TuneCore Japan has now paid more than ¥100 billion (roughly £480 million / US$633 million) to the independent artists and labels using its distribution and monetisation services. The company announced the milestone on October 1st, 14 years after its October 2012 launch, and said more than 20% of the revenue its artists and labels have generated this year has come from overseas.
That overseas share is up from 17% last year and has roughly doubled since 2021. TuneCore Japan also revealed that 140 acts have each earned at least ¥100 million (about £480,000 / US$633,000) through the service, and that its catalogue has passed two million tracks.
Its ¥100 billion figure counts revenue from music distributed and monetised through TuneCore Japan, and excludes income from live shows and merchandise. Under its standard distribution model, artists pay a fixed annual fee and keep 100% of sales revenue after stores take their share, without handing over their master rights. Some services, including publishing administration and YouTube monetisation, carry separate fees.
Cumulative payouts have climbed quickly since 2018, when they stood at ¥5.5 billion, reaching ¥17 billion in 2020, ¥39.3 billion in 2022, and ¥71.1 billion by 2024. Annual payouts hit a record ¥16.4 billion in 2024, though growth slowed to 6% in a year TuneCore said was affected by streaming services tackling artificial plays and changing their payment rules. Its own work removing fraudulent streams also cut some play counts and payouts.
Revenue from abroad has grown faster still, rising from 8% of the total generated for TuneCore Japan artists in 2020 to around 10% in 2021, when it passed ¥1 billion for the first time. The overseas share then climbed to 12% in 2022, 13% in 2023, 14% in 2024, and 17% in 2025.
TuneCore Japan has linked that rise to new distribution partners and short-form video. It began supplying Chinese services Tencent and NetEase in March 2021 and started paying out TikTok revenue that July, before adding Korean platforms VIBE in February 2023 and Melon that December. Its 2024 report also pointed to growing play counts for Japanese music in China and South Korea.
It has also highlighted individual successes such as MFS, whose ‘BOW’ became Kiriko’s theme in Overwatch 2 and topped Spotify’s viral charts in the US, the UK, and several other markets at once in 2022. TuneCore called it a first for a Japanese artist. Mili, who write for anime and games, are another example it gives of artists finding fans abroad.
At home, TuneCore Japan says Oricon Research data has ranked it third in the country for streaming plays and revenue share since 2022, in rankings that include the major labels. It also says many of its artists now earn more than ¥10 million (about £48,000 / US$63,000) a year, with some out-earning acts signed to major companies.
In a message published alongside the announcement, CEO Iichiro Noda wrote that 140 acts have now passed ¥100 million and that “the majority of this is revenue from streaming”.
Noda also pushed back on the idea that streaming doesn’t pay. He argued the complaint is “often voiced by artists signed to labels or management agencies” who are only looking at the royalty share they receive under those deals. Independent artists earn mainly from their master rights, he wrote, so “whether they hold those rights changes the amount significantly”.
He was more cautious about Japanese music’s reach overseas, writing that it has yet to produce worldwide hits or chart abroad as a matter of routine, “but it is steadily heading in that direction”.
Apart from the Oricon ranking, the figures are TuneCore Japan’s own, and no independent audit or new breakdown by country or genre accompanied the announcement. The ¥100 billion also only covers revenue handled through TuneCore Japan, so on its own it can’t measure the overall size of Japan’s independent music sector.
TuneCore Japan’s main shareholders are Japanese firm Wano and US distributor TuneCore Inc., which French music company Believe has owned since 2015. TuneCore Inc. said in November 2025 that its artists worldwide had earned more than US$5 billion since 2006.
To celebrate, TuneCore Japan is offering 20% off its Unlimited plans and a free year of distribution for a new single on its Pay Per Release plan until October 31st.
