Private demos for record labels
CrateSphere is one clear path from submission to delivery, built for the operational reality of record labels, from independent imprints to established catalogues. Submissions, agreements, projects, compilations, mastering, studio, metadata, distribution, review, remix: the same numbered route for every release, so nothing waits on somebody remembering what comes next.
cratesphere.org is this site. Your installation runs on a domain you choose and control, so there is no shared address to sign in to.
Release path
GPR013 / Icosagon: Volume TwoFour of the nine packs shipped in the portal, in the light and dark forms each one carries. Your choice is remembered for this device.
Before step one
Artists will do things their own way. CrateSphere gives them one place to send what your label actually needs, not a new cloud link, a streaming playlist or an unsupported MP3.
WAV, FLAC, AIFF, BWF and CAF are accepted alongside artwork and PDFs. MP3 and ZIP uploads are rejected.
Versions, notes, metadata and delivery work live against the project, rather than scattered through chats, folders and last-minute follow-ups.
Artist, mastering engineer, A&R, legal, accounting, press and label head. The profile decides which workspaces an account can open at all: a press contact gets the review workspace and little else, a label head gets everything, and each person sees the next action that belongs to them rather than a shared to-do list.
The release path
These are not marketing categories. They are the numbered workspaces a project moves through inside the portal, in the order the product itself puts them. One entry point feeds the sequence.
Entry point
The public, label-branded page an artist is sent to. Lossless source audio, artwork and documents only, and everything it accepts lands at step one.
Outside the path
A cockpit, background jobs, notifications, settings and your own account sit alongside the sequence rather than inside it.
Everything that has arrived, waiting on a decision. Play it in suggested order, keep your listening notes on the record, then accept or decline.
Current stepStep 1 of 10
A project always knows which of the ten steps it is on, how far through it is, and what is blocking it, and every role sees the next action that belongs to them rather than a generic to-do list.
Built from real label work
CrateSphere was shaped by independent-label experience and built for every label that needs a dependable release route. It does not try to make artists behave like an operations team: it funnels the work in the direction your label needs, with one safe submission path, a numbered project state and no ambiguity about what is ready next.
Step six: Studio
Studio is where a release is usually won or lost, so it gets the most instrumentation: what arrived, what changed, what is approved and what must happen next. Trim and fade stay previews until a render is deliberately confirmed.
Stack track versions, A/B audition with gain matching, switch between stereo and mono, and comment directly against a point in the audio. Saved trim and fade previews make direction clear before a delivery file is made.
Actual CrateSphere UI
See whether a source is mono or stereo, how hard it has been mastered and how its dynamics compare with the pre-master before it moves forward.
Generate review playlists and propose track order from a release, an accepted project or a compilation. The listening and sequencing decision stays in the project, not on someone's laptop.
Build a streaming-master preview around the album's average LUFS, with true-peak protection. Source masters stay untouched while you audition release-wide consistency.
Pre-filled email workflows, persistent notifications and project status help artists know when they can audition masters or artwork, and help the label ask for the next thing it needs without writing it from scratch.
Keep reference tracks beside the work, manage canonical catalogue prefixes and numbers, and use electronic agreement workflows with a visible signing status, including back-catalogue confirmations.
Flexible by design
CrateSphere keeps the release path consistent without making every label, or every person in the label, work in exactly the same visual environment.
Neutral, Graphite, Paper Ledger, Aurora, Midnight, Ember, Verdant, Arctic and Mono. Each carries its own palette and corner radius, from Graphite's 2px console edges to Aurora's 18px panels. Three of them are partly yours: Neutral, Graphite and Paper Ledger take the label's own brand colours for actions and signals, while the other six ship a fixed coordinated palette.
Switch appearance without losing the label's visual language. Every pack ships coordinated light and dark palettes that hold their contrast, rather than leaving users to assemble a theme from scratch.
Choose horizontal or vertical navigation for the account experience. In the vertical layout the ten release steps stay numbered down the side, so a project's position is always visible.
Users can set motion to system, reduced or full; increase contrast and focus cues; enlarge text; and choose compact, comfortable or spacious density. Clear loading states make waiting understandable, too.
Experimental Bandcamp Publisher
A paired Windows workstation takes approved tagged delivery audio, artwork, pricing, tracks and metadata into a private Bandcamp album draft. Review it in Bandcamp, save it and publish deliberately yourself.
Security, stated accurately
CrateSphere encrypts provider credentials and connected-service tokens with authenticated AES-256-GCM encryption, protected by a separately stored master key. Passwords are hashed with scrypt.
In a self-hosted installation, catalogue, contact and project data live in the database and storage your label operates. Your hosting environment determines encryption at rest, backups and infrastructure controls, so we do not make a blanket claim that every file is encrypted by CrateSphere.
Two deployment models
Start with the model that matches you today. Self-hosting gives you direct control of the environment and operational data; the managed cloud service is planned for those who would rather not run it themselves.
A dedicated CrateSphere installation for one label. You choose the host, retain control of your data and set the surrounding storage and infrastructure protections. Linux VPS management knowledge required.
The planned CrateSphere Cloud service is a managed, multi-tenant option for labels that want to focus on releases instead of service upkeep. Everything that a self-hosting label gets, but you don't need to be a Linux sys-admin to run it.
The cheapest way in, for an artist releasing their own music on the planned cloud service rather than running a label installation.
The shared, multi-tenant cloud edition is a future product. Its tenant isolation, security controls and managed upgrade model are being built before it is offered as a live service.
See it properly
We are inviting a small number of record labels, from independent imprints to established catalogues, to a guided demo of the full version: the real workspaces, on real material, with time to ask what it would take to run your catalogue on it.
Demos are arranged by email while the programme is small. Tell us about the label and we will find a time.
Or write to admin@cratesphere.org directly.
