iLike and TuneCore may be a bit late to the monetizing music party, following sites like Grooveshark, but they have now arrived in full force. Today TuneCore and iLike announce that indie artists will be able to earn money from people listening to and sharing their music via iLike.
iLike is poised for great leaps in success right now. They are rumored to be the favorite music application for Facebook to endorse as its preferred app for a Facebook music integration. Not only that, just this past summer iLike made several improvements by offering free streaming of full tracks and integrating an ad platform into their service, showing a keen eye for monetization and long term growth.
Why partner with TuneCore? iLike is more of a social discovery service for music, and TuneCore is a music distribution service. Together they have the ability to help artists make money off of the songs that they write and sing when people listen to them.
More and more services are going to this new digital revenue model in the music industry. Instead of waiting to be picked up by a label, going to the studio, going to press, advertising and going on tour, this new model allows artists to make money in real time, simultaneously with a tour, merchandise sales, CD pressing and more. No more waiting for big business to catch up. It also offers a bit of real time feedback - if you aren’t going to be popular, your level of digital revenue will reflect that immediately instead of waiting to release a CD that might fail.
What does the proliferation of turnkey music monetization services mean for musicians? It allows them to basically be their own label. Artists submit their music via TuneCore and then it is played via iLike, and everywhere iLike is found. This includes Facebook, embedded playlists on blogs, and more. TuneCore also gives artists access to iLike’s entire network, including hi5, Bebo, Orkut and more. TuneCore also serves music to sites like Rhapsody, Yahoo, MTV and Amazon. Artists then keep 100% of the money they make via the service.
Ali Partovi, CEO of iLike, said “As the music industry continues to reinvent itself, we believe it’s critical to offer independent musicians equal opportunity alongside major-label artists.” And he’s right - this online network created for artists by combining the reach of iLike and TuneCore enables a band or artist’s music to be heard in as many places as it would be if it were released by a major label. That’s a huge advantage for an artist to make money doing something they love, and isn’t that every musician’s dream? To get paid to do what they love?
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