Pitchfork

As digital downloads become an increasingly viable distribution outlet for musicians both mainstream and underground alike (see Gnarls Barkley's recent chart record), so too do opportunities for faceless middlemen to cash in on Joe and Jane Indie's toil.

Nevermind that digital music retailers themselves take a hearty cut of each download sale, and perhaps reasonably so; what's more, just to get a song on iTunes or another service, an artist must utilize a label, or if unsigned, something called an "aggregator", to gain access to online music stores--and each of these generally takes a share of every download sale as well.

Enter TuneCore, a self-described "enabler", whose mission is to get unsigned artists into digital stores without compromising their rights or their monies. Launched on January 25 of this year, the new service charges a flat fee to deliver music to digital retailers, rather than the ongoing per-download percentage fee of labels and aggregators. TuneCore claims to be the first service of its kind and has already attracted a notable clientele base, including Frank Black and up 'n comers Tapes 'n Tapes.

In a nutshell, TuneCore offers artists "access to the channels of music distribution without having to give up any rights, [and] 100% of the revenue generated from the sale of their music, with no contract in a non-exclusive arrangement that can be terminated whenever they like," according to founder Jeff Price, who also runs spinART Records.

Sound too good to be true? TuneCore has kindly put together a tome of an FAQ here, which pretty much explains every remote nook and cranny of their operation.

But your mathematical mind wants numbers, doesn't it? Here're a few to crunch: according to TuneCore's FAQ, a single $0.99 song sold on iTunes generates $0.70 for the artist. If the artist in question is aligned with a label or aggregator, that service will take between nine and fifty percent of the artist's profit, on every single song download-leaving them with as little as $0.35. Pretty crumby, man.

With TuneCore, artists pay a one-time delivery fee for each digital retailer utilized, and a very reasonable yearly maintenance charge, et voila! It's just you and Gnarls, reigning atop the UK downloads chart. Or, at the very least, it's the full $0.70 on every iTunes U.S. download. And iTunes is just one of dozens of services TuneCore is partnered with; according to Price, others include Rhapsody, Napster, Walmart, Yahoo!, MTV, Virgin Digital, HMV, Trans World Entertainment, MusicGremlin, iMesh, Cdigix, Synacor (Adelphia, Charter, RCN), eMusic, and more.

If the digital age just isn't your thing, TuneCore also offers cheap CD manufacturing and distribution catalog listing, the details of which you may read about on their website.

For an unsigned band like Tapes 'n Tapes, TuneCore proved the perfect fit. "It really seemed like a no-brainer for us," manager Keri Wiese told Pitchfork. "It's a great way for a tiny label or unsigned band to get their music into iTunes. We found it very appealing that we retained all the rights, just paid a one-time fee and then in turn received all the money that iTunes, Rhapsody or whomever pays (no percentage taken out, like most distributors do), and could easily remove everything if we wanted."

Wiese reports that the brothers Tapes have had no problems with the service thus far, and "would highly recommend TuneCore for any band that's trying to do it on their own."

"[Using TuneCore] was still a little scary," Wiese admitted, "because they were so new and unproven. But Frank Black being their first customer sealed the deal for us. Frank's no dummy!"

True dat.