TuneCore today announced that its artists are approaching the groundbreaking milestone of earning $1 billion in revenue solely from downloads and streams.
In celebration of its artists closing in on such a significant achievement, TuneCore is inviting all artists – both new and existing – to join the "Billion Dollar Club" and help reach $1 billion in revenue ahead of the projected October date. For a limited time, artists will have the opportunity to upload a single for worldwide distribution – free of charge– using the special coupon code "BILLION" (U.S., Canada, UK and Australia); "MILLIARD" (France); "MILLIARDE" (Germany); and "MILIARDO" (Italy).
In addition to taking advantage of the free single, participating artists will contribute to a major, once-in-a-lifetime milestone for TuneCore, as well as a significant revenue benchmark for the greater independent music community as whole. TuneCore will also host a count-up tracker on the TuneCore website to show artists' progress toward reaching $1 billion in revenue.
To further celebrate artists and get their music heard by more people around the world, the company is giving artists the chance to be featured on TuneCore's curated Spotify playlist. To participate, artists simply need to share a screenshot of the cover artwork from their release through TuneCore, post it to Instagram and tag their post with the #TCBillion campaign hashtag. Additionally, TuneCore artists will have the opportunity to add a "Billion Dollar Club" badge to their Facebook profile pictures to showcase their contribution to this outstanding milestone. TuneCore will continue to roll out additional content aimed at engaging artists throughout the summer, including music education videos featuring TuneCore musicians.
The constantly evolving nature of the music industry coupled with the industry's overall rapid growth has allowed TuneCore artists to reach such high revenue earnings at an unprecedented rate. According to the 2016 IFPI Report, while overall digital revenues for the global recorded music market grew by 17.7 percent, revenue earned by TuneCore's independent artists grew by 32 percent. Similarly, while streaming revenue for the global recording industry grew by 60.4 percent, TuneCore's streaming revenue grew by 85 percent.
As a result of the increasing popularity of streaming, TuneCore has also seen strong growth across its international markets, with a 119 percent year-over-year increase in streaming in Australia, as well as year-over-year increases in Germany (89 percent) and the UK (84 percent). Streaming also continues to grow in the U.S. with a 101 percent year-over-year increase, demonstrating the rapid growth the music industry can continue to expect.