With so many choices currently out there to distribute your music online, it’s harder than ever to choose the right one for you. With years of experience using distribution services, we’ve compared two heavyweights, LANDR and TuneCore to make it a bit easier to decide which of these two could be best for your music.
Like many other services, LANDR and TuneCore have different prices, subscriptions and features that they offer. They both have individual benefits that would suit you best for your music depending on what you want, what your budget is and what level you may be at with your music.
In this comparison, we will go through all of the features, pricing and all of the important info that you want to know. Even uploading songs ourselves and trying out each service properly for ourselves!
Contents
LANDR Vs TuneCore- The Quick Verdict
TuneCore is the best option for most people, especially if you’re just wanting to get your music online on all major streaming services for a reasonable price. TuneCore is cheaper than LANDR and offers the same amount of if not more distribution features.
However, LANDR provides a great all-in-one artist service with AI mastering, $2000 worth of plugins and production lessons, distribution, and much more if you can afford the higher price point. Although, LANDR is a lot cheaper for cover artists than TuneCore.
LANDR: Pros and Cons
✅Best for cover artists
✅Great if you can afford the studio subscription
✅The LANDR network of creatives and promoters could be very helpful for your music
❌Expensive if you want advanced distribution features
❌Doesn’t feel intended for just distribution
TuneCore: Pros and Cons
✅Very reasonably priced
✅The subscription tiers are not that different in price
✅The TuneCore Rewards system seems to be a great way to get promotional opportunities for your music
❌Cover licenses are costly
How Much Do They Cost?
First things first, let’s compare one of the most important things you’re wondering about, which service is better for your money. Let’s go ahead and look at the pricing options available for LANDR and TuneCore.
LANDR Pricing
LANDR has a subscription-only service when it comes to music distribution and does not allow you to pay per release.
With every subscription model, LANDR gives you 100% of your royalties, unlimited releases and allows you to upload your track to over 150 music streaming sites, including household ones such as Spotify, Apple Music etc.
There are three subscription options available, firstly the basic for $23.99 a year, the pro for $89.98 a year (on sale currently), and finally the studio package for $143.88. There are quite a few differences between each option, so let’s dive into them.
The release approval time is 7 days with the basic but is shortened to 2 days with the pro (strangely, the studio has a 5-day release approval time even though it costs more?). Customer support response time is within 72 hours with basic, 12 hours with pro, and 48 hours with studio.
You get royalty splits, earning reports and pretty much all basic features across all of the subscriptions, but features such as custom release dates, label names, and high-quality formats amongst others are limited to pro and studio.
It’s worth mentioning that the pro subscription includes an AI mastering service and some use of the LANDR collaboration platform, and the studio subscription includes a huge value for money with over $2000 worth of value in plugins and production lessons included with mastering and distribution services!
TuneCore Pricing
Right off the bat, TuneCore does have a pay-per-release system alongside a subscription option. It even allows you to release on social platforms for free!
Across all paid options, 100% royalties, unlimited releases, artist verification, scheduling your own release date and having your music on 150+ streaming platforms are all included.
The three subscription services are as follows, rising artist for $14.99 a year, breakout artist for $29.99 yearly and finally professional which is $49.99 a year. This is immediately cheaper than LANDR, so let’s see what features it has for each subscription and compare.
Similarly to LANDR, the cheapest service has the most basic features that you would expect, which includes the same features LANDR’S basic does, but with the extra of being able to schedule your own release date.
The breakout artist and professional subscriptions include more advanced customisations for your release, as well as promotional opportunities, expert advice panels and other pretty great bonuses.
The customer support response time goes from 3 to 2, to 1 business day the more expensive the subscriptions get.
The pay per release works out as $9.99 a year, and $29.99 a year for a whole album. You don’t get any advanced features with this, but it’s a good option if you don’t want to commit to the slightly higher price, but for just $5 more you could get the benefits of the rising artist package.
So, Which One Is The Best Value For Money?
As you may have noticed, TuneCore is cheaper than LANDR and offers better features overall for distribution for less money.
But, if you’re an aspiring artist who wants a full creative and promotional package, LANDR’S studio subscription does give you fantastic value for your money, but for just distribution, TuneCore wins here.
Compared to LANDR TuneCore has several features which set it apart for distribution, for example offering both digital and physical distribution and even the opportunity to apply for artist advances!
It makes the most sense if you are just interested in getting your music out there for a reasonable amount of money.
But, as great as TuneCore’s subscriptions are, its free option, whilst appreciated, does have some drawbacks that you should be aware of. It only puts your music on social media stores instead of places like Spotify, and there’s a 20% cut taken off of royalties.
What Features Does Each Service Offer?
Although at first glance, TuneCore offers more features for less money, we haven’t gone that deeply yet into what service offers you. To get a better idea of what service is best for you, let’s go for a deep dive into what they do differently from one another.
Royalties
LANDR gives you 100% royalties across every subscription, as well as the ability to split royalties and basic trends and earning reports.TuneCore is identical here, giving you 100% of your royalties with basic reports of how well your music is doing sales-wise.
When it comes to monetization of your music on services such as YouTube, TikTok etc. both services offer this option. However, TuneCore takes no cut of your royalties, whereas LANDR takes 20% of these.
How Many Tracks Can You Release?
You can release unlimited tracks on both services on pretty much every single major streaming service you can think of! This is included with every single subscription of both services, even the free option with TuneCore!
How Long Does It Take To Get My Music Released?
LANDR has a timeframe of 1-3 business days to get your music onto streaming services, whereas TuneCore is slightly quicker with 1-2 business days. This isn’t a huge difference, but it may matter to you if you’re itching to get your tunes online!
