Tokyo-based Qrates, a vinyl record service company, is announcing a partnership with digital distributor Symphonic Distribution. Qrates services the creation, distribution, financing, and consumer discovery of vinyl — a small but persistently growing segment of the recorded music industry.
Symphonic’s customers will get discounts to Qrates services — which, in addition to production tools, include crowdfunding. Qrates calls the vinyl segment “one of the most lucrative and fastest-growing formats in the music industry today.”
Bundling a physical product service into a digital distribution game plan makes sense for some portion of Symphonic’s customer base. Qrates’s full suite of services, from pressing to selling to fulfillment, can set up an autonomous line of business for artists already placing their tracks in streaming services.
“We are all about democratizing access to vinyl, and so it’s exciting to us to partner with Symphonic to help them give that option to all of their roster,” said Taishi Fukuyama, co-founder and CMO of Qrates. “While Symphonic has a major focus on digital distribution of music, it’s smart to think about giving fans a special physical product, which can also have a great financial return for the artists.”
“Creating a vinyl record can be an intimidating process, and Qrates makes it easy from start to finish,” said Jorge Brea, CEO/Founder of Symphonic. “It was important to us that we have a vinyl partner that could match our global reach and customer service, and Qrates delivers on all counts. Together with our existing relationship with AMPED, we are ready to give our full community access to vinyl distribution.”
Symphonic Distribution is a 100% independent music distribution and marketing company headquartered in Tampa, FL with offices in Brooklyn, NY, Nashville, TN, Bogotá, Colombia, São Paulo, Brazil and Africa. It was founded in 2006.