Kickstarter meets bandcamp
A new website called QRATES occupies a niche in the music industry: It offers a crowdfunding service for artists who want to press their music on vinyl. Unshadowed by the noise that mainstream crowdfunding platforms suffer from (take a look at the smorgasbord of what’s trending on Kickstarter), QRATES makes it easy for fans to discover new music and support artists directly.
I’d say it’s something of a hybrid between Kickstarter and Bandcamp, one of the best music platforms on the web right now. However, QRATES takes it a step further by pressing your records so you don’t have to.
Let’s say you launched your music project on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, or you’re collecting pre-orders on Bandcamp. Once you reached your fundraising goal, you would then have to embark on the time-consuming, rather complex process of pressing a record. Contacting a pressing plant, mastering the audio, getting lacquers cut, sending payment to the manufacturer — an involved process for someone who probably just wants to spend their time making music.
The most attractive thing about QRATES for artists? There’s no upfront payment or upfront fees — a huge plus. Everything is funded by pre-orders, so artists don’t have to worry about paying for the pressing costs in advance. If a project is fully backed by pre-orders, then it basically costs the artist nothing to put out a record! QRATES takes a 15 percent cut on fully backed projects. Pre-order payments are processed only when the project is fully backed.
For many, I’m sure this will bring a dream much closer to reality. The music blog Test Pressing recently wrote that QRATES “opens up the idea of running a vinyl/record label to everyone, simplifying and demystifying the process,” allowing a bedroom musician or a gigging band (or someone like me) to summon the support of enough friends, fans and family to back their project.
Anyone interested in starting a vinyl project on QRATES can find more details at qrates.com, but here’s a few key things to know:
-The website is so well designed, you could brew a cup of coffee in the time it takes to launch a project.
-You can press a minimum of 100 copies.
-If you don’t reach your goal, you can “self fund” your project by paying for the remaining copies at cost (not retail price).
-You can design everything, including the vinyl color, jackets and labels.
-Only fully backed projects go to production, so there’s little to no risk of leftover copies.
For readers who simply love music but aren’t creators themselves, I’m sure you can agree with me that discovering new music is addicting. Kind of like how browsing through Kickstarter can be addicting. But in contrast, Kickstarter projects don’t guarantee your satisfaction. Users who back a project don’t always know what the finished project will look/sound/ feel like until it’s actually in their hands, which could be months later. Marketing is key to every Kickstarter project, from the video pitch to making your product look as cool as possible. I’ve been tempted countless times to click “Back This Project” because something looked so awesome I just had to have it (I’m looking at you, $350 vertical turntable).
On QRATES, the music speaks for itself. When you back a project, you know exactly what you’re getting: songs you already know you like. Satisfaction guaranteed.
Roger recently turned his blog, Aloha Got Soul, into a record label: alohagotsoul.com.
