage” on itunes? All it is an avenue of distribution. The alternative is having no way to distribute music. Half the artists on CD baby don’t sell anything. It’s just an ego trip. But every thousand bands or so there’s a diamond in the rough. Some just want a monopoly so the choice is between shitty, over exposed artist A and over hyped mediocre artist B. Let the public decide what they want. The more choices the better.
@Brett :
If being on CDBaby is an “ego trip” for some artists, that’s a pretty great indicator of how far they truly have to go before they can be considered legitimate as a career level musician/artist, no?
Daniel, thats correct – CD Baby is a far cry from the red carpet. I understand what Brett is saying. For many artists CD BABY is a vanity thing. I mean, why make your mom and your sister go to CD BABY to purchase a CD? just give it them.
Of course there are some other artists that can utilize CD Baby or iTunes, for instance, ONE LESS REASON is a best seller on CD BABY and sold 150,000+ of paid downloads…
actually, the first step is putting on a killer live show. do that and you can scratch out a living without ever even releasing a cd.
as for gatekeepers, what’s your take on anyone being able to enter the fray of last.fm? last i checked, people could try before buying on itunes, whereas with online radio the “sewage” easily creeps in left and right.
sounds like you’ve been reading lefsetz on some of his hypocritical days.
AJ: I disagree. The only reason to be skeptical about ‘free for all’ music outlets is if you prefer to have someone limiting your choices for you. Would you like me to pre-screen submissions to KOAR — or would you rather not have someone else deciding which tracks are ‘good enough’ for you to hear?
I also disagree that my previous comment is ridiculous. A good parallel is the travel industry. Back in the day, most people *needed* a travel agent to plan a trip. Travel agents were the only ones who really knew where to go and how to get you there, they had contacts to get you into the nice hotels for the right price, etc.
That whole industry existed on exclusivity. You needed them to plan your trip for you because you didn’t have the knowledge, connections or access to do it yourself. As soon as the Web came along, everything changed. The ‘gatekeepers’ didn’t have control anymore. Anyone could explore different vacation destinations, compare fares, read reviews, book their own trips, etc. And the industry tanked.
The music industry is going in the same direction — bands no longer need a label or manager to get ‘where they want to go’. Services like Tunecore allow bands to get their music to fans anywhere in the world, without the help of a manager (or label). There are still benefits to a label/manager, but they are fading fast and are often outweighed by the disadvantages (being locked into a bad contract, losing ownership in your music, paying out 20% of your earnings, having some MBA determine which of your songs are ‘good enough’ to make the album). Dean and everyone else in the industry knows this and that’s why their fighting it tooth and nail — and trying to convince us it’s terrible along the way.
And Brett, I agree with you overall, but I think very few of the artists on CDBaby view it as an ‘ego trip’. And if they do, I’d tend to agree with Daniel that those artists would likely have some ‘maturing’ to do. Of course, that wasn’t your primary point (and your primary point was absolutley right) so carry on…
Jalan, you’re completely missing the point. Let’s stay with your travel agency analogy for a minute. Just because you CAN go anywhere, doesn’t mean you will or even want to. Now that you can book trips on the internet, it’s not like people are lining up to go visit Algeria. You know why? There isn’t shit there and people don’t like getting kidnapped.
Same thing in iTunes. Just because people CAN buy it on iTunes doesn’t mean they will and doesn’t mean they want to. You have never needed a major label or a big shit manager to get songs on the internet. Never. If you remember, artists made a home on the internet long before the higher ups in the music industry did.
Tunecore is a business…not a fairy god mother. They charge you money to get your songs on services you could get on yourself if you were good and worked at making those connections. It’s just another shortcut for artists who aren’t good enough. Does that mean good artists can’t take advantage of this service? Of course not. Anyone can do it and good ones will get through. But they would have gotten through anyway…because they’re good. Only now they’re surrounded by lame bands, just like they were on MySpace and Purevolume and GarageBand and CDBaby and Soundclick, etc etc etc.
What this Tunecore news means for crappy bands is that lame artists now have a new way to delude themselves into thinking they’re gonna ‘make it.’ Now what does ‘making it’ even mean? If it’s getting your songs on iTunes, good job, ‘making it’ just became incredibly easy. Will having an online presence make you money? Not on it’s own, no.