It’s important to remember that both of these times are an estimate and are subject to change if there are issues with your track upload, artwork, etc. But in our experience, customer support is quick and helpful with both services to get your song out there as soon as possible!
Promotion
Across every subscription LANDR gives you some nice little promo features such as customisable promo links for your tracks, the option to manage and edit your lyrics that appear for the listener, and instantly becoming a verified artist on Spotify.
Furthermore, LANDR has an online network you become a part of when you subscribe. It’s full of promotional opportunities and labels, as well as creative opportunities with real people who could potentially help you get your music in some real and important places.
TuneCore has a bit of a different system than LANDR for its promo, TuneCore rewards. A points and rewards system that allows you to get classes, playlisting, and promotional opportunities. This system is available on all subscriptions, even on the free one!
TuneCore doesn’t have the network that LANDR has, but the rewards system is a great way of getting these big opportunities within your reach for your music.
Cover Song License
If you want to cover songs and put them on streaming services, you’ll need a fully covered license that defends you from any kind of legal issues that could crop up from covering a song and making potential money off of it! Luckily, both LANDR and TuneCore have got you covered.
Impressively, with LANDR you pay a one-time fee of $15 to get a cover song licensed on all streaming platforms. With TuneCore, there are two options. The standard license for $70 covers the song forever and is suited for artists who intend to sell more than 500 downloads.
Then, the limited license for $17 which is for artists selling less than 500 downloads. Anything over 500 downloads and you need the standard license.
TuneCore is noticeably a lot more expensive in this regard, so as a cover artist, your best choice could be LANDR for the price alone.
So, Which Service Has The Best Features?
Both services have similar basic distribution features across all of their subscription plans, with opportunities to take your music further for a bit more money with promotional and creative networks.
With TuneCore, the focus seems to be on distribution and promotion if you pay more money. With LANDR, their service aims to be a jack-of-all-trades creative, promotional, and distribution powerhouse, but for more money than TuneCore.
In the sole category of distribution, TuneCore wins on features as it gives you most of the same features that LANDR does for less money.
For cover artists specifically, LANDR could be better as it’s cheaper for licenses, but that’s the only category LANDR has the edge on here.
However, if you are looking for a bit more than distribution and maybe a full artist package in terms of promotional, creative, and marketing resources, then LANDR is a fantastic all-in-one service if you have the money for it.
Its AI mastering service, $2000 worth of plugins, and distribution are more than worth it if you have the money.
Which Service Has The Best Customer Support?
When releasing music, there are a lot of things that you could need customer support with from your distribution service.
From problems with cover artwork, uploading your song, royalties, and many more, when choosing your distribution service you want to know you’ll be assisted efficiently and quickly if these issues come up.
We tested both LANDR and TuneCore for their customer service quality and speed. Impressively, both services kept to their pledges of getting back to us within 24-48 hours. They were friendly and ready to help with any issues we had.
The Final Verdict
TuneCore is the winner when it comes to distributing your music in terms of features and value for your money. It’s very reasonably priced for its subscriptions, there are lots of great features to get your music online and promote it and customer service is quick and efficient.
However, if you want to spend a bit more and get the full LANDR studio package which can help you take your song from its creation all the way to its release and beyond, then it’s very much worth it if you have the money to pay.
What Are Other People Saying About LANDR And TuneCore?
We’re not content to let you just take our word for it, so we went and found out what people thought of LANDR and TuneCore online! Looking at Trustpilot for both, we found that TuneCore averages at 4.2 stars with over 8000 reviews, whilst LANDR averages at the same rating but with only 554 reviews.
TuneCore’s positive reviews all note how helpful and easy to use the service is, they also say how quick and happy to help the customer support is. Negative reviews note some issues with technical problems such as their song being incorrectly uploaded, artwork problems, and payouts taking a while.
Unlike most other services we’ve reviewed or compared, there aren’t responses to criticisms from TuneCore themselves. However, from our own experience and the sheer volume of positive reviews, we would say the negative experiences with TuneCore seem to be rare.
LANDR’s online reviews are a bit harder to gauge, as people talk about the service as a whole rather than just the distribution aspect.
However, most people who mention it give a positive review and note the great quality customer service they get with releases.
Negative reviews criticize release upload times and subscription issues, but LANDR themselves have responded to these with explanations or urged them to get into contact with their customer response team.
FAQ
How Much Of My Royalties Do I Keep From TuneCore and LANDR?
Both services give you 100% of your royalties for streams on major streaming services with their paid subscriptions. However, LANDR takes a 20% cut from any royalties that are earned through content ID on places such as YouTube or TikTok.
When using TuneCore for free, they take 20% off your streams on social media platforms, which is where they release your music if you choose the free option.
Which Service Is Best For Artists Starting Out?
TuneCore is the best option for artists just beginning to put out music. It has a free option which can get your music on social media platforms, and the paid subscriptions are considerably cheaper than LANDR.
Which Streaming Services Do LANDR and TuneCore Put Your Music On?
Both platforms put your music on over 150 streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. They also use social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok etc. Both platforms will add your music to any new major services that come up in the future.
Can I Use Cover Songs?
Yes, you can. You need a license for them, which both LANDR and TuneCore provide. LANDR gives you a license for a one-time $15 fee, whereas TuneCore has two license options for either $70 or $17. The $70 license protects your track for anything over 500 downloads, the $17 license is only meant for 500 downloads and under.
Can I Make Money From My Songs Being Played On Places Like YouTube and TikTok?
You can get royalties for your tracks being played on YouTube and TikTok by opting into content ID on LANDR and TuneCore. TuneCore does not take any of your royalties for this, but LANDR takes a 20% commission.
