When TuneCore launched in 2006, Spotify did not exist. Instagram and TikTok were years away. The idea that an independent artist could distribute music globally without a label, keep 100% of royalties, and build a sustainable career on their own terms was still radical. Twenty years later, TuneCore has paid out over $5 billion to artists and helped launch careers including Ed Sheeran, Jack Harlow, SZA, and Lizzo, and the company is now making its most ambitious argument yet: that artists who used to outgrow TuneCore no longer need to leave.
That argument is backed by a structural shift that has been building since Believe, the Paris-based global music company that acquired TuneCore in 2015, began integrating the two operations more explicitly. TuneCore Chief Business Officer Brian Miller describes the outcome plainly: “By aligning more closely with Believe, we’re creating a more seamless pathway for artist growth. When an artist reaches a stage where they need expanded services, marketing, global release strategy, funding, or hands-on label support, we can now transition them within the broader Believe ecosystem.” The goal is a continuum from independence to global growth without forcing artists to leave the platform entirely to access major-label-level resources. That pathway already has a proof of concept: Adekunle Gold started on TuneCore and was upstreamed to Believe artist services, while acts like SAULT, Cleo Sol, and Chronixx have built infrastructure that works in parallel with TuneCore’s distribution without going anywhere near the major label system.
The 2026 anniversary is also a moment of organizational change. CEO Andreea Gleeson stepped down at the start of the year and will not be replaced, with the company instead operating under closer shared leadership with Believe as the two companies move toward functioning as a single entity. Head of TuneCore UK Sarah Wilson, who joined in 2021 after 13 years at Beggars Group along with stints at Universal Music UK and The Orchard, described the shift directly: “We are now really working as one company. There’s been a huge sea-change in how all three parts of the business fit together and it brings the most value out of being part of the group, because we are all representing different parts of an artist’s journey.” That convergence matters practically because, as Wilson noted, Believe’s long-standing relationships with DSPs give TuneCore leverage it would not have operating independently, particularly in a landscape where 106,000 tracks are uploaded to Spotify every day and the challenge is no longer access to distribution but access to audience.
That audience problem is exactly what TuneCore Accelerator was built to address. Launched in 2023, the platform uses Believe’s proprietary catalog optimization technology to identify tracks with genuine growth potential and push them into discovery programs across streaming platforms. TuneCore Accelerator now boasts more than 515,000 artists enrolled, with the platform directly responsible for more than 50 billion new streams and 15 billion track discoveries since launch. Radioand Music Last year alone, the program generated 24 billion new streams for selected artists, a 17% increase from the prior year. More than 14,000 artists earned streaming royalties for the first time through the program, and another 14,000 surpassed 1 million streams. The Accelerator is also showing meaningful back catalog impact, with tracks released more than 18 months ago generating 24% more revenue inside the program than outside it.
