Gearbox Records
We are looking to raise £360,000 of funding, of which £205,000 has already been invested in a preliminary round raised at the end of March 2015.
The last 6 years has seen a rapid growth in vinyl sales, outpacing that of both CDs and MP3s.
Gearbox Records is riding this wave, having already achieved:
– 16x growth rate (annualised)
– £100,000 turnover (annualised)
Led by a former Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist and a music industry veteran, Gearbox Records offers:
– High quality vinyl and digital products direct to consumer, direct to retailers and via distributors in difficult territories.
– Specialist operation and skills to other labels and artists.
– Owning and licencing rights to music new and old.
– Designing a new, multi function turntable with a small footprint.
– Curation of vinyl in hotels and private members clubs.
This is as much a philosophy as a product set. Music has become much more available. With this “all you can eat” approach, we are suffering from indigestion! How do you grab people’s attention in such a noisy market place other than shouting louder by spending ever more on marketing? We say focus on the art of sound and aesthetic. With vinyl’s engaging artwork and excellent sonic quality, it’s time for people to listen to and appreciate the music, not just hear it and forget; to put the art back into music by making it sound and look good. With vinyl, people tend to listen the whole way through an album either alone or together with others. They engage with and discuss the music and artwork rather than having it in the background as a sound track to whatever else they might be doing at the time. It’s a true social medium.
Music is not a commodity, and we see people already responding to this when you look at the statistics over the last 6 years showing the hockey stick growth in vinyl sales. The trend in production techniques are designed to be as loud as possible in order to compete on the radio, which squeezes all the dynamics out of the music. We feel that this makes it tiring to listen to over extended periods, and attention spans seem to be dropping when people listen to these recordings. The Gearbox product counters this through sensitive production using excellent techniques, allowing vinyl and high resolution digital buyers to appreciate and enjoy listening to the music again.
Our methods, service and products are enhancing all these good outcomes further. According to articles on us in the FT, Independent, Hifi World, Record Collector and many more, we are having a significant impact on listeners behaviour.
Mark Ronson and Michael Chabon in the Gearbox Records studio, just prior to the release of their number one hit single, Uptown Funk.
Started as a hobby business for musician and award winning entrepreneur Darrel Sheinman (Times Techtrack 100 four times; Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist 2001), it became a full time occupation in 2012 when music industry veteran Adam Sieff joined. With a turnover of £100,000 annualised since turning the business to a full time profession in 2012, it’s the 16x annualised growth rate with little marketing which is note worthy; all from selling records and 3rd party mastering. The growth continues. Darrel has invested over £250,000 in building an amazing studio and funding working capital needs through preference shares and lending the company money. He now seeks funding to capitalise on this and the current zeitgeist.
A significant partner for the hotel vinyl curation business has been identified.
Designs for the turntable have been submitted to its lawyers for IP protection prior to approaching manufacturers and well known potential distribution partners.
To scale the existing core elements of vinyl and digital product sales to yield greater revenue from existing catalogue; acquire more catalogue; seed develop the new product lines; to hire admin, sales and engineering personnel and adjust existing payroll in line with the market. Current pre-money annualised T/O growth of 16x (£89,000 Cal 2012; £149,000 1st Jan 2013 to 30th June 2014).
A shareholder in the Company has preference shares which are entitled to an annual preferential dividend equal to 4% of the value of their initial investment.