Sell Your Music WorldwideTuneCore is the leading independent digital music distribution service worldwide. For over a decade, TuneCore has been dedicated to providing independent musicians the tools they need to get their music out to the world, grow their fan base, and stay in control of their careers. Distribute your music to 150+ digital stores and keep 100% of your rights and sales revenue.GET STARTED How To Get Your Music On Spotify, Apple Music, And More! 1. Upload Your Music To TuneCore 2. We Send Your Music To Stores 3. You Get Paid SELL YOUR MUSIC
Is TuneCore legit?
TuneCore (www.tunecore.com) has a 2.6 out of 5 rating on OK.one, based on 204 user reviews collected here. It is listed under Hobbies & Crafts and its reputation is poor. 53% of reviews are 1 star, a relatively high share; The business has not yet replied to negative reviews; Reviews mostly discuss Customer service, User experience, Product. Last updated 2026-08-11.
What reviewers say
AI generated
Most reviewers were somewhat happy with their experience overall. Consumers consistently describe the platform as very user-friendly and appreciate the clear dashboards and earnings reports available for tracking music distribution and overall performance. Many independent artists also highlight that getting new tracks out to stores is a straightforward process supported by helpful management and professional mixing tools.
However, some customers also noted that customer service can be extremely slow, unhelpful, and difficult to reach when urgent issues or questions arise. Other users similarly mentioned experiencing long, frustrating delays for song reviews along with unexpected track rejections that completely lacked clear explanations or valid reasons.
Auto-generated from all reviews of this business. For reference only.
What people say
F
FRANCESCO CAVALLOItaly · 6 reviews · Experienced 2026-05-15 ·
★★★★★
It's virtually impossible to deactivate…
It's virtually impossible to deactivate or delete an account even when all releases have been discontinued. The links to deactivate the Professional Unlimited plan have disappeared, and it's become impossible to contact support. They don't respond, or if they do, they don't close the account despite repeated requests. Furthermore, they don't even let you deactivate payment methods. In short, you're trapped on this platform, which over the years has become annoying and significantly inferior to its competitors. Too bad to be real.
I'm a artist with millions of streams across multiple platforms. Tunecore, took down 4 songs, their fraud department stated, unusual activity. This is a lie. My base likes my music and listen to it. Thank God I did not place many songs on this platform. DO NOT USE! Save yourself the headaches.
This company’s conduct has been one of the worst consumer experiences I’ve ever dealt with. I repeatedly had to contact their official support email over the past 12 months requesting cancellation of my account because their website either hides, obstructs, or outright fails to provide a straightforward way to cancel properly.
Also, despite clearly informing them that I withdrew authorisation for any further card payments as well, they have continued attempting to charge multiple cards linked through my Google Pay account for months afterwards. In my opinion, the way their cancellation and billing systems operate feels deliberately designed to abuse the card system.
I have retained copies of the emails, cancellation requests, and records of the attempted charges. Based on my experience, I would strongly recommend avoiding this company at all costs.
Never use TuneCore for distributing. There customer service is the worst. They hold back 50%+ of ur releases because of some nonsensical problem. Switches to Distrokid and had 0 problems with the exact same songs. All where online and streamable within 3 days whereas TuneCore takes weeks.
I'm still trying to cancel my subscription but they CLOSE MY TICKET WITHOUT RESPONDING. I have to create a TICKET to get them to cancel my sub and they CLOSE IT.
Idk if theyre actually trying to scam people, or if they just dont care about their customers. Might be both
TuneCore is a dying dinosaur that doesn’t know it’s dead yet
I’ve been paying for their Unlimited plan and got nothing in return. Not even basic customer service.
They claim to respond within 3 days. That’s a lie. My refund request was completely ignored — not rejected, not answered, just ignored. Like I didn’t exist.
Then there’s their “Band Accelerator.” Marketed as a breakthrough for independent artists. In reality? An expensive nothing. A straight up scam.
The real blow came when they rejected my album under their GenAI Music Content Framework — despite 12 previously approved albums and two years as a paying customer. No dialogue. No real engagement with my arguments. Just a template response and a closed door.
TuneCore is a dying dinosaur trying to regulate itself into relevance while the world has moved on. They don’t understand the future — they fear it. And they send the bill to the artists who are literally paying their salaries.
