TuneCore Pays Artists $32.7 Million in Q3 2014 for Music Distribution, Expands Music Publishing Catalog

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Oct 15, 2014, 09:05 ET

Company's high-profile sync placements, launch of Artist Services portal demonstrate continued focus on creating opportunity and driving revenue for musicians, songwriters, managers and labels

NEW YORK, Oct. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- TuneCore continues to grow opportunities and revenues for artists and songwriters. Today, the company announced strong Q3 2014 artist earnings results. Additionally, TuneCore highlighted several new, key initiatives launched to further support the growing generation of musician-entrepreneurs who choose to remain independent and take charge of their own careers.

TuneCore Artists earn $32.7 million in Q3 2014, $471.5 million since 2006 based on 10.6 billion combined streams and downloads. Publishing Administration catalog tops 250K compositions, attracts high-profile sync deals.

TuneCore brings more music to more people, while helping musicians and songwriters increase money-earning opportunities and take charge of their own careers. The company has one of the highest artist revenue-generating music catalogs in the world, earning TuneCore Artists $438.8 million on 8.8 billion streams and downloads since inception. TuneCore Music Distribution helps artists, labels and managers sell their music through iTunes, Amazon MP3, Spotify and other major download and streaming sites while retaining 100% of their sales revenue. TuneCore Music Publishing Administration assists songwriters by administering their compositions through licensing, registration and worldwide royalty collection, including YouTube monetization.

In Q3 2014, TuneCore artists' earnings exceeded $32 million, a 13.2 percent increase over Q3 2013. This brings the total amount paid to distribution clients since the company's inception in 2006 to $471.5 million based on 10.6 billion combined streams and downloads. The number of streams continued to increase at a steady pace during Q3, growing 154 percent vs. Q3 2013.

The company also disclosed that hip-hop is TuneCore distribution's top genre by both quantity of releases distributed and revenue paid, with 1.6 billion downloads and streams and $59 million in artist earnings since 2006.

An infographic with year-to-date milestones can be found at http://www.tunecore.com/index/artist_milestones

Growing Revenue through Royalty Collection and Sync Licensing Opportunities in TV, Film

TuneCore Music Publishing Administration, which assists songwriters by administering their compositions through licensing, registration and worldwide royalty collection, sustained its growth momentum in Q3. With a catalog that has rapidly grown to include over 260,000 compositions in just three years, TuneCore is delivering millions of dollars in royalties from sources worldwide to songwriters who would otherwise be unable to collect this revenue.

During Q3 2014, TuneCore Publishing Administration's creative team secured and negotiated several high-profile sync deals for songwriters, enabling them to maximize the growing revenue opportunities found in licensing to TV shows, films, commercials and more. These placements included:

The Overnighters: Critically-acclaimed, Sundance award-winning documentary feature film to be released October 24, 2014
UNICEF: Public service announcement supporting the organization's life-saving relief work
Budweiser: Made in America content series
Awkward: MTV's irreverent, original teen comedy series
Asphalt Overdrive: The newest version of Gameloft's popular mobile racing game

Launching Artist Services Portal with Tools to Research, Promote, Connect and Engage

Complementing TuneCore's digital music distribution and music publishing administration offerings, TuneCore debuted its Artist Services portal. This carefully-selected portfolio of music-related resources supports today's population of independent musician-entrepreneurs, enabling the artists to promote their craft, connect with fans and get their music heard around the world. Included among the many invaluable tools are:

Track Smarts: Giving artists access to consumer-driven, actionable intelligence including comments from music fans, ratings of individual song elements and assessment of the relative strength of songs.
TwitMusic: Helping artists easily launch engaging promotional campaigns across Twitter and Instagram to get fans excited, increase engagement, leverage viral spread and collect information to assist in decision-making.
MerchLink: Offering a one-stop, online resource for top-quality promotional items such as t-shirts, hats, drinkware and more.
Bandzoogle: Making it simple to build professional-quality websites and promote music directly to fans.

Maximizing the International Opportunity

As digital music consumption increases in markets around the world, TuneCore continues to build its global network to ensure artists can get their music heard in high-growth areas. During Q3, TuneCore added three new store partners, including Yandex Music, a service powered by Russia's largest search engine. TuneCore Artists now have the ability to get their music out through more than 80 digital distribution partners operating in over 200 countries and territories around the world.

"As a pioneer in the evolving music business, we at TuneCore view the positive growth our artists and songwriters are experiencing as validation of our vision of artists as entrepreneurs who can take charge of their own careers," stated Scott Ackerman, CEO of TuneCore. "We also embrace this growth as a challenge to continue to disrupt the old model of the music business and build on these successes to ensure artists and songwriters have the fullest set of tools and greatest number of opportunities to get their music out to the world and generate revenue from their craft."

About TuneCore

TuneCore brings more music to more people, while helping musicians and songwriters increase money-earning opportunities and take charge of their own careers. The company has one of the highest artist revenue-generating music catalogs in the world, earning TuneCore Artists $471.5 million on 10.6 billion streams and downloads since inception. TuneCore Music Distribution services help artists, labels and managers sell their music worldwide through iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, and other major download and streaming sites while retaining 100% of their sales revenue and rights for a low annual flat fee. TuneCore Music Publishing Administration assists songwriters by administering their compositions through licensing, registration and worldwide royalty collection. Additionally, the Artist Services portal offers a suite of tools and services that enable artists to promote their craft, connect with fans and get their music heard around the world. TuneCore is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY with offices in Burbank, CA and Nashville, TN, and is backed by Opus Capital and Guitar Center. For more information, visit www.tunecore.com.

Media Contact:
Sherry Smith
MWW
646-797-3139
[email protected]

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SOURCE TuneCore