Click artist name above for photos and more info.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 5, 2007
Jeff Price Inspired To Change The Music Business With TuneCore
"Check Out Jeff Price and TuneCore" - Chuck D, April 26, 2007
Jeff Price wanted to change the world - specifically the music business - and he's getting it done with TuneCore. As he watched online music sales grow exponentially, he grew increasingly disenchanted with the business practices of aggregators who, he felt, took more than a pound of flesh for their role in getting music onto consumers' computers.
"It made no sense to me on a moral or philosophical level," he says. "Labels and artists were being told they'd have to give up the exclusive digital rights to their masters for a three to five year term, and each time something sold, they'd would have to pay between 15 and 30-percent of the income as a fee to the aggregator." Unlike a physical distributor, these digital aggregators provide little marketing support and have little overhead.
Price decided to create a new model. "We treat it as a service sector model," says Price. "I think of it as analogous to FedEx. You walk into FedEx, say 'deliver this to iTunes,' and they say 'okay, that'll be 25 dollars' and that's the end of it. From a business perspective, I am providing a needed service in a very cost effective way." Price and his team devised a user-friendly system whereby customers can easily upload new songs and remove their funds whenever they want.
"From day one, I wanted to use technology to take the headaches out of being
a musician or label by providing services they want at prices lower than they can get on their own -- under a new model," says Price, who's gone a long way towards achieving that goal already. Bands can use their TuneCore accounts to buy stickers, t-shirts or CDs.
"Some people have asked me how we expect to make money," Price says with a
laugh. "I point out that Fed Ex has a fleet of airplanes around the planet based on 20 dollars at a time. What's our overhead? Broadband and server space-- that's it."
Price's resume speaks for itself. Almost two decades ago, Price founded spinART Records and he's released over 200 albums, including those by eclectic artists The Pixies, The Dears, The Eels, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Apples In Stereo, Richard Thompson, Ron Sexsmith, Clem Snide and Nellie McKay. An integral part of the formation of eMusic, Price put spinART's entire catalog online for download sale in 1997, a first for a label.