I’ve moved to DistroKid. Never looking back.
Lea TownsendUnited States · 1 review · Experienced 2026-04-27 ·
★★★★★
I immediately had problems
Problem started the very first time that I submitted a song. I very soon after that got an email saying that my song did not qualify because it had AI content and would not be distributed. I wrote them back stating that because they did not distribute my song and I was not made aware ahead of time that my song would not qualify for their service I told them that I wanted a full refund. The next email that I received said that because I was on the free service I was not owed anything. I replied and sent copies of where I had paid directly out of my bank account and a screenshot of the banner on their website that said I was a paid member. That was it, I never heard from them again. I paid for a service that they're not going to provide so they owe me a refund!
They work only with Payoneer which is pain in the ass. I wait the money sometimes 7+ months! That's insane. And a lot more. When I'll be able, I'll take my songs away from them.
Mitch HUnited States · 1 review · Experienced 2025-07-29 ·
★★★★★
ZERO STAR
If I could give no stars that would be fair as still giving a one star pains me. The worse record label and distributor has ever existed. I’m not gonna go into details because I’m tired of repeating myself. I AM THE LEAST PERSON TO EVER COMPLAIN OR WRITE A REVIEW but let me tell you if you want to live in hell on a weekly basis if not daily then go for it and sign up. Took all my earnings away, then took down my tracks. I felt crushed. Because god knows how much work I have put into everything, Matter of fact including spending at least $100 (per song and had released 13 songs) for SPOTIFY’S OWN advertisement system for artists. I cut my losses and went to LANDR AND I have never been happier. Plus all the free sample packs you get and plugins, mastering and so so much more. STAY AWAY FROM TUNECORE if you want to succeed and focus on making music rather than endless emails and back and forth explaining to them how you got where you got while they have no proof and couldn’t care less about you or me and will do whatever they want even though they have no proof and have showed them everything that was more than sufficient to get an apology and move on but no, they’re after your money. Search the web and see for yourself, it is not just me, it’s almost everyone else going through this same issue.
l
liamUnited States · 3 reviews · Experienced 2026-05-01 ·
★★★★★
I never write reviews - it was that bad
I never write reviews, but my experience with TuneCore was so bad I had to. Their customer service is terrible, they're so picky with their guidelines, they take a huge cut of profit, they'll force you to capitalize artist's names wrong, and they'll reject a song if there's 1 wrong pixel in the album cover. Don't waste your time, use DistroKid or Amuse
If anyone sees what I wrote, please read carefully what I wrote about Tunecore, the worst and fraudulent distributor in the market. 3 months after my 5 songs were published, although my songs were listened to organically and the platforms reported every month and sent money to my tunecore account, after I made my first withdrawal, they suddenly canceled my withdrawal and suspended the account.When I sent a message asking why this happened, they said that there was an abnormality in my songs as a return, and they both removed the songs for no reason and collapsed my earnings without any evidence.Let everyone complain and close this company called Tunecore.They are a big fraudulent company that plays with people's labor.
Mavi RitimTürkiye · 1 review · Experienced 2026-04-30 ·
★★★★★
Worst distributor
It is the worst distributor in the market that steals people's labor and defrauds the money they earn under false pretexts without showing any evidence.definitely stay away from here, it is such a bad company that their application is like it was left before Christ.They can be the worst of the worst.Their customer service is a complete disaster.
B
BrosephUnited States · 2 reviews · Experienced 2026-04-28 ·
★★★★★
Awful for Uprising Artists: Asks for a Lot and Gives Nothing
Awful service. It asks for a lot and gives you nothing in return.
After spending a lot of money trying to use TuneCore, I have still had repeated issues on basic things. Examples being: they rejected my release for its artwork (which was nearly identical to the art of a different release they accepted); would not deliver my release to all platforms (namely Apple Music), and when I was given a solution by customer service, they did not follow through with their promise; they will not pay you without an ID code (which they don’t seem to provide you with); when trying to resolve a release issue, it took THREE MONTHS AFTER the release was supposed to be released to even get a response, despite sending multiple messages according to requested avenues and timeframes.
