2026 TuneCore Accelerator Report highlights global streaming & audience growth for independent artists

Since launch in 2023, TuneCore Accelerator has generated over 50 billion new streams and 15 billion track discoveries, helping independent artists find new listeners and grow their fanbases.

Mumbai, 26^th March 2026: TuneCore, one of the leading independent development partners for self-releasing artists, part of Believe, one of the world’s leading music companies, has released the fourth edition of the TuneCore Accelerator Report, showcasing significant streaming and fanbase growth for self-releasing artists around the world as a result of the company’s continued investment in artist development.

Launched in 2023, TuneCore Accelerator is the powerhouse artist growth and audience development platform composed of cutting-edge digital programs that drive music discovery, build audiences, and promote deeper fan engagement. While more than 100,000 tracks are uploaded to DSPs every day, TuneCore Accelerator leverages innovative proprietary technology, powered by Believe, in tandem with DSP marketing programs, a state of the art reporting interface, and more to make it easier for independent artists to stand out from the noise and connect with the listeners who are most likely to become loyal fans. By focusing on music discovery, fan engagement, and diversifying income streams, TuneCore Accelerator provides the comprehensive support independent artists need to thrive at every stage of their development.

Brian Miller, Chief Revenue Officer, TuneCore, commented, “In the 20 years since TuneCore was founded, the industry has changed repeatedly—listeners have moved from downloads to streaming, music discovery has shifted primarily from blogs and magazines to playlists and social media trends—but our mission has stayed the same; to help independent artists get their music heard. While simply releasing music no longer guarantees that it will be heard, the fourth installment of the TuneCore Accelerator report shows that TuneCore continues to provide the resources necessary for artists who are ready to grow their audience to stand out in a sea of releases, find listeners, increase their streams, and build sustainable, long-term careers.”

For the past three years, TuneCore has honed the TuneCore Accelerator platform to best respond to the specific needs of independent artists, including helping them promote their music on digital stores and streaming platforms, targeting listeners to better stand out against competing releases, increasing access to editorial playlist opportunities, and more. As a result, TuneCore Accelerator now boasts more than 515,000 artists enrolled on the platform, with TuneCore Accelerator directly responsible for more than 50 billion new streams and 15 billion track discoveries since the platform’s launch. Last year, Believe Group’s proprietary catalog optimizer, which powers TuneCore’s Accelerator, was enhanced to more effectively select artists and tracks with a higher likelihood for success, resulting in 24 billion new streams generated for selected artists throughout the past year, representing a 17% increase in generated new streams since last year’s report.

The continuous refinement of TuneCore Accelerator has provided artists with top-of-the-line resources to help them build sustainable careers, cementing the company as the industry’s top audience growth and development platform for self-releasing artists.

Key findings from the fourth TuneCore Accelerator Report include:

• TuneCore Accelerator is Connecting Artists’ Music to New Audiences and Driving Growth for Their Releases
  • Over the last twelve months, Accelerator contributed to over 2.8 billion artist discoveries^[1] and 6.8 billion track discoveries^[2] for artists in the program.
• TuneCore Accelerator is Helping New Artists Breakout and Established Artists Thrive
  • More than 14,000 artists earned streaming royalties for the first time through TuneCore Accelerator. An additional 14,000 artists surpassed 1 million or more streams for the first time, with 500 reaching 100 million streams or more. All told, the platform helped nearly 42,000 artists reach streaming milestones that placed them in the top 25% of all artists streamed across DSPs over the last 12 months
  • Most crucially: nearly 25% of artists that hit these milestones used TuneCore Accelerator for at least half of their total streams.
• Back Catalog Releases Are Seeing Substantial Growth Through TuneCore Accelerator
  • TuneCore Accelerator increases the value of every song activated on the platform, making it perfect to give new life to older releases. This year, tracks released more than 18 months ago generated 24% more revenue than they would without TuneCore Accelerator across all platforms.
• TuneCore Accelerator Drives Results in All Genres
  • Artists with tracks activated in Accelerator are seeing their streaming numbers skyrocket across all genres. R&B/Hip Hop (+5.4 billion streams), Latin (+3.4 billion), Pop (+2.1 billion), Electronic (+1.5 billion), Christian / Gospel (+1.5 billion), Singer-Songwriter (+1.3 billion), and Country (+1.1 billion) tracks have seen particularly impressive gains from the program in the past year.
• Accelerator is Connecting Artists to Global Fans
  • TuneCore Accelerator is fueling streaming growth for artists around the world, helping tracks reach new audiences and build momentum across key global markets. In the past year, the US, Brazil, France, Germany, the UK, and Mexico showed significant growth, posting 33%, 35%, 31%, 26%, 31%, and 63% streaming growth rates for tracks in TuneCore Accelerator.
• More Artists at Every Level are Joining TuneCore Accelerator
  • More than 515,000 independent artists around the world have signed up for TuneCore Accelerator, with tracks from more than 150,000 artists being selected and activated on the platform, representing a 36% increase from last year.

The full TuneCore Accelerator Report can be found HERE.

Appendix

[1]: Total number of times TuneCore Accelerator program was the source for a listener to discover an artist

[2]: Total number of times TuneCore Accelerator program was the source for a listener to discover a track