BROOKLYN, NY (Hypebot) – The economic meltdown has slowed venture funding, but it hasn't stopped it entirely. Discount flat fee digital distributor TuneCore has received $7 million in first round financing from Opus Capital which it says will be used to market the service more widely.
Hypebot readers are familiar with the TuneCore. Former indie label owner Jeff Price has created a simple yet brilliantly seductive business model that sent shivers down the spines of labels and distributors. For about $40 you can put an album on all the major download stores without long term contracts. You retain the rights. You do the marketing. “We take out the filters and let everybody in," is how Price describes it.
Opus Capital's Gill Cogan told VentureBeat that he'd "screened a lot of music internet companies but didn’t find any that could do what TuneCore does." Well, Opus and VentureBeat should both hire new research departments. The flat fee distribution model has already been adopted by several companies. The largest, ReverbNation, offers a similar and sometimes cheaper flat fee service to 250,000 artist members. And ReverbNation offers an integrated suite of free viral promotional tools that TuneCore would do well to spend its $7 million copying.