And to your question of whether KOAR would like people filtering what gets through our doors, you better believe we would like that. All of these delusional bands that are now shitting themselves with excitement about being on iTunes also think they’re good enough to be on KOAR. They aren’t. What you’re suggesting though is not someone screening demos on our behalf, what you’re suggesting is that we post every band that sends us a demo. How would that help us? And how would that help the unsigned bands who deserve focused attention?
‘Leveling the playing field’ does not mean equal opportunity for shitty bands as for good bands. It means good bands can access good outlets, whether they are signed or not. If an artist works their ass off and writes superior music, how long should they have to elbow their way through sub-par bands? Is there any point in their career where they won’t be competing with the most generic and hopeless? Where is the ‘major league’?
AJ, I’m not missing the point — you’re trying to change it. You’re trying to change “iTunes” — the focus of the original article and the world’s premier online music retailer — to “the Internet”.
Of course bands have always been able to get on the Internet — I never implied otherwise. However, they have NOT always been able to get on iTunes, which was the entire point of the ridiculous rant that started this conversation.
To help you through the analogy, here are the exact same sentences with the subjects changed:
~ Previously, BANDS who wanted to get their MUSIC across the globe needed a gatekeeper – a LABEL/MANAGER – to get them on ITUNES because they didn’t have the knowledge or connections to do it themselves.
~ Previously, PEOPLE who wanted to get their BODIES across the globe needed a gatekeeper – a TRAVEL AGENT – to get them on A NICE TROPICAL ISLAND because they didn’t have the knowledge or connections to do it themselves.
The Web is changing that by giving BANDS/PEOPLE the ability to do it themselves, via services like TUNECORE/EXPEDIA.
(By the way, how on earth you managed to compare iTunes to Algeria is beyond me…)
I’d love to tackle some of the other arguments — the idea that “the good ones will get through … because they’re good” is truly delusional — but I’ve spent too much time with this already. Most of the people who’ve take the time to post here don’t need me to convince them you’re wrong — they see it for themselves.
I am sorry that the Web is ruining your field of employment, but it really is making it better for the other 99% of the population who really love music.
Jalan… where to begin? I wasn’t comparing iTunes to Algeria. I was comparing shitty music to Algeria.
Let me lay this out for you. I work with a lot of bands. Most of them don’t have managers or labels. They are on iTunes. Why? Because they’re good and they did the work to make the connections.
You never had to be signed to be on iTunes. Never ever.
Make the connections to get onto iTunes?
Before TuneCore, unsigned musicians were able to get onto iTunes via CDBaby, via getting their discs pressed at DiscMakers, an extremely reputable company, which most might even consider a staple, if not a standard in the music industry. Being added to CDBaby is/was part of their package deal when you got your cds duplicated through them. The artist is/was able to submit all of their album info to CDBaby, which they would in turn send off to iTunes.
Are you upset about those musicians getting onto iTunes that way as well (or is that what you’re referring to when you say ‘making the connections’)?
If some garage band from North Dakota uploads their album they’re proud of, who gives a shit anyway? I sincerely hope that’s not a something which ruins your day, but SOMEBODY, SOME MUSIC-LOVER, might absolutely use it for the soundtrack of their life. You never know. And, at the end of the day, did it bother you? Did you trip over it? No.
The base of your/KOAR argument is “Anybody can upload to iTunes; I think that pollutes the musical air.”
But, just because you think it’s a raw deal that anybody can upload to iTunes doesn’t mean it is.
Whether music is shit or great is probably one of the most subjective, individualistic assessments in the universe. Take the song “Sanity” for example from the band http://www.songplanet.com/mossback. Dean thinks it’s shit. But 130 radio stations and podcasts have added it to their playlist. So who’s right? Who knows? Musical taste is entirely subjective.
I am all for artists having more outlets. I’ve been a long time proponent of it. I don’t think anyone is saying it is bad for artists to be on iTunes. That’s crazy.
CDBaby’s deal of getting artists onto iTunes has been working out fine, and yes, that’s one of the things I’m referring to with making the connections. There are also countless services that deal specifically with digital distribution. That’s another way.
