TuneCore’s Jeff Price To Music Industry Gatekeepers: “Go Fuck Yourself”
(UPDATED) "To those people out there, the sitting board members of the RIAA and the sitting board members of A2IM and the sitting board members of Sound Exchange who have made public comments stating that music that we release is crap – that’s their word, not mine – and that 80 percent of it is crap and it’s cluttering the space…When you go to iTunes, people search for it. If they find it, they buy it. So, go fuck yourself…You’re no longer the gatekeeper…"
"…You don’t get to say what has access. Technology changed that, and the general population of the world can say something like Rebecca Black, for better or for worse, has value. You know, we can say it doesn’t or it does, but the general population decided it is, so it doesn’t really matter what we have to say. They get to make the decision now." – Jeff Price, CEO TuneCore. Read the full interview at CMJ.com.
– General population
– Rebecca Black
– For better or for worse
– Has value
“go fuck yourself” is a strong phrase, backed up not at all by the foregoing four phrases. There’s absolutely a LOT of crap out there and if your argument is, hey, generally people think, for better or for worse, some of it has value, then you’ve just proved the point you’re arguing against.
I’d like to hear this in its full context. I know what he;s talking about but on it’s own wouldn’t make much sense to someone who doesn’t know what the debate is about
Really? His point is that, despite the bellyaching of the old school industry dinosaur machine, they have little to no say anymore. Technology changed that, the internet changed that, and tunecore changed that.
It’s a bad look to focus on the easy targets in an argument in an effort to ignore the greater point.
The gatekeepers have been keeper-ing quality outside the gate and selling crap for as long as they dominated. With some exceptions most of the great artists made it IN SPITE of the gatekeepers. Who gives a shit what the major label gatekeepers think? The masses can find all the crap they want and pay the talentless directly.
Why is this guy lumping all labels in the same category. One group is owned by wall street and is a profit generating (or losing) center…The other (indie labels) are largely a group who start labels to promote MUSIC they believe in. We need to listen to the latter, as they dedicate their lives to music. Just because shawn fanning made stealing music ok, it doesnt mean we have to listen to tech companies as to what we should do with music. Same goes with the ‘people’ who are not wanting to change their consumption/stealing habits. The ‘general population’ likes and supports Fox news, it doesnt mean they are right.
Go Jeff Go! What a stand up kind of guy. This is reason alone to use TuneCore to release my upcoming CD. Interesting to know that it’s been prejudged as CRAP before it even hits the market place I am sure my producer would take issue with that, with all his #1s, Grammy nominations and 13 Platinum albums.
The fun part of this debate is essentially proving naysayers wrong. I look forward to doing just that with my music! Indie artists are keeping a lot of producers in business and a lot of money is moving around…just in different circles.
I’m sure the Livery Stable guys were bellyaching about cars too.
You can’t say Rebecca Black doesn’t have value.
She may not have talent, or a future in the music business, but she has value.
Even if that value is in the form of a video that’s so bad, it’s entertaining to make fun of it. But it’s still entertaining; that entertainment value still exists.
Ignoring that is foolish, do so at your own peril.
80% of the indie music is crap?
WRONG!
Its more like 95%.
It seems Jeff Price is whining over a battle he’s already won. Tunecore rocks. Let it go and stop cursing.
Tunecore is great, they supply excellent and timely data as well. Digital singles clearly dominate, and it won’t be too many years before digital albums pass physical–I think they were running around 30-40% of physical sales last year (from memory). Tunecore seems to be in great shape to take advantage of that.
The key for any artist is Exposure, getting their music found. Maybe that’s even harder with more music available? I don’t know.
You have to be kidding me. You really think that 95% of indie music is crap. I cant believe how wrong you are!
I’d agree with that…I think people really under-estimate how huge that 5% is, though.
Tunecore checks pay the bills at my house. Long live Tunecore – Long live Jeff Price. All the Major Labels ever did was rip me off with their creative accounting.
Then let me be the first to tell Jeff Price to go fuck himself. As with all intelligent tyrants of the past, Jeff has positioned himself perfectly to chastise his predecessors while they are passing the throne to him, all under the guise of heroism. With all the hype around Price and TC recently, all the “TC is doing big great things for the artist, keeping it real…..”, did Price mention once that he has just increased the renewal fee of his service by 150% (19.99 to 49.99)?
Price once criticized CD Baby for charging a percentage on digital sales without doing any actual “leg work”, for just pushing digital information around. Now he is increasing a fee which requires no leg work by 150%. Why? Because he can. Artists who do not comply will face some actual leg work by TC in that the music will be taken down from all stores, along with all accumulated reviews and scores.
Jeff Price is the new gate keeper.
If you don’t have $50 to get on Itunes ,just quit now! Do you REALLY expect Tunecore to do any more for you for a measly $50 bucks? If you can’t raise $50.00 for worldwide digital distribution you must think you should get it for free! Where else can you get EVERYONE on the planet access to your music for $50.00? And you’re b*tching about it?
he is only pointing out that corporations and the selected few who run them no longer can dictate what is good and what is not. its about having choice to choose without filters from (4) major labels. OK izzy.
god
this debate is pretty old, if a person does not know what the debate is about by now, they should just sit quietly in a corner and shut up.
god
keep up the great work jeff, and give them hell!!
god
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This sounds like a publicity stunt to me.
Both sides are right. Since Tunecore gives the ability for ANYONE that makes music, i.e. non musician, hacks, etc, in their bedroom, to get on iTunes, in return it raises the supply of crap “musical” content. This is part of what pisses the “gatekeepers” off because they now not only have to compete against the other labels, etc, to raise the profile of the artists they support, they now have to compete with the indie market (which is 99% of the music market now) that uses Tuncore to circumvent system to raise their profile direct to consumers and other mediums.
At the end of the day the new real deal artists will find the way to raise their profile above the “crap” that is out there by utilize this mix of technology platforms to circumvent the “gatekeepers” (who are no longer gatekeepers as they literally have no power now). The cream always rises to the top not matter the situation… it’s called evolution. You either adapt or die. The strong survive. Today you have to be a bad ass writer, producer, musician, performer and business mogul.. That is how you play in the game today.
This alone is awesome for real artists who don’t have to spend a bunch of money, time, and energy to get “validation” from a group that bases their decision to support an artist off nothing that has do with musical merit, but an appeal to a corporations who wants to use their brand/pretty face to sell their product.
This is particularly relevant now more than ever especially when “the gatekeepers” don’t even care about selling music, but about getting sponsors and advertising revenues which in return REALLY screws the artists they are using.
Forget all this Tunecore crap!! I’m moving my band to ONErpm. They have an app that even allows you to sell right on Facebook. I just saw this from their Twitter as well…
MUSICIANS: Retweet the message below to get 50% off our one-time fee!
“Distribute to iTunes and beyond and sell your music directly on Facebook with @ONErpm”