Ryan Hamilton and the Traitors are three weeks away from releasing their new album to a hungry audience. This is a good thing (as is the album, that pledgers have already received). However, the company they went with to get the pre-orders sorted on iTunes and the like seems to have dropped a bollock.
Instead of pricing the album at the RRP put forward by Ryan, Tunecore have set the price at $4.99, £2.99 or equivalent in local markets. This hugely undercuts the price they budgeted for, means that people getting it in February are paying less than those who pledged to get it funded in the first place and Ryan and the guys are losing out on income.
No problem though, right? Tunecore will sort it out and cover any losses or invalidate pre-orders on the understanding that an error was made.
Erm… no. It seems they’re ignoring all complaints and their basic response has been “Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll sort it”. And then don’t.
Ryan, Rob and Mickey have opted to initiate a two-stage response. Part one is to get the word around that Tunecore have screwed up and aren’t to be trusted to fix their mistakes. Part two is to put a “Screw Tunecore” link on their website which takes you to a page with further information, and allows people who’ve picked up the album for a budget price to voluntarily make up the difference. We urge you to do so. It’s a cracking album and the guys put a lot of time, effort and money into making it spot on.
We’d like to echo his cry of “Screw you, Tunecore”! Poor customer service seems to be all too common these days, there’s no reason why any organisation should get away with it, especially when it’s costing independent musicians money.
Header photo by Kayla Wren
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