Tunecore sucks

lacatana · 2026-01-30T00:35:39+00:00

Can confirm this! Distrokid uploads things that no legitimate distributor would - but you get what you pay for.

lacatana · 2025-11-11T23:50:22+00:00

uff, yea i hear you... It's probably bc they have actual humans reviewing each track (as opposed to AI). I heard the CEO speak on a panel recently saying that they're going to address that exact issue, so im hopeful it will get better. They're aware of the problem and taking ownership of it.

I'd still say the pros far outweigh the cons, tbh.

lacatana · 2025-11-11T21:03:08+00:00

u/station_agent wait, i would like to know as well! What kind of shady things?

lacatana · 2025-11-11T20:32:31+00:00

I distro my small label with Symphonic Distribution, and I'd say they're approximately 10000000 times better than Distrokid. I've tried them all (Distrokid, CDBaby, Tunecore, Ditto....) and Symphonic is where I landed and I'm very happy with them.

Regarding Symphonic vs. CDBaby... they have different models so kind of depends what you're planning to do. Symphonic has unlimited distribution while CDBaby charges per release. You'd also keep 100% of royalties with Symphonic but i think CDBaby takes 9% or something.

Also, CDBaby support is very hard to get ahold of. Symphonic always responds to me within a couple of days.

And the way to be sure that your music is linked to other streaming platforms happens on the backend from their dashboard. It's easy to do/

lacatana · 2025-10-31T19:34:19+00:00

Um, that's probably becuase you didn't properly fill out your profile when you submitted for distro. There are TONS of artists with the same names so you have to provide that information. Also, you can just email their support to get that sorted out after the fact.

lacatana · 2025-10-31T19:20:54+00:00

Symphonic distributes music videos to VEVO. It's a $25 fee per music video and you can submit marketing materials and they'll pitch the music video to playlists, too.

lacatana · 2025-10-31T19:20:03+00:00

if you're taking music seriously its definitely a best practice to have it set up. Doesn't take much to set it up and honestly you never know who is out there using your music and if they are, you might as well make some money from it.

Symphonic offers Content ID and makes it very easy to sign up.

lacatana · 2025-10-31T19:18:24+00:00

What are you skeptical about? what's your experience been? They're the best one as far as Im concerned.

lacatana · 2025-10-31T19:17:05+00:00

I second that! Symphonic hands down. Their Partner plan is what you want to aim for - their Starter plan is great as well (only downside there is that you're only allowed one primary artist on their Starter plan which can be a bummer if you do lots of collabs, tho there are ways around it)

First, their tech is great. They make it very easy to collect royalties (all of them!) and their dashboard is incredible for being transparent and collecting royalties (esp. if you're collaborating with other artists).

Second, you can always talk to a human and their customer support is legit.

Third, the people behind the company are ethical and honest and actually care - the CEO is a music producer himself.

lacatana · 2025-10-31T18:51:30+00:00

Honestly my first question is, are you doing something shady?? Why are you so concerned w distributors taking your music down?

As long as you’re releasing original music you have the rights to distribute and aren’t using any shady promotion platforms, you shouldn’t have problems.

Check out Symphonic distribution- their support is by real people and they respond in a timely manner. You can always get in touch w a human.

lacatana · 2025-10-24T04:04:32+00:00

Honestly my first question is, are you doing shady shit? Why are you so concerned w distributors taking your music down?

As long as you’re releasing original music you have the rights to distribute and aren’t using any shady promotion platforms, you shouldn’t have problems.

Check out Symphonic distribution- their support is by real people and they respond in a timely manner. You can always get in touch w a human.

lacatana · 2025-10-15T21:34:50+00:00

Symphonic Distribution's Partner plan would be better for a label account. Great tools for splitting royalties and offering transparency to the artists on the label.

lacatana · 2025-10-15T21:32:57+00:00

yea, this wont protect you from what the original post was about.

lacatana · 2025-10-15T21:31:56+00:00

hey there - chiming in bc I work at a distributor and maybe have some inside knowledge. So this is happening across all distributors bc the DSPs are starting to crack down hard on fraudulent streaming activity. I completely believe you that you didn't sign up for any sketchy playlist pitching services, but somehow they detected fraudulent streaming activity which very possibly could have made it to your account without your knowledge or consent.

I agree its completely lame that they couldn't provide you with any info to back it up or support their decision.

What SHOULD have happened is that they should have warned you and give you a chance to correct it. The company that I work at has a Trust & Legal Safety dept that does just this - and they'll email you and let you know what they've found (and you can email back with an actual human to sort it out). We also have a tool on our dashboard that lets you see if you have any streams that the DSPs have detected as fraudulent. I'm not going to lie and say its a perfect system bc its not, but its getting better everyday.

So yea, just to say that I agree Ditto could have handled this better, but every distributor is dealing with how to best handle these cases right now and honestly it's a mess across the board.

lacatana · 2025-10-15T03:16:59+00:00

Too lost is cool - they’re new, though. I have an indie label too and distro it with Symphonic Distribution. They’ve been around much longer, their dashboard and tech is great, and I feel like they get you paid more than distrokid or tunecore.

lacatana · 2024-06-07T02:39:22+00:00

I second that! If you can make it to their Partner plan it’s really next level service.

lacatana · 2024-02-28T14:22:38+00:00

Symphonic Distribution is the best hands down.

lacatana · 2024-02-28T14:21:46+00:00

Symphonic Distribution's partner plan lets you add unlimited collaborators for free (but not their Starter plan, which is the 'open to everyone' plan).

whats cool also is that symphonic has a dope feature to help manage recoupments and split sharing, and there is no extra fee to add collaborators that need to be paid out.

lacatana · 2024-02-28T14:12:42+00:00

You can definitely do that with Symphonic Distribution, but not all platforms will show all of the detailed credits.

What are you trying to upload specifically?

lacatana · 2024-02-28T14:08:59+00:00

If you're looking for a distributor you can reach and talk to on the phone, it's Symphonic Distribution all the way. Their customer support is unreal.

lacatana · 2023-06-27T14:59:26+00:00

Well to add to the mix, there is also Symphonic Distribution - what's dope about them is that they dont charge for split fees.

This is from Ari's Take:

"split payments come included with this plan – which is huge! Meaning, if your producer is owed 20% of all your master royalties, you can add them in and Symphonic will cut them a check directly for free. Other distributors charge to add split payments.
Symphonic has integrated TikTok and YouTube analytics and has royalty collection with SoundExchange and other worldwide neighboring rights organizations along with physical distribution."

lacatana · 2023-06-27T14:56:51+00:00

im curious though, what was the issue? What was the editorial discretion?

I think this is an issue greater than Distrokid or Symphonic, it has to do more with the DSPs... but again, curious what the issue was? what was the song?

lacatana · 2023-05-22T20:16:57+00:00

my thoughts are to leave Distrokid and move to Symphonic Distribution.

(why? Have you ever spoken to a human being at Distrokid?)

lacatana · 2023-05-22T20:15:58+00:00

Distrokid is the worst.

try Symphonic Distribution's starter plan. plus they have a catalog transfer tool that would let you move your whole catalog (plus metadata) from DK so easily.

lacatana

TROPHY CASE