TuneCore and pitchforkmedia.com. TuneCore's first customer was Frank Black, lead singer of the Pixies. In 2008, TuneCore was utilized by Nine Inch Nails to deliver the music from their album, "Ghosts I–IV" to the Amazon MP3 store. In December 2006, music instrument and equipment retailer Guitar Center bought a stake in TuneCore, giving the company access to the music retailer's customers. In the United States, TuneCore represents about 10 percent of the 20 million songs on iTunes, and it accounts for almost 4 percent of all digital sales. TuneCore reportedly fired Jeff Price, a co-founder and then-CEO, after the company faced
Deezer of just 875,000 euros, not enough to pay its licensing fees. In July 2008, the company began running ads itself through advertising agency Deezer Media; in October, Deezer secured $8.4 million in funding from AGF Private Equity and CM-CIC Capital Prive, bringing total investment in the company to $15.8 million. The company introduced mandatory registration in February 2009 to gather more precise data on users, in order to run more targeted ads, and in November 2009 began running audio ads between songs. On 5 November 2009, Deezer launched a new three-tier service model. While continuing basic free web streaming, the