Populous

How does this work?

We stream your music for free with your direct permissions to do that without paying royalties. If the listener likes your music and plays it regularly, we ask them to thank you and contribute whatever they think is right.

If they do, we transfer you 90% of the payments after the possible fees that the payment system may take (currently we use PayPal). We don't deal with royalty collecting societies but only with you directly.

We don't let people download audio files unless you give us explicit permissions for that, or your music is released under a license that permits digital distribution (e.g., Creative Commons).

Why would I participate?

The music industry has changed a lot over the last two decades. And the paradigm shift has not completed yet.

Whether you like it or not, if people don't want to pay for your music, they will go online, find and download it for free. This is the reality of the contemporary world, and it is not ever going to change now. You can shut down one online resource that provides music illegally, but tomorrow twenty new ones will appear there. You can continue fighting it, but the only thing you are going to achieve is to waste your time completely. We beg you to stop being delusional!

We believe in goodness of people. Bandcamp, Kickstarter, Patreon, and other projects helping connect artists with their fans successfully proved over last years that people who appreciate your art are actually willing to support your creativity. They just don't want to be forced to do that (as no one does). Therefore, we simply give them the opportunity to decide what they really love much enough to pay for it.

The other aspect is the broken mechanisms that drive the music society these days, and which mainly help thrive only the major players in the industry. The independent community is getting stronger every day, and deserves getting their own piece of the pie (if not swallow the whole thing eventually). We believe that royalties and collecting them on behalf of artists are a wrong way to move forward in the digital age. As an independent artist or a record label, you deserve to find and expand your audience, get paid directly, and receive most part of the profit that your fans are willing to give.

How can I participate?

Just send us a message at music@tuneself.com. We don't ask you to sign any contracts. There are no exclusive sort of deals either. You keep all the rights to your music, you are free to distribute it throught any other means you wish, and at any time you can reconsider and stop participating in our project.

The only thing we need from you is your direct permissions to play your music without paying royalties (and tell us how we could get your music).

I still have questions...

We will be happy to cover all your concerns and answer your quesions if you send us an email at music@tuneself.com.