TuneCore vs FreshTunes [An Honest Comparison]

 

Choosing the right music distributor is a crucial decision for any artist but don't overthink the decision too much.

Okay, maybe that's not the best way to start a comparison post but hear me out. Yes, you need a music distributor to get your music uploaded to Spotify or other social sites like TikTok.

However, most music distributors do the same exact thing - get your music online.

Each music distributor will differentiate themselves in the following categories:

1. Cost

2. Platform Distribution

3. Royalties

4. Extra Features 

5. User Experience

6. Customer Support

We are going to break down this post into these 6 categories to help you choose if TuneCore or FreshTunes will be a better fit for you. 

The right distributor can impact your reach, royalties, and overall success in the music industry. For instance, as we'll see in a bit, some music distributors, like TuneCore, can help you with placing your song in a TV show.

If you've already convinced yourself that TuneCore is the right option for you, you can use my affiliate link here and get a 20% discount. I get a kickback and you get off to the right start.

 

What Is Music Distribution?

Before we dive into comparing TuneCore vs FreshTunes, let's first all get on the same page to what music distribution is.

Music distribution is the process of getting your music available on various platforms and streaming services where fans or listeners can stream, download, or purchase it. For example, getting your music uploaded to Apple Music. You cannot go to Apple Music directly, you need to use a distributor.

Now that the world has gone digital, music distribution has become essential for artists to reach new audiences. Music distribution platforms, such as TuneCore, play a crucial role in this process by acting as the middle man between artists and streaming sites.

Company Background Info

TuneCore and FreshTunes are popular choices among independent artists for music distribution. For instance, I'm personally a fan of TuneCore but I have released on FreshTunes as well. I'll get into more of my personal bias later but I'll keep this post as objective as possible. If you're already thinking of going with TuneCore, you can sign up with this link and get a 20% discount a checkout. It's an affiliate link that will toss me a few bucks my way and get you off on the right start too.

TuneCore is known for its extensive distribution network and wide set of features, while FreshTunes offers a cheaper solution with its free distribution model. Free is good, but it's not always the best. If you're looking for free distributors, FreshTunes is one of many who provide a free plan, be sure to read out post on the top seven free music distributors.

TuneCore

TuneCore was founded in 2005. Needless to say, it's been in the music industry for a long time and has seen a major shift from analog to digital.

They were acquired by Believe Digital in 2015 which has significantly enhanced their resources and global reach. Some of the power features that TuneCore has almost exclusively in the industry is publishing administration which we will talk about in a little bit.

FreshTunes

FreshTunes was founded in 2015. A young gun in the landscape of distributors but still making waves and a name for itself. Their known for free music distribution and making it accessible for all artists. They focus on simplicity and ease of use, with no upfront fees. Go to their website and you'll notice how clean and simple it is. They are also starting to offer analytics and promotional tools to help you grow as an artist too.

 

Who Costs More TuneCore or FreshTunes?

Let's do a detailed breakdown of each music distributors pricing plan.

TuneCore

TuneCore has four different pricing plans that will work for a variety of different artists depending on what stage you're in. They are neatly laid out on the TuneCore pricing page if you want to dig in more. You'll also the Pay Per Release tab in the image below. You can choose to pay per release if you know you only want to release one single.

1. New Artist Plan - Free

• Cost: Free
• Features Highlight: You can release unlimited music to social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Artists keep 80% of revenue from these platforms. Includes the creation of an Official YouTube Artist Channel and access to TuneCore Rewards Master Classes. So, yes, this is free, but you do have to give up 20% of your royalties if you make and money from the social media sites. In general, it's a win win.

2. Rising Artist Plan - $19.99/year

• Cost: $19.99 per year
• Features Highlight: This includes everything in the New Artist plan but you will get unlimited music releases to all 150+ streaming sites like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and Tidal. You will keep 100% of the revenue you get from these sites too. Furthermore, you can pre-schedule release dates and official verification on Spotify and Apple Music. I really like the pre-schedule feature and think it's important if you want to tell your fans about an upcoming single that will be released soon.

