Very frustrating experience with TuneCore – unclear errors and long delays
I uploaded about 20 songs to TuneCore, and 10 of them were flagged. I received an email with very vague information about what was supposedly wrong. After correcting everything that was mentioned, I assumed the songs would go back into review. However, there were no notifications, no status updates, and no indication of what was happening. I basically had to guess. After three days nothing had happened, and after four days still nothing. This was the case for all affected tracks. How is anyone supposed to plan a release date like this? If proper processing isn’t possible because of workload, then the system simply doesn’t work. The information about the errors is insufficient and unclear. I have a lot of experience with computers and software, but even I reached my limits here. What made it worse was that I couldn’t submit new songs while the previous ones were still unresolved, and there was no indication of when or if anything would actually be processed. For comparison: I have released around 50 songs through DistroKid, and there was not a single issue. No errors, no delays. Everything was reviewed and submitted to the stores the same day. Often the review process only took a few hours. That’s what I call professional service. With TuneCore, however, I often had to guess what the actual problem was during the upload and troubleshooting process. At some point you simply can’t move forward anymore. If I upload a song to my YouTube channel and then submit the same song to DistroKid for distribution, the whole process takes less than five minutes. If there is an issue, I’m immediately told exactly where the problem is during the first step. That’s how a system should work. I will no longer use TuneCore in the future and I will not recommend it. I will also look into getting my money back. Another example: my songwriter registration is still not completed. I was told it would take about two days. It has now been ten days with no progress and no information. Instead, everything is presented as if it’s fine and the blame is put on Apple. But other streaming platforms have similar requirements, so the problem clearly isn’t Apple – it’s TuneCore’s system. If you charge money for a service, you should provide a system that actually works and is transparent, and you shouldn’t make things unnecessarily complicated for people who may be doing this for the first time. DistroKid has very few negative reviews, while TuneCore has many. Based on my experience, it’s easy to understand why.