In the end, I have spent several hundred dollars on TuneCore and hours trying to wrestle with their service to never get my releases properly published nor get any payment from whatever did get published. DO NOT SUGGEST FOR UPRISING ARTISTS
Be careful, they make you pay and then after 7 they keep the money. Stay away
Be very wary. They can block your account at any time due to their terms! They deserve legal action and a class action lawsuit! For 7 months, everything was fine until the first money arrived. At the first withdrawal attempt, the money was blocked. And then the account was closed and the money was seized! This company should never be reported again. They can't afford to behave this way. Be careful because they take the money at the beginning, make you pay, and at the first withdrawal, they block you. I'm attaching the conversation.
Hello
Thanks for reaching out. After completing a full review of your account, we’ve confirmed that, due to flags of abnormal activity, your content has been removed from stores, and your funds will remain on hold in accordance with our Terms & Conditions.
This decision includes the permanent closure of your TuneCore account, so we won’t be able to send any additional releases from this account to stores. Please note that uploading new content to this or any other TuneCore account will not be supported.
If you have any questions not relating to this decision, please let us know. We’re here to help.
Best Regards,
Emily
Fraud Prevention Specialist
EN HARAItaly · 1 review · Experienced 2026-01-27 ·
★★★★★
BIG SCAMMERS !!! AVOID USING TUNECORE
You guys will pay me back each penny I invested in this shit!!! See you soon at the court room front of a judge !!! DONT USE THIS SCAMMER PLATFORM !!!!! It’s all rigged !!! They took my money for 8 years and deleted all my music progress from all digital platforms without explaining nothing!!they didn’t even reply to emails !!! I promise I will do anything possible to be an obstacle to pull you guys down !!! Mark my words !!!
This in my opinion rogue company it has continued to take payments out of our charity account for an unused service which we have tried to cancel on numerous occasions. This is the worst example example of a company fleecing a charity I’ve come across. If you’re reading this tunecore get in touch please because we want our money back. By law you need to refund money if that request is made within 14 days so perhaps you could actually do that for once! Terrible company in my view terrible customer service the worst example of bad refund/cancellation policies and money fleecing (from small charities in this case) we have ever come across. In my view, do not sign up to this ridiculous organisation because you will never ever ever be able to stop being part of the dreadful money grabbing con.
If anyone is even thinking about using this company — DON’T. Seriously, stay as far away as possible.
This has been one of the most frustrating, exhausting, and outright infuriating experiences we’ve ever had with any business. They continuously charge you more than they should, and it doesn’t stop there. You cancel your subscription? They keep charging you. You go a step further and delete your account entirely? They STILL keep charging your card like nothing happened.
We contacted their support multiple times — and every single time we got the same empty response: “The issue has been fixed.” It was never fixed. Not once. Because shortly after, another unauthorized charge would appear again.
At some point, it became clear that normal support was completely useless, so we escalated the situation. We found contact details for higher-level staff within the company and reached out directly, hoping someone competent would finally address this. And what did we get? “You don’t have an account in our system.” That was their response.
Of course we don’t have an account anymore — we DELETED it because you kept charging us even after cancellation. And yet, even without an account, the charges kept coming. That alone tells you everything you need to know.
After pointing this out, they simply stopped responding altogether. No explanation. No accountability. Nothing.
At that point, it was obvious this wasn’t just incompetence — this felt completely unacceptable and deeply concerning. The ONLY way we were able to stop the charges was by going through the hassle of replacing our bank card entirely.
Think about that — we had to change our card just to stop them from taking money.
Avoid this company at all costs. This kind of behavior is absolutely unacceptable, and no one should have to go through something like this.
I had a very disappointing experience with TuneCore.
My release was rejected after their review team claimed that it contained “AI-generated content.” However, no clear explanation was provided as to what exactly triggered this decision, what specific policy was violated, or what criteria were used to make this determination.
I replied with detailed and specific questions, asking:
– what exact rule I allegedly violated
– where in their terms the use of AI-assisted tools is restricted
– what method or evidence they used to classify my content
I also explained that I use modern production tools, including AI-assisted technologies, which are widely accepted in today’s music industry — especially in electronic music — and that the creative direction, composition, and final production are fully controlled by me.
Despite this, none of my questions were answered. I only received generic responses repeating that my release “does not meet their standards,” without any transparency or meaningful support.