3. Breakout Artist Plan - $34.99/year

• Cost: $34.99 per year
• Features Highlight: This includes everything in the Rising Artist plan but you also get advanced features such as Store Automator which will automatically including your music release in all future stores that they get access to. You'll also get access to cover art creator tools, and daily trend reports. If you're a data junkie, then this good be a great option for you. Having access to the creator tools is also very helpful.

4. Professional Plan - $49.99/year

• Cost: $49.99 per year
• Features Highlight: This plan is tailored for labels and industry professionals and includes everything in the Breakout Artist plan plus premium sales reporting. Basically, you have the ability to use your own UPC and custom label name, access to select country restrictions, exclusive partnerships, and promotional opportunities. Honestly, this plan is only good if you find yourself in this "label" territory. I would ignore it if you're a solo independent artist.

Because TuneCore offers so many different plans, it can be a challenge to know what plan is best for you, this is why we've written this blog post on what TuneCore plan is best for you.

FreshTunes

This is a simple one. FreshTunes is free. That's it. You will get free distribution with no annual fees.

Okay, okay, is it actually free, though?

Well, you'd like to think that there is something free in this world, forever. However, that rarely happens. Yes, FreshTunes is free but they will try to get you to upgrade to their PRO plan with better features.

Here is a break down of their pricing plans below. You can find out more information directly on the FreshTunes website.

 

Who Has The Better Price? TuneCore or FreshTunes?

TuneCore’s model is more significant and they offer more variety in their plans that will fit a wider perspective of artists. So, I'm going to say TuneCore has the better price. I'm also considering "bang for buck". Although, it's very difficult to compete with free music distribution from FreshTunes, the bang you get with their "free plan" doesn't go far for me. Features like 30 day payouts, long upload times, royalty splits, and long support times, aren't worth it for me. You'll have to consider this too when you're making a choice.

 

 

Streaming Platform Distribution

Let's look at how TuneCore and FreshTunes match up against each other when it comes to their reach with regards to the streaming services that they distribute to.

TuneCore distributes to over 150+ digital stores and streaming services. That's the gold standard in the industry and you'll see this number being floated across all the popular distributors sites like DistroKid and CD Baby too, they all advertise 150+ sites. I guess that's the golden number.

Rest assure, if you decide to go with TuneCore you will get your music uploaded to major platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Deezer. You will also get you music uploaded to popular social sites like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

FreshTunes will also distribute your music to all major platforms. However, I haven't seen them use the 150+ number on their site yet though. I'm not certain but this tells me that they do not distribute to every single platform. To be honest, that dones't matter too much for me. For my music, I'm only concerned about the main platforms. Of course, if you have a specific platform in mind, be sure to double check if either TuneCore or FreshTunes offer it before you sign up.

If you're curious about upload times as well. For example, how fast will TuneCore or FreshTunes actually get your music uploaded to the streaming sites? We can see that TuneCore has an upload time of about 5-7 days and FreshTunes about 14 days. So this is something to consider in your choice as well. Finally, if upload times are a big factor for you the be sure to read our post on which distributor uploads the fastest.

Who Distributes To Mores Streaming Platforms?

Based on what we can read online TuneCore offers a more extensive distribution network with a wider set of partnerships across a wider array of platforms. In short, I'm going to call them the winner in this category. Although, as I mentioned, if you're looking only for the major platforms, FreshTunes will get you there as well.

 

Key Features For TuneCore and FreshTunes

TuneCore has a number of key features and it's good we touch on most of them because I think this could be a big deciding factor for some of you.

From a glance, TuneCore provides:

• Unlimited uploads
• Detailed sales reports and analytics
• YouTube Content ID and monetization
• Publishing administration services
• Social media monetization and promotional tools

The key ones here to mention are unlimited uploads which mean you can release as much music as you want. I also want to highlight Youtube Content ID and TuneCore Publishing.

These two features can be really valuable for a specific artist but not for some. For example, I'm an artist with a YouTube channel. Therefore, my music is played all over YouTube and I want to make sure I'm collecting the proper royalties for this. Keep in mind, you don't need a YouTube channel either. This also works if someone totally random uses your song in a YouTube video. In this case, this feature, will help you get paid and notify you when a song is used. 

