Freshtunes?

[Aaron Bitman]

Does anyone here have experience with Freshtunes? Because I'm trying to deal with it now, and to put it mildly, I'm not getting a very good impression of it.

 

It's like this. Last year, I published my first album through CD Baby for $29 plus a $20 fee for the UPC label. This year, I lost my job and tried to pinch pennies (which has sometimes proven counter-productive, as I related on another thread on these forums earlier).

 

So when I set out to publish my second album, I thought that instead of CD Baby, I would try Freshtunes, which is free. So I submitted my songs there on Friday and the site indicated it would get released in 2 weeks.

 

Yet on Sunday, when I checked on the status of my album, Freshtunes claimed that the songs had errors. The site indicated that it didn't like the use of the word "Part" in my song titles, insisting that the word should be abbreviated to "Pt." That would be fine, but even though the site automatically made that abbreviation, it still registers all those songs as being in error, and no amount of editing can persuade the site otherwise. I might have tried deleting the songs and re-uploading them, but I saw no way to delete individual songs, only an album. Do I have to delete the whole album and start over again?

 

I wrote a message to the site's technical support to ask for help. The page that let me write the message raised another red flag. The company is located in Dubai - in the United Arab Emirates - and one line on that page was clearly written by someone who didn't speak English very well. The message should have said something like...

 

Please enter your CUSTOMER_ID. To find it, sign in and look at the number in the top-right corner.

 

Instead, it said...

 

Please enter your CUSTOMER_ID. For get it please SING IN and look number in right top corner

 

I guess the people who run the company want to make sure their customers are serious about music by making them sing. Forget about entering your customer ID; just sing.

 

Anyway, I submitted my question on Monday morning, which I suppose must have been Monday afternoon in Dubai. Almost 2 days later, Freshtunes sent me a reply which began...

 

Hi there,

Hope you are well.
If you want to delete your albums you should Klick to Details and at the bottom of the left side on the page you will see the delete button.

 

...which I already knew. So I DO have to start all over again. And if there's some other validation error then I may have to start over AGAIN. Oh, but wait; the best is yet to come. Freshtunes' e-mail continued...

 

Your music will be deleted within 14 days.
Have a good day.

Best regards
FreshTunes team

 

WHAT THE...?!? It could take them up to 2 weeks just to DELETE it?

 

I'm inclined to delete my album on Freshtunes and come crawling back to CD Baby, but I'm paranoid. Freshtunes DID seem to indicate earlier that my album would get published. What if, in two weeks, it DOES publish my album despite these bugs that seem to prevent it, and despite my request to delete it? I don't want my album released by two different distributors. Maybe I should wait until after the two weeks to be safe. Maybe that's paranoia, but it's what I'm inclined to do.

 

Still, I wonder how anyone else feels. What would you do in my position? Again, does anyone here have experience with Freshtunes?
 

[john]

Man. Frustrating. I have never used them. I can see why it is free. If it is like this with the set up, it doesn’t bode well.

 

Perhaps try Distrokid. Much cheaper than cd baby, but used enough by indie musicians. I would expect several artists on Songstuff will be Distrokid users.

[Aaron Bitman]

Okay, I guess Freshtunes isn't as bad as I thought. I deleted the album, and when the delete seemed to take effect right away, I re-read the line...

 

Your music will be deleted within 14 days.

 

...and realized that it meant that if I left my album there without taking action the mods would delete it within 14 days. That's reasonable.

 

However, I'm afraid to think what further miscommunications the language barrier might cause in the future. And I find it frustrating to get validation errors based on rules I can't seem to find, and which the site makes even somewhat difficult to fix. I'll sleep on it for a few days, but I think I'll go back to CD Baby.

 

(And I apologize, John, if I seem to be ignoring your advice. Last year, I considered many distributors, including Distrokid, but chose CD Baby because it has no annual fee.)

[john]

3 hours ago, Aaron Bitman said:

(And I apologize, John, if I seem to be ignoring your advice. Last year, I considered many distributors, including Distrokid, but chose CD Baby because it has no annual fee.)

 

Absolutely no problem, just suggesting options.