This lack of clarity and accountability is extremely frustrating. If a platform rejects paid submissions, it should provide clear, detailed reasoning and communicate with its users professionally.
At this point, the process feels arbitrary and non-transparent.
Very disappointing experience.
Zohan FarbisnerUnited States · 10 reviews · Experienced 2026-04-26 ·
★★★★★
Tunecore review
I already wrote a review on this site but I want to do the math for anyone that may be thinking about using this platform. You make about .5 cents every time your music is streamed. With that in mind you can stream your own music 24 hours a day if you're really clever and probably make about $1.50 cents a day. That's with you constantly streaming it. No one is going to listen to your music this much either. I listen to a lot of music and I don't even approach the numbers needed to make any substantial cash streaming music. I do not recommend this at all. You gotta keep in mind that probably half the world doesn't even like music and about 90 percent of the music fans might not like your genre of music. I hope this was helpful.
First time use, they overcharged the card, then refused to refund, de facto taking you hostage to use their mediocre services! Then came up with new plans unlimited release and refuse to convert the money they stole from the overcharged to be used for these new plans of their! Then holding your royalties for months when in fact they already received it! No transparency at all spotify issued reports are hidden from you the artist! Finally took my music offline no advance notice, no warning, no real explanation besides some stupid technically terms like artificial streaming! I put the music online beside Soundplate, dailyplaylist, pitchplaylist not paying any advertising business nor anyone as a matter of fact and they hold responsible for what people doing with the music! Used AI assisted in my previous release no pb suddenly after criticizing the genocides by Israel on social media, the refused to publish my new album suddenly no explanation given and when I wrote them email I put “Christ is King and I will be okay, that I will publish with them or without them” which I did but after that email they took my first album offline! They are just pitifully thieves, praying on people’s skill and talent offering nothing on the table! And the business that owned them Alison own Label radar another scamming website promising to get you heard by label once again take your money and have some bullshit label you never heard notifications that they supposedly heard your music and not interested but these notifications and communication ain’t coming from the label direcbut tunecore or label radar ! So what it the proof that they actually sent your music to labels! NONE! Simple thieves! Artist out there there is RouteNote distributing for free minus 15% of revenue, ReverbNation as low as $1 per track and your on spotify, iTunes etc… don’t have to use these juicy thieves, pre tending to care til they get your money ! You want to succeed avoid anything related to Belive music the company that own tunecore, label radar etc… very important to Google who you doing business with and paying money to! Cuz next you know they killing babies in Gaza with your money so F TuneCore, F LabelRadar
Svara Jam LabIndonesia · 1 review · Experienced 2026-04-24 ·
★★★★★
I’m wAllowed to Upload, Then Accused of Violation and Funds Withheldriting this as a factual account…
I’m writing this as a factual account of my experience with TuneCore.
I uploaded cover songs through their platform and clearly declared them as covers in the metadata. At the time of upload, their system allowed the release to go live even though I had not yet obtained a mechanical license. There was no blocking, no hard warning, and no restriction from their system.
TuneCore’s own guidance states that for streaming distribution, mechanical licensing is handled by the platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.), which reasonably led me to believe that I could proceed in good faith and resolve licensing as needed.
However, after the releases were already distributed, third-party claims were made, and TuneCore responded by:
- Blocking my releases
- Closing my account
- Withholding my funds (including earnings unrelated to the disputed tracks)
At this point, I was labeled as being in violation, despite:
- Accurately declaring my releases as covers
- Not falsifying any metadata
- Following the flow and guidance provided by their own system
What I find most concerning is the inconsistency:
If these releases were truly violations, why were they allowed to be distributed in the first place without any upfront enforcement or clear restriction?
Other platforms I’ve used are far more consistent — they either block the release at submission or require proper licensing before distribution. TuneCore, on the other hand, allows distribution first and enforces later, placing all risk on the user without clear safeguards.
Additionally, after raising these concerns, communication stopped entirely.
This is not about avoiding responsibility — it is about transparency and system consistency. A platform should not allow an action and then later penalize the user for doing exactly what the system permitted.
Artists should be aware:
If something goes wrong, you may face withheld funds, account termination, and limited communication, even if you acted in good faith.
DistroKid
Ditto Music
Amuse
Too Lost
CD Baby
LANDR
Symphonic
RouteNote