As for publishing administration, this is helpful if you have your music being played all over the world and need help collecting these royalties. There are other services that you can use online to capture these royalties but TuneCore offers it within their service as well.

FreshTunes is a simple platform and because of this is going to have less robust features than a big platform like TuneCore but that's in their benefit, they want to keep things super simple.  FreshTunes will also offer unlimited distribution with basic analytics and promotional tools. Whenever you hear the word "basic" though, please keep in mind, this basically means, "hardly nothing" or "you probably won't use".

That's about it for FreshTunes. Features isn't really the game FreshTunes is playing though, they're in the game of distribution and keeping this simple.

Who Has Better Features? TuneCore or FreshTunes?

I feel like I've been a TuneCore fanboy in this post. However, I'm going to crown them the winner again for best features. They just outdo FreshTunes in so many ways specifically when we're talking about features.

 

Royalty Payments

This is a big category to make sure you understand with respect to TuneCore and FreshTunes but also with regards to all other distributors like DistroKid, CD Baby, United Masters, Amuse, or even when you're looking into free music distributors. Understanding how the platform collects the royalties and the percentage they pay you is very important. 

Let's get one thing clear. Each streaming platform pays a different royalty amount. For instance, the current Spotify payout is $0.005 per stream. On the other hand, Apple Music's current stream payout is $0.006. This also regularly changes and is different depending on stream location and a variety of other factors.

In short, TuneCore and FreshTunes collect all these stream payments from the streaming platforms and then pay out your agreed upon amount. 

In the case of TuneCore, they offer two solutions.

The TuneCore free plan, comes with a 20% fee in your music royalties. You'll only pay this fee if your song makes money. All the TuneCore paid plans that we talked about above will give you 100% of your royalties. So, if your song makes it big and gets 1,000,000 streams, let's do some math.

On Spotify, 

1,000,000 streams x $0.005/stream = $5000

That $5000 will be deposited into your bank account through TuneCore because they give you 100% of your royalties. On the other hand, if you were to sign up to the TuneCore free plan, this is what your royalties would look like at 1,000,000 streams:

1,000,000 streams x $0.005/stream = $5000

TuneCore takes 20% = $1000

You keep = $4000

At the end of the day, you're still up $4000, not bad! And you never paid for music distribution either.

FreshTunes will also give you 100% of your royalties with both their plans. If you've got this far in this post and you're still wondering, how does FreshTunes stay in business if they're offering all this "free" and letting you keep 100% of your royalties. Well, you've seen that they do try and get you to upgrade to their PRO plan, but they also make money in these two ways:

 

 

How Do They Pay You?

TuneCore can send you a payment to your bank account which is likely the easiest. Now, depending on your country, there might be some financial restrictions on withdrawals or gateways that you can use. Most of the time, PayPal is a great option which TuneCore can do for you.

FreshTunes restricts there payment withdrawals to every 30 days on their free plan. It's one of the negatives for being "free". It's not that bad though, I rarely withdraw my distributor payments more than once per month. You can also make these withdrawals PayPal and other electronic methods.

 

Customer Service

Both TuneCore and FreshTunes offer support but they will vary greatly. For example, TuneCore offers support and will increase their response times the more you pay every month. Take a look at their pricing plans chart and see for yourself:

 

 

If you want really fast support, you need to pay for it. Although, 5 business day response time for a free service, that's pretty good!

I've also had some experience with their free support and it's often even faster than 5 days. TuneCore has a big customer support team and they are regularly replying and getting back to resolve people's issues. This has been my experience at least.

FreshTunes response times are listed on their pricing plans as well. For their free plan, they have highlighted queue. I'm not sure what to take from this. It could literally mean you wait 1 hour or you wait for 3 years. It's hard to know how long their queue is. On the other hand, their PRO plan offers a 10 hour response time, that is amazing! That's probably the best customer service response times I've ever seen anywhere. It does make me thing though, is anything using PRO if they can get back to you so quickly? Or maybe the PRO plan is so good that nobody has any need for support.

