Beware TuneCore and other distributors' "AI Protection" scheme

Disclaimer: I publish music without any expectations for profit, so I went with a “free” service (aka no upfront charge but they get a 15% cut from streaming revenue).

I use onerpm. For just uploading music to streaming platforms, they have been fine. The only issue I’ve had with them is when publishing instrumental music to Apple Music. They claim their “algorithms” can’t confirm that my music is original so they won’t push it to Apple Music unless I provide lyrics, which doesn’t make sense. I tried sending them transcriptions of my instrumental music and they still didn’t budge. And even then, why pre-empt Apple instead of just sending it for them to decide if it’s original or now?

It was eventually resolved but I no longer remember how. I guess they got tired of me complaining. I plan to release a new EP next year so we’ll see if I run into that issue again.