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20 October 2016

Why Aren't There More Cooperative Record Labels?

Happy International Credit Union Day! I've been thinking a lot lately on what I'm calling consumer-owned cooperatives (CC's)  and employee-owned collectives (EC's). I also recently watched the movie Artifact on Netflix.* It documents the legal battle between actor Jared Leto's band Thirty Seconds to Mars and their record label, Virgin/EMI, as they record their third studio album. In part, the movie is a crash course in how, narrowly, the recording industry exploits musicians or how, more broadly, capitalism crushes art. I found myself wondering, Why haven't we seen more EC's in the music industry? Musicians seem like a group of people who would be politically primed for such a model, but there are strikingly few examples today. It seems like a field worth investigating and an initiative worth pursuing.

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* - I do not recommend this movie. I found it self-indulgent and self-righteous.

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