Who Has Better Support?

I'm going to go out on a whim here and crown FreshTunes as the winner here. They offer faster response times. However, I can't judge their response character. For example, I have first hand experience with the TuneCore response team and they were responsive and resolved my issue. It was a good experience. Also, if you pay for TuneCore in the higher tiers you can get those response times down to 1 or 2 business days as well. And if a business day is only 8 hours then we could argue that TuneCore professional plan has the fasted support? 

 

User Experience

I like to add this category to my comparisons because I think it's important to have a platform that you actually like to use and that is designed well. If you're going to be uploading unlimited music like I do. Then you'll be using this platform a lot and you don't want it to be annoying or frustrating.

TuneCore has a very intuitive interface with detailed guides and resources. There is so much information online when it comes to TuneCore. If you're lost, they likely have a support page about it or someone else on the internet, like me, has written about it to help you.

TuneCore's overall public opinion is generally positive, with users appreciating the comprehensive features and detailed reports. Here is an example of the TuneCore deign when you start to create a new single for release:

 

On the other hand, FreshTunes is younger and they have less information online about it. However, they are super straightforward and honest. I love their tone in language and how transparent they are. They even tell you how they're making money! Not many companies do that. Think of the FreshTunes design as an easy bake oven for kids. It has everything you need to make a cake but it's only the absolute necessary features, nothing more. The plus side to this very simple design is, it's easy to understand. Reminds me a little bit about the DistroKid design. By the way, if you're bouncing around the idea between TuneCore vs DistroKid I have a review you can read about here.

Overall, FreshTunes excels in simplicity and ease of use, while TuneCore offers a more feature-rich platform that may require a learning curve but provides greater functionality. TuneCore is like advanced Lego and FreshTunes is like an easy bake oven.

 

Overview Of Pros and Cons

We covered a ton of thing in this post and you might be thinking now, "well I have no better idea of who to choose, I'm more confused!" 

Well, that's actually natural.

Remember when I said at the beginning of the most, "it doesn't really matter" who you choose. At the end of the day, both these distributors are going to get your music online and again if you mess up, you can always switch music distributors.

With that, here's a quick recap of all the Pros and Cons when we look at TuneCore vs FreshTunes

Pros For TuneCore

• Extensive distribution network
• Detailed sales reports and analytics
• Robust features like YouTube monetization and publishing administration

Cons For TuneCore

• Higher costs to some of their more robust plans
• May be too complex for beginners

Pros For FreshTunes

• Free distribution with no upfront costs
• Simple and easy-to-use interface
• Essential features for basic distribution needs

Cons For FreshTunes

• Limited advanced features
• Less comprehensive customer support
• Too simple?

 

 

Final Thoughts On TuneCore vs FreshTunes

TuneCore and FreshTunes share a lot of qualities but at the end of the day, I believe they're made for different artists.

FreshTunes offers a free solution that is super simple which can be great if you're just starting and you want to get your feet wet. Maybe you don't do this full-time or you're still balancing a job before you decide to go into your music full-time, FreshTunes simple interface, free value, and 100% royalties might be the perfect fit for you.

On the other hand TuneCore is a robust platform with lots of features for serious artists. For example, let's say you do this full-time and you're serious about understanding where you're streams are coming from and getting features like payments splits, youtube content ID, and admin publishing. This is all great stuff if you're a more serious artist.

So, for artists seeking comprehensive features and detailed analytics, TuneCore is a solid choice. However, for those looking to distribute music without upfront costs and with minimal complexity, FreshTunes is an excellent option.

I hope this post has given you a new perspective on choosing a distributors that works well for you. If you've decided on TuneCore, remember to use this sign up link and get a 20% discount. Besides that, I have some other reviews that you might find valuable in your search for the best music distributor:

TuneCore vs DistroKid

DistroKid vs CD Baby

TuneCore vs United Masters

TuneCore vs Amuse

Feel free to send me a message if you have any more questions.