As you know, I use this blog as a kind of journal of my journey as an independent musician, a notebook containing my ideas, projects, and news.
I also try to offer more general reflections that may be useful to others musicians...
I would like to share my experience with Tunecore with you.
As you may know, independent musicians and most small labels have to go through aggregators to get their music online on streaming or download platforms (Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Tidal, Deezer, Quobuz, YouTube, etc. — there are nearly 200 of them!), which, in exchange for an annual subscription or a percentage of sales, will distribute albums and EPs far and wide.
These new players act as intermediaries in an ecosystem where more and more musicians are self-producing their music in a wide variety of genres (rock, techno, rap, pop, ambient, etc.) without labels.
So I chose to entrust my music to Tunecore for distribution on every possible and imaginable platform, present and future, for an annual subscription fee of €39.99 excl. tax/year (semi-pro subscription).
I have entrusted Tunecore with 60 of my self-produced albums since August 2022. That's exactly three years ago. I also gave them the rights to my music and the SYNC option for possible TV, film, etc. adaptations.
So three years later, where are we?
I have to say that Tunecore has done the job of putting my music online everywhere.
There have been few hiccups (only one album with a recording of Gandhi in the public domain, which Tunecore refused).
Overall, Tunecore has done the job, and all my music is available on all platforms.
Let's be clear, this brings me practically nothing. Tunecore offers me global and international visibility. I have sometimes been able to recoup the cost of my annual subscription through publishing. So be it. But nothing in terms of sync, even though my music could lend itself to accompanying images.
It was in May 2025 that everything started to go haywire.
I am well aware that the streaming world has to deal with the challenges of AI, bots, fake song factories, and hundreds of tracks that offer nothing but white noise or the sound of rain drumming against windows.
But now I've experienced firsthand a robotic Spotify playlist that, in one day, earned me almost a thousand streams for one of my older tracks, “Magnificent Sky.”
I was the first to spot the anomaly in my streaming statistics: the playlist aggregated hundreds of tracks with no logical style or genre. And the playlister's identity linked to highly suspicious bitcoin sites.
I immediately notified Tunecore of my findings, certifying that I had in no way commissioned or paid for this playlist to include my track.
To my surprise, I received a response from a certain “Emily,” a “Fraud Prevention Specialist,” who informed me that Apple Music had detected fraudulent manipulation of streams for two of my albums
"Hello,
Thank you for writing in. TuneCore has been notified by Apple Music that the following content has been removed from their store due to abnormal store-end streaming behavior. As a result, this content was taken down from all stores.
UPC: 859766980916, 859768337374"
My statistics on Apple Music show no anomalies. And these two albums are still online as I write this post.
I asked Emily, Fraud Prevention Specialist, for details about the fraudulent manipulation of my two albums: when? How many streams? Etc.
I got the following response from Emily:
“Unfortunately, we cannot share the details of investigations as we must protect the review policies and practices of TuneCore and our store partners. However, I can let you know that typically abnormal store-end activity is characterized by a large number of streams coming from a small number of unique listeners.
It has been determined that the funds in your account were derived from abnormal store-end activity.”
I replied:
“On Apple/iTunes, since July 2022, I've earned $46.20 with 2,685 streams over three years!
It's absolutely impossible for you to see on my account “a large number of streams coming from a small number of unique listeners.”
My Apple Music stats (see my upload last night) show no such anomaly!
Apple Music has not contacted me to report a problem!
I repeat my request for an explanation and verification (aren't you confusing me with another musician?).”
I received a response from Emily (Fraud Prevention Specialist... LOL!)
“Hello,
Unfortunately, if a store determines, in their sole judgment, that streams received on a release have been manipulated or artificially generated, they reserve the right to remove that release from their platform. Additionally, it is TuneCore's policy to remove any releases reported to us for abnormal store-end activity from all other stores. Releases that have been taken down for abnormal store-end activity will not be eligible for reinstatement.”
I'll skip the details: to date, both albums are still online on Apple Music. It was a false alarm that triggered the notifications from the Tunecore bot, aka Mrs. Emily (Fraud Prevention Specialist), from whom I never received a personalized and relevant response to my case, beyond these generic statements... I think she does not exist: she is a bot with automatic answers.
And so, yesterday, August 20, 2025, three years to the day after I signed up with Tunecore, I was notified of a $10 penalty for streaming fraud on Spotify (my song “Magnificent Sky,” which I immediately reported as having been misappropriated by a robotic playlist, without my consent).
This morning, the $10 was deducted from my Tunecore account (to be transparent, this is my earnings for the second quarter of 2025, including publishing rights).
And I am threatened with similar fines every time one of my songs is reported for fraudulent streams.
It doesn't matter that I'm not involved in the fraud; it's the musician who is punished, not the agencies that manage these automated playlists.
So as of today, August 21, I still haven't received a response to my strong complaint to Tunecore's support service. The numerous similar cases reported on social media lead me to believe that I will not win my case and that I will only receive generic responses.
At this point, I can only strongly advise against subscribing to Tunecore, given their approach to handling suspected streaming fraud, which is immediately attributed to the musicians.
In short, the 1,000 fraudulent streams of “Magnificent Sky” would have generated a maximum income of $3 (which I did not receive).
I was penalized $10.
Spot the mistake...
When will musicians who have been wronged by Tunecore file a class action lawsuit?
