CRATE
Most software is built for the internet in San Francisco. Fast, cheap, always on. The trouble is that most of the world does not work on that internet, and a lot of the people making music certainly do not. I built Crate for the internet the internet forgot.
When I started, I kept meeting two kinds of people who were hitting the exact same wall from two different directions. Once I saw that they were really the same problem, the whole tool made sense.
Two people, one wall
The first is the producer where data costs real money. In much of the world, sending a session can cost a day's food. I am not exaggerating for effect. The price of moving ten gigabytes can be a meaningful slice of a monthly income. For that person, making the file 59 to 89 percent smaller is not a nicety. It moves the work without the cost being a wall.
The second is anyone working off bad Wi-Fi. The tour bus, the hotel, a studio off a dirt road. The download will not finish before they leave. The upload will not beat the deadline. For that person, a smaller file is not about saving money, it is about physics. Less data over a weak pipe is the only thing that reliably arrives.
Different reasons, same wall, same fix. One needs the file cheaper to send. One needs it faster to send. Smaller does both at once.
What I refused to build
There is an obvious version of this product that I did not want to make. The cloud locker. Upload everything to my servers, pay me every month, trust me with your masters, and hope I am still in business next year.
I have watched too many tools like that go away and take people's work with them. So I built the opposite. Crate is a tool, not a service. It works offline. It does not need an account. Your files never have to touch my servers at all. You pack a session on your own machine and send it over whatever you already use.
That is a deliberate choice, and it costs me the recurring revenue everyone says I am supposed to want. I would rather you own the thing than rent it.
How the pricing works
I kept it as simple as the tool.
Unpacking and restoring are free, forever. Free to download, free to receive, and your first pack is free. Anyone you send a file to can open it without paying me a cent, which is the only way a transfer tool should ever work.
Unlimited packing is 25 dollars, one time. That gets you all features and all updates. Own it forever. No subscription, no tiers, no surprise renewal.
I priced it this way because the people I built it for are often the same people for whom another monthly charge is the thing that does not happen. A one time 25 dollars is a decision you make once and never think about again. That felt right for a tool, and wrong for a service, and I wanted to build a tool.
Built for producers, for everyone, for deadlines
If I had to put it on three lines, it would be these. For producers where data costs real money. For everyone working off bad connections. For deadlines that do not wait for better Wi-Fi.
Those are not three different products. They are three faces of the same person, the one trying to get finished work across a connection that was never built for what they do.
Frequently asked questions
Is Crate a subscription? No. Receiving and restoring are free forever, and unlimited packing is a one time 25 dollars with all features and updates included.
Do my files go to your servers? No. Crate works on your own machine and offline. You send the packed file over whatever you already use. Nothing has to pass through me.
Why a one time price instead of monthly? Because the people I built this for often cannot absorb another recurring charge, and because I would rather you own the tool than rent it.
Who is it actually for? Producers and engineers where data is expensive, anyone working off weak or unreliable internet, and anyone with a deadline that will not wait for a better connection.
Does the person I send to need an account? No. They open the file for free, no signup, and their DAW relinks automatically.
Size matters, so I make yours smaller
The whole idea fits in one sentence. The internet forgot a lot of people, and the work they make is getting bigger while the connections they have are not. I cannot give them faster internet. I can give them a smaller file, verified bit for bit, that they own outright and can send anywhere.
Your first pack is on me. Pack once, send anywhere.
Crate is a lossless session compression tool for music and audio. A tool, not a service. Works offline, works always.