TOLBooth Records and its partnership with TuneCore
It's an online Music Distribution company that distributes music worldwide through various channels such as itunes, amazon mp3, google play, ...
What is its relation to TOLbooth records?
TOLbooth records has teamed up with TuneCore to distribute its music worldwide. TOLbooth Records and TuneCore share the same philosophy when it comes to Music, the artists and its distribution.
As TOLbooth Records is a record label that is dedicated to their artists and their music. TuneCore, while distributing the music, allows the artist to keep their master recording ownership, copyrights, and merchandise rights. TuneCore, unlike most distribution companies, ensures that the artists get paid 100% of their revenue.
Their partnership is a perfect fit seeing as they both strive to do right by the artists and their music.
What does this mean for the artist and how is it different from any other Music Distribution Company?
Most Music Distribution Companies buy albums from record labels at a 50% discount then resell them for more to retailers who ask for more money. To keep things simple, if a Music Distribution company buys an album at 5 dollar a piece from a record label, they'll resell it to a retailer for 7 dollar who then will sell it to you at 10 dollar.
This is where TuneCore is different. They charge a one time 75 dollar sign up fee and ask 10% commission on Royalties.
Royalties is what you get every time your song is played on the radio, covered by a band, played on youtube, streamed in any way or form on the internet ...
In a nutshell it means that the artist will get 100% of every album/song that is sold + 90% of what is made in royalties. If an album is sold at 10 dollars, the artist will get paid 10 dollar.
How does this all affect you as a music lover?
For starters, it means that you will be able to purchase the music for what they are selling it, no retail fees, nothing extra, which means that if an album is worth 10 dollars, that is what you'll pay.
As explained before, it means that the ten dollars you paid will go straight to the artist. In most cases artists get only paid 1 dollar per full album sold, which means that they lose 9 dollar per album sold.
As a music lover you want your favorite band/artist to succeed and make the money that they deserve to be making.
If we break it down as following with TuneCore if they sell 10 000 albums at 10 dollar each, they'll be making 100 000 dollar instead of making 10 000 dollar somewhere else and lose out on 90 000 dollar.
You are wondering how does this affect me. The more money an artist makes, the more opportunities become available. It means that the money that they earned can be used to fund tours, merch, ... and that's where it starts to matter to you. It means the difference between a small West Coast Tour or an international tour.
Imagine what an artist/band could do with 100 000 instead of 10 000. it would mean bigger tours, more merch, more promotion.
Secondly it means that there are no longer different release dates for albums in different countries. It means that an album drops on September 3rd, it'll be available for everyone at the same time which means that it decreases the chances of albums leaking online or waiting days or another week until the record drops in your country.
In conclusion, TOLbooth Records and TuneCore Music Distribution are both companies that strive to do right by their artists, the music and the people who buy it.