What is the common struggle of songwriters, singers and composers in India? It is distribution of music.
Artistes have to depend on music labels to introduce their content to listeners or wait for a Bollywood break to get noticed.
But the scenario is changing, thanks to digital streaming. And what can make this scenario even better for artistes is TuneCore’s entry in India.
Wondering what TuneCore is? It is a digital music distribution service provider and belongs to parent company Believe, which is the fourth largest music distributor in the world.
In what way can TuneCore help Indian artistes?
“TuneCore is a do-it-yourself (DIY) platform for artistes and they can distribute music to 150 stores across the globe by paying a one-time fee and keep 100 percent of the earnings from downloads and streaming,” Heena Kriplani, TuneCore Country Manager for India and also music industry veteran, told Moneycontrol.
She added that all the earnings from downloads and streaming is added in the artiste’s account on TuneCore, which can be withdrawn anytime.
So, instead of going to music OTTs individually, artistes can, in one go, distribute their content to digital stores across the globe, including Spotify, iTunes/Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Deezer available on TuneCore already and local stores like JioSaavn, Gaana, Hungama, and Wynk which are coming soon on the platform.
Kriplani also added that it is not easy to approach music OTTs as even they prefer artiste to come via distributors.
Currently, Indian artistes are getting 50 percent discount on regular distribution costs. So, distributing singles will cost Rs 499 and first-year distribution for albums is available for Rs 1,499.
Kriplani believes that TuneCore is simplifying the distribution process for artistes which should have been simple in the first place.
In addition, TuneCore tracks down and collects revenue for artists when their sound recordings are used anywhere on YouTube.
Another feature is Facebook Music. So, when artistes sign up for this service, their music will be accessible to users across Facebook and Instagram to use in their organic content.
Also, fans will be able to find music through an audio library which can be used in the content they create and share across Facebook’s platforms. Artists can also verify and submit their lyrics to Instagram which will allow users to add lyrics to Instagram Stories.
Internationally, TuneCore has been able to pay artistes over USD 1 million each day and since the company's inception in 2006, TuneCore artists have earned more than USD 1.8 billion collectively.
In the first quarter of 2019, artistes earned USD 83 million, a 21 percent increase over the first quarter of 2018.
In 2018, distribution income for artistes had reached USD 308 million, a 28 percent year-on-year increase.
Also, total streams and downloads of music by TuneCore’s 250,000 worldwide artistes hit 199.3 billion in 2018, an 83 percent increase over 2017.
This clearly shows that digital is emerging as a strong revenue stream for both artistes and the music industry and not just worldwide but also in India.
According to IFPI's Global Music Report 2018, revenue from digital contributed Rs 665 crore or 78.5 percent to overall music revenue which was Rs 850 crore. Of the total music revenue, audio OTT revenue accounted for 66.8 percent or Rs 567 crore.
The digital environment is allowing for people working on music or songs to get noticed, and in that sense, allowing the artiste to treat a soundtrack feature as their music video.
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