TuneCore vs Level Music | Honest Comparison From An Indie Artist

Let’s face it: being a musician is not exactly the most lucrative career choice out there. Besides writing, recording, and producing, independent artists have to put effort into getting their songs heard and building an audience. The most fundamental step in that direction is publishing your music on major streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.

As you might already know, most streaming services do not allow musicians to upload their catalogs directly. Instead, artists should sign up with a music distribution company to take care of that for them.

In recent years, many companies have surfaced promising to deliver the best services for independent artists. As one of the pioneers in this business, TuneCore has become the go-to distributor for hundreds of thousands of artists around the globe. The New York-based music distributor, Level Music, also offers eye-catching services.

In this post, I will review both companies, draw out their pros and cons, and determine which one you should go for based on your budget and goals.

By the way, if you choose TuneCore to distribute your music on streaming platforms, you can use my referral link to get a 20% discount at checkout.

What Does TuneCore Offer? (Pros $ Cons)

TuneCore offers a range of services across four distinct tiers. The first tier, the “New Artist” plan, is free to use. This plan allows you to upload unlimited tracks to social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, with TuneCore taking 20% of the revenues generated from these platforms. However, it’s important to note that this free plan does not include distribution to streaming platforms, and only covers social media.

For $19.99 per year, the “Rising Artist” tier enables you to submit unlimited tracks for distribution not only to social media outlets but also to major streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, iTunes, and many others. With this plan, you retain 100% of your streaming revenue.

The “Breakout Artist” tier, priced at $34.99 per year, includes all the features of the previous plan and adds access to an album cover art creator on TuneCore’s website. Additionally, you can benefit from daily trend reports to help grow your audience.

Lastly, the “Professional” tier is tailored for labels and industry professionals. It encompasses all features from the earlier plans and adds exclusive brand partnerships with Tidal and Twitch, as well as promotional tools like Artist Portal, Brand Ambassador, and Store Awareness. This tier also offers small-group workshops with TuneCore’s industry experts, customization options for your label name, the ability to use your own UPC, and the option to add recording locations for Apple Music and Spotify. Additionally, you can control the availability of your release in specific countries. The “Professional” plan costs $49.99 per year, with an additional $14.99 for each extra artist.

One of TuneCore's standout features compared to most competitors is its customer service. Even with the free plan, TuneCore guarantees a response within 5 business days. This response time improves to 3 business days for the Rising Artist plan and just 24 hours for the Professional tier.

Can Level Music Keep Up?

In the past, Level Music offered a free plan along with paid tiers. However, the company has scratched the free tier and now only offers one paid plan for all artists. For $20 per year, you can release your music and much more via Level Music.

Level Music offers a straightforward and quick platform for distribution. You can set your own release dates, but the company claims that it can release your music as fast as two or three business days. Similar to TuneCore’s paid plans, you’ll get to keep 100% of your rights, royalties, and steaming revenues.

One of the highlights of Level Music over TuneCore is that, although it costs as much as TuneCore’s Rising Artist plan, you’ll have access to services and features that are only available for TuneCore customers who subscribe to higher-end tiers. For instance, you can upload music under up to five primary artist profiles, have access to dedicated artist support, and customize your label name. Also, you can select worldwide or regional distribution for your tracks when distributing with Level Music; something that TuneCore offers only for customers who subscribe to the Professional tier.

Additionally, Level Music tailors downloadable sales reports and release analytics for each artist, making it easy to track the progress of different tracks on different platforms to better understand your audience.

Compared to TuneCore, Level Music covers fewer digital stores and streaming platforms. Nevertheless, the company’s coverage includes all the major outlets, including Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Tidal, FaceBook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and many more.

While TuneCore allows for unlimited uploads, Level Music has a limit to how many tracks you can upload per year. However, the limit is pretty high. Level Music allows artists to upload up to 50 tracks per release and 200 tracks overall per year. Realistically, almost no artist reaches the yearly limit. Even if you consider uploading under five artist names, that will still be 40 tracks per artist; more than three regular albums a year.

Final Verdict: Which Music Distributor Is For You?

Overall, both TuneCore and Level Music offer exceptionally good services in this business. You can’t go wrong with either of them. With years of experience and reputation in music distribution, TuneCore is a more surefire option for all artists.

On the other hand, Level Music also offers almost all the essentials offered by its rivals, plus some of the features that are exclusive to TuneCore’s high-end plans, all for 20 bucks a year.

If you decide to go with TuneCore to distribute your music on streaming platforms, you can use my referral link to get a 20% discount at checkout.