An equitable and sustainable platform built for artistic and creative control.
Vinylaunch is a music industry platform combining crowdfunding, streaming, profile libraries, and a service-provider marketplace — built so that artists and creators retain ownership and control of their work, fans support creators directly, and the platform operates on values-aligned economics rather than extractive industry norms.
We exist because the existing music economy splits poorly between the artists who make the music and the platforms that distribute it. We do not believe that has to be the shape. The differentiation here is structural, not stated — every commitment we make publicly is backed by a feature, contract, or operating decision that can be verified independently.
Claims you can verify
Built to help artists keep what they create.
No clause in our Artist Terms of Service grants the platform any claim to master recordings or compositions — Vinylaunch never takes ownership of your catalog. Leaving the platform is easy: download your data, point your fans elsewhere, walk away with everything you came in with plus everything you built.
Direct fan support takes 0% platform fee.
When a fan supports an artist directly — a one-time or recurring contribution from the artist’s 🚀 Launch button — Vinylaunch takes no platform fee. The fan covers the Stripe processing fee (no opt-out), so the artist receives 100%.
Your patronage goes where you point it.
On Artist Fan, $0.10/mo goes to each artist you fan — and if you fill fewer favorites than your tier allows, that capacity concentrates on the ones you do pick, so each gets more. Fan-controlled, never diluted to the platform.
Privacy first. No data brokering.
We do not sell, rent, or share user data with advertisers. No Google Analytics, no Facebook Pixel, no third-party trackers. The privacy-first commitment is structural — we operate as a sole-owner LLC with no investors pressuring revenue diversification through data monetization.
Privately owned. Staying that way.
Vinylaunch is a privately held, founder-led LLC. There are no public investors. There is no acquisition exit pathway. There is no shareholder pressure to compromise the structural commitments above in pursuit of quarterly growth.
This is intentional. The commitments listed here are stronger when the structure underneath them doesn’t reward changing them. Month-to-month subscriptions only. No annual lock-in for any account type. No data brokering ever. Catalog ownership always with the artist.
We charge for the platform’s real costs, build slowly, ship honestly, and stay small enough to keep our promises.
People above profits.
Executive compensation at Vinylaunch is capped and tied to philanthropic giving. The CEO base is $500,000. The CEO ceiling is $1,000,000 — and that ceiling is only reached after Vinylaunch has made $2,000,000 in philanthropic donations. No executive at the platform earns more than $1,000,000 in any year, under any circumstance.
This is structural alignment: as the platform succeeds, more goes to the philanthropic instrument program for young musicians, and only at that point does executive compensation reach its ceiling. The intent is to encode the ratio in Vinylaunch LLC’s operating agreement as the company scales.
Beyond that, the platform's own profit is pledged to the future Vinylaunch Foundation: once the company has covered its costs, built a six-month operating reserve, and paid the capped operator draw, all remaining surplus cascades to the Foundation— not a token slice. That's in addition to unallocated patronage capacity from fan tiers and direct donations.
Where we are. Where we’re going.
Vinylaunch is in pre-launch / founding-subscriber phase. The crowdfunding platform, service-provider marketplace, profile libraries, fan economy circuit, tour campaigns, and DMCA-compliant rights workflow are live. Streaming, audio rights attestation, royalty calculation engine, creator channel pre-clearance, and full ticket sales are in the next phase of work.
We do not promise dates we cannot keep. We do promise that every feature ships with its structural commitments documented and verifiable.
Want to help us get there? You can support the launch or work with us — we’re looking for volunteers, partners, and advisors for the final push to beta.