The concern, and I think it’s a valid concern, is that artists think being on iTunes will make all their dreams come true. For those unsigned artists already on iTunes, they can say definitively that it will not.
Jalan thinks that KOAR hates the internet. As a websites that’s been around since 1999, I think that’s pretty ridiculous. It doesn’t benefit KOAR in any way to limit opportunity for any artist. KOAR has always called for artists to work hard and be great. “Shortcuts” like TuneCore give some artists the impression that this is easy. That all they need to do is take advantage of all the shortcuts and they will be famous. It doesn’t work like that, and it’s unfortunate when talented people sell themselves short by not working for it the right way.
There’s no need to get worked up over artists wasting their money to get their mediocre music onto itunes. Let them. Unless your ulterior motive is to limit choice so that the only choice is between music major labels have an interest in or nothing at all. 30 percent of music sold today has no major label affiliation. And it will only go up from there.
AJ: “I don’t think anyone is saying it is bad for artists to be on iTunes. That’s crazy.”
Dean: “Filling iTunes with unfiltered music is comparable to dumping raw sewage in our seas.”
Oh…I guess someone IS saying that. Missed that post. hahaha
Are wanting outlets and wanting outlets to have standards conflicting ideals?
Missed that post? That was MAIN POINT of the ORIGINAL ARTICLE that started this whole conversation.
Maybe next time you can take a moment to figure out what we’re actually talking about before you start telling us how we’re wrong.
Here’s an example:
“Wanting outlets and wanting outlets to have standards” isn’t necessarily conflicting.
However, wanting outlets THAT ALLOW ANYONE TO SUBMIT MUSIC (which, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, is what we’re talking about) and “wanting outlets to have standards” IS conflicting.
Let’s move on, please. Watching you spin like this is making me dizzy (and nauseous).
“There will never be good news for shitty artists. For GOOD artists though who have struggled to compete even online, things like Tunecore help level the playing field. I think this is good news.
You’re absolutely right though, Dean. This is meaningless when it comes to the actual quality of music. Being on every free artist site and selling your crappy songs on iTunes won’t make you famous. Great songs will.”
Filling iTunes with unfiltered music is comparable to dumping raw sewage in our seas?
1. I wouldn’t worry about iTunes ‘filling’
2. Ashlee Simpson
With that being said we should embrace unfiltered music because labels are going down and for good reason, a lot of the music industry has relied on the artlessness of teens and laughed all the way to the bank for a long time now. Kind of funny how that is playing out for them.
i’m all for unfiltered music on itunes. that way it’s available, it doesn’t mean i have to buy it. who checks itunes to discover music anyways???? i mean, c’mon, the major labels who bring “good quality” to itunes are about to dump a bunch of boyband stuff on the site.
While I agree with the end all being better music needs to be made….I love that tunecore happened. Even if you are a independent label that has an artist or two with some legs, getting to Itunes has become a royal pain in the ass. I have had several larger third party digital distributors refer me to a 4th party.
$20-$30 up front for an album, and I have heard nothing but good things about this company from the folks that directed me there.
Well, I guess my question is, who determines what is a ‘great song’? Is it sales, is it radio, Billboard, KOAR, who?
My view is, the consumer decides what is a great song…to them! I mean, most of us feel that radio sucks, and that a lot of the songs radio plays, sucks. Yet those very songs win Grammys, sell lots, and get lots of attention, for the most part. How many sucky songs have won Grammys? I know, you say the Grammys suck. Well, I’m a Grammy voting member, and when I vote next time, most of you probably would not agree with my votes. And that’s cool, really, because that’s my whole point. Most of you have your own view of what is a ‘great song’, however, make no mistake, for every one of your ‘votes’ there are about 100,000 people who would say you’re crazy. That’s what it’s all about.
Let them put whatever songs they want to out there, and let the consumer decide, according to their taste, what is a ‘great song.’
One man’s trash is truly another man’s treasure. It happens in songwriting all the time.
Peace
Orlando Luckey – http://www.myspace.com/orlandoluckey
one man’s trash is another man’s treasure… miss sobriety?