Artist Corporations: new podcast and early traction

11 snips

Jun 24, 2025

The conversation dives deep into the innovative concept of Artist Corporations, exploring how they can reshape the landscape for creative individuals. Listeners learn about the various legal structures artists can utilize and the potential benefits of a unified A-Corp. There's discussion on the evolving value of art in today's culture and the impact of collectives that are currently paving the way for collaboration. The dialogue emphasizes the need for community input in crafting supportive systems, aiming to empower artists in navigating financial challenges.

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INSIGHT

A-Corps: New Creative Legal Structure

An A-Corp is a for-profit legal entity designed specifically for creative work with flexible ownership and IP management.
It combines aspects of LLCs, S-Corps, and nonprofits and supports fractional ownership and benefits pooling.

ANECDOTE

2017 Art Pre-Sale Experience

In 2017, Josh pre-sold 25 artworks at a large discount to fund a show but lived below the poverty line while making his best work.
Despite positive reviews and museum acquisition, the artworks had almost no secondary market value years later.

INSIGHT

A-Corps Bridge Culture and Finance

The A-Corp can translate digital cultural equity into financial equity, adapting to emerging technologies like crypto or AI.
It offers a legal and transparent base layer for creators to hold and grow equity suited for digital-first practices.

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Last week our TED Talk introduced Artist Corporations (A-Corps) — a legal and economic structure for creative work. So far there have been:

* 200k+ views of the TED video

* 600+ artists and creators joining the waitlist

Listen

On a special episode of New Creative Era (embedded above), Josh Citarella grills me on the nuts and bolts:

* How A-Corps would work

* What doesn’t work about the status quo

* What solo practitioners would gain on day one

Play the episode above.

Help us shape the law

Your challenges and desires will help shape the law we take to legislators. Support this work by sharing more about your own practices here:

Squads paving the way

While we work towards manifesting Artist Corporations, it’s important to recognize the squads, groups, and artists out there doing the work right now.

Just in our universe there is:

* Concept — An ironic network state collective that released a sold out zine earlier this year.

* Do Not Research — A collective Discord that drops work and publishes material together.

* Elysian Collective — Writers pooling reach and profit around themed anthologies.

* Future Commerce Press — A new media publishing empire releasing work across formats.

* Hard Art — A collective of artists across disciplines led by Brian Eno.

* Network Archives — Dozens of musicians come together to share their experiences releasing work online.

* Other Internet — One of the most influential web-based collectives of the past decade.

* Play — An award-winning food-themed, LGBTQ+ zine and collective.

* Serving the People — A global creative network.

* The Dark Forest Collective — Sixteen internet writers who collectively publish work and share profits together.

* TIAT — An SF-based new media + tech collective.

* Underground Art and Design — An art + tech collective in Brooklyn.

* Wondaland — A creative collective led by Janelle Monae.

* Worst Generation — A hip-hop and digital collective out of South Carolina.

These are all collections of people releasing work under a shared umbrella, using splits and shared economics to distribute the rewards.

This path is available to any creative person right now.

Artist Corporations will let those groups go even farther together.

Join the waitlist

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Your early interest will help us make the case to lawmakers:

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