Even though it’s almost ‘extinct’, but vinyl still receives
special attention from a number of groups. They have various reasons to choose
vinyl, some people say that vinyl can produce better sound than other medium,
and others say that they love the crackle sound of vinyl.
A new service called Qrates will make the vinyl fans feel
happy. Qrates is a crowdfunding platform for musicians and labels to distribute
their works in vinyl and digital format.
If you work in the music industry, you can design a vinyl
which contains your own works by using Qrates' tools. After registering as a
member, you can upload your songs, and then adjust the vinyl specification that
you want, ranging from a visual aspect, the rotation speed, and also the
desired quantity (minimum 100).
Qrates will display the estimated cost that’s needed to
produce the vinyl. Interestingly, you will not be charged here, but the music
lovers who are willing to do pre-order as well as the backers for the vinyl
album you create, with the price per copy that has been set by yourself.
The production stage will be executed when the funding
target has been achieved during the campaign period. Qrates party itself claims
that their team is working together with a number of vinyl pressing
manufacturers to produce high-quality vinyl. 15% of sales proceeds will be
deposited as revenue for Qrates.
Based on the interview between Fact Magazine with the Qrates
team, for this time the Qrates' services will cease on distribution stage. It
means that all up to the musicians and the labels to distribute their vinyl
albums to the consumers. However, Qrates said that they are thinking about
effective distribution solutions as well in the process of establishing facilities
for mastering.
In the future Qrates wishes that they can directly
distribute the vinyl albums to the hands of backers. Not only that, Qrates also
has a long-term plan to cooperate with the music stores in order to expand the
distribution network.
Apparently Qrates looks interesting for the indie musicians.
For those who are hampered with financial problems, they can try their luck
with the crowdfunding method that's provided specifically for the music
industry.