Qrates and Fat Beats have teamed up for in-store distribution of some press-to-order vinyl projects.

The distribution agreement with Fat Beats includes access to a network of hundreds of independent record stores across America. Some of these iconic record stores in the United States include:

• Crude Trade in New York
• Amoeba Music in Los Angeles and San Francisco
• Newbury Comics
• Zia Records
• Bullmoose
• Criminal records

International

• Sunrise in Canada
• Sounds of the Universe in London
• Gibert Joseph Music Paris
• Rush hour in Amsterdam
• Disc Union in Japan

As part of the deal, Fat Beats will promote certain vinyl projects in its retail network. It will bring together firm and prepaid orders and work with Qrates to eliminate waste by pressing only the agreed number of records. Press-to-order eliminates financial and inventory risks for labels and independent artists.

The first Qrates project to be released under the partnership will be Duckwrth’s new LP, SG8 *. The LP was released digitally on September 3 and follows Duckwrth’s SuperGood album. Duckwrth will be touring with Billie Eilish in 2022.

“With the process of pressing and selling vinyl records becoming more and more difficult for independent artists and labels, Qrates’ mission is to turn this trend around and put those releases back first – this partnership with Fat Beats helps us do just that, ”says Taishi Fukuyama, Co-Founder and CMO, and Qrates.

“By teaming up with Fat Beats, we’re giving them new opportunities to sell their music in this very lucrative and in-demand format. All with zero risk, zero waste and zero initial cost. Vinyl for independents is far from dead; it grows! It is time for independents to get a piece of the pie.

The Fat Beats partnership extends Qrates’ retail store network and is available at no additional cost to all Qrates users.

Qrates has been focused on the hassle-free creation, funding and distribution of vinyl records since 2015. Over 6,000 artists have distributed vinyl records to 140,000 fans, with Qrates paying more than $ 2 million to artists to date.

All the artists need is their final recording and artistic design to start their vinyl campaign. Qrates maintains direct relationships with baling factories, which enables it to process orders quickly. Crates says that an artist who sells around 300 vinyl records for $ 26 apiece can expect to earn the same from a million streams – depending on production costs and shipping.