Yesterday, Hypebot broke an interview with TuneCore CEO Jeff Price. In it, he said it was disingenuous for companies, like Ditto Music and others, to claim 24-hour live times to iTunes, because there is no way to guarantee that; it depends on too many factors that exist outside of the control of digital music distributors. Also, Price went even as far to say that making such promises, ones they know they cannot keep, “preys on the hopes, dreams and aspirations of musicians.” Lee Parsons, co-founder of Ditto Music, had this to say in response:
Hi Jeff, a few quotes to add to the article, I hope you don’t mind me quoting direct from TuneCore:
"Yes, we have 24 hour delivery" & "To put hundreds of releases into iTunes this quickly, it's the culmination of years of work." Peter Wells of TuneCore claiming credit for the fast delivery times.
And you mentioned CDbaby, so hope you don’t mind me quoting them as well..."We Have Same-Day iTunes Distribution" CDbaby - Digital Music News
TuneCore were the first ones to shout about your new delivery times. The only difference is that you took full credit for it,
without giving praise to iTunes like we did. When Ditto Music received massive press momentum by putting our necks on the line and giving a guarantee, you back tracked. I realize the press momentum Ditto Music received was frustrating for you. I did not expect so many TuneCore customers to contact us who were unhappy with your service.
Artists are savvy. You claiming other companies “none established” just makes you look threatened and unprofessional.
We are not in competition with TuneCore.
We have had 7 UK top 40 singles with unsigned artists, we help promote artists, we collect airplay royalties for artists and loads more great services, as WELL as distributing to hundreds of digital stores. We are not interested in how many artists we can deliver to iTunes for a profit.
Let's this keep discussion based around
what we can all do for artists.
My brother and I who started Ditto have been in bands our whole lives and know the constraints and difficulties artists face. Having their music on iTunes is just one part of a puzzle and not something we should be taking a pat on the back for. I will take a pat on the back when unsigned artists have the same infrastructure given to signed artists. And we at Ditto are working towards that until it is there. - Lee Parsons, Ditto Music
