TuneCore Vs Music Gateway | An Honest Comparison

In this day and age, being an independent musician can bring a huge pile of responsibilities with itself. From the creative side of things like songwriting and music production to the more business-oriented tasks like distribution, licensing, and promotion, there are many boxes that artists need to check if they want to turn music from a hobby into a full-time career.

As you might know already, artists cannot upload music directly to Spotify and Apple Music. Instead, they should sign up with a music distributor to take care of that for them. Over the years, many new companies have emerged in this business, claiming to deliver a wide range of services. At the same time, the number of scammers preying on artists looking for a big break has also risen to an all-time high.

Therefore, it is vital to ensure you invest your budget, time, and energy somewhere that pays off optimally according to your goals and needs as an artist. Founded in 2005, TuneCore is one of the most experienced companies in this domain. While it offers a lot of promising features, the competition has been able to catch up in recent years. Music Gateway is another name that pops up in this market and attracts a lot of attention.

Although both companies are legit, they have almost entirely different approaches to music marketing and music distribution. In this post, I will explain everything you need to know about the two companies’ services and which one you should go for according to your budget, goals, and needs as an artist.

By the way, if you decide to go for TuneCore, you can click here to use my referral link for a 20% discount on checkout.

What Does TuneCore Offer? (Pros & Cons)

TuneCore has recently updated its plans, dividing its services into four tiers. Dubbed the “New Artist” plan, TuneCore’s free tier allows you to upload unlimited tracks to social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. In return, TuneCore gets 20% of the revenue you generate. Bear in mind that TuneCore’s free tier does not cover streaming platforms and digital music stores like Spotify, Apple Music, and iTunes.

Next up, the “Rising Artist” tier comes at $19.99 a year and offers all the essentials you need to get your music out there. You can upload unlimited tracks on all major social media and streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and many more. Moreover, you can schedule your releases and get verified artist profiles on Spotify and Apple Music. With this tier, you’ll get to keep 100% of your royalties and streaming revenues. This tier offers the best bang for the buck among TuneCore’s plans.

For $34.99 a year, you can upgrade to the “Breakout Artist” tier. It comes with all the features mentioned above, plus some more extras. You’ll have access to an album cover art creator panel to create original artwork for your music. Also, TuneCore offers more detailed reporting, called “Daily Trend Reports” for artists using this tier that can help build an audience more effectively.

TuneCore’s most expensive plan, dubbed the “Professional” tier, starts at $49.99/year. It is predominantly targeted at industry pros and record labels. It comes with some exclusive partnership deals with websites, such as Tidal and Twitch, and offers you some promotional services.

One of the advantages of TuneCore against most other competitors is its responsive customer support. Even with the free tier, TuneCore claims that you’ll hear back from them in no more than five business days. That window shrinks down to only 24 hours for the Professional tier. 

Another advantage of TuneCore compared to Music Gateway is affordability. If you’re looking for a straightforward music distributor that covers all the essentials you need to get your music out there, TuneCore is significantly more cost-efficient.

On the other hand, TuneCore’s drawback against Music Gateway is its lack of features and promotional opportunities. Music Gateway does much more than just publishing your music on streaming platforms.

Music Gateway Features (Pros & Cons)

Similar to TuneCore, Music Gateway offers distribution services, but that’s not the company’s primary service. Music Gateway is mainly known for its tools for promoting artists and offering a collaborative space for different artists to find each other and make music together. 

Making money from music is not easy. Moreover, if you’re an indie artist, you might struggle to perfect some aspect of your music, be it vocals, drums, guitar, mixing, or mastering. Music Gateway offers a platform for different musicians to collaborate with each other on different projects and earn money from it. It’s like a freelancer's hub for musicians.

Moreover, Music Gateway offers artist promotion programs that help you get the recognition you deserve. One of its go-to strategies is adding your songs to popular playlists on Spotify.

Another feature that the company offers is cloud storage for saving and organizing your music. You can create folders and playlists and share links to your catalog with other musicians and producers.

For new users, Music Gateway offers a 14-day free trial that gives you access to most of the tools it has on its website. However, you’ll have a limited number of submissions and limited access to collaborating artists. Also, your cloud storage space is limited to 500 MBs.

For $7.50/month, you can subscribe to the “Adventurer” plan and keep using the services Music Gateway offers. The “Influencer” tier costs $22 per month and removes all the limitations and gives you up to 10% off on promotional and consultancy prices. Also, your cloud storage will be upgraded to 15 GB. Last but not least, the “Game Changer” subscription comes with up to 20% discounts on the mentioned services, gives you a dedicated artist manager, and ups your storage space to 100 GB, for $37 monthly.

Final Verdict: Which Music Distributor Is For You?

Music Gateway’s subscriptions cost significantly more than TuneCore’s. However, the services they offer are also much more. If you’re looking for an all-in-one place to release music, promote it, and find other artists to collaborate with, Music Gateway can be an excellent choice.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a straightforward platform that gets your music out there on major platforms for a reasonable price, TuneCore is a better choice. Once again, if you think TuneCore is a better option for you, you can click here to use my referral link to get a 20% discount on checkout.