The artist corporation is a new corporate structure that aims to end hustle culture and give creative people the type of security and flexibility enjoyed by other corporations for decades. But can it stick in a creator economy that is perhaps more volatile than ever?
The artist corporation, or "A-Corp," is an experimental new structure being championed by "a growing coalition of artists, creators, fans, technologists, and others who believe in a new path forward for creative people," according to a website created to promote the concept. But we know at least one of those people includes Yancey Strickler, a co-founder of Kickstarter, one of the pioneering fan-funding sites.
How Creatives Currently Structure Their Businesses
There are already several different corporate structures for businesses of all kinds. One of the key arguments from the A-Corp group is that none of them are actually designed to support the modern creative industry.
Still, many creatives utilize the various corporate structures in order to do business in a more professional way. And they are often better than the alternative of simply looping in your creative business with your personal assets and finances. Sure, just about everybody starts out that way, often linking their own personal bank accounts to accept payments and doing business as themselves.
But as your business needs grow, "incorporating" can be a critical step. One of the most popular structures is the limited liability company, which we've talked about at length here. Other structures include C-Corps, but they often involve sticky issues like double taxation and complex formation structures and costs. This is one of the reasons many smaller businesses avoid them. And then there are S-Corps, which can be great for investment but bring their own administrative and tax complexities.
At the end of the day, the vast majority of creatives either don't form a corporate structure at all, or they form LLCs. Many form multiple LLCs, often for certain aspects of a business. For example, a musical act may have an LLC for the music and a separate one for the touring apparatus. Production companies may choose to make a new LLC for every film they produce, etc.
What Are The Proposed Features Of An Artist Corporation
The crux of the argument for creating a new type of business structure is that none of them fully satisfy the needs of the modern creative industry. "Right now, creative people are excluded from the full benefits of capitalism," Strickler says in a recent TED Talk unveiling the structure.
There are five main functions of an artist corporation, according to the Artist Corporation website.
- Share Ownership. This allows multiple people (or other companies) to share equity in the company. Currently, LLC and S-Corp interests can be split among members, but it's not the same as true equity sharing. An A-Corp would be allowed to issues shares to potential third parties, such as record labels or production companies, according to Strickler.
- Access "Economic Tools" — like traditional paths to investment. While most businesses can access some form of traditional or institutional capital (like a bank loan), it can be very difficult. Also, accepting "true" investment capital requires a fairly stringent administrative process.
- Build Equity. In other words, as the value of the company's assets grow, so to do members' wealth.
- Maintain Creative Control. This one is mostly talking about IP ownership and copyright protections, which have are under attack lately.
- Pool resources to access better health insurance, group benefits, and shared infrastructure. Right now, providing benefits is tough even for traditional small companies.
Strickler's TED Talk ultimately posits the question, "What if the next Disney weren't a corporate giant, but an artist-owned collective?" Perhaps a better framing is, "What if the people responsible for driving the value of a company partook fairly in its success?" Right now, the feeling is that most companies whose primary value is derived from creating and owning content that can be monetized by subscriptions and advertising revenue most heavily compensate executives and people removed from the actual creation of the material that drives the company's value.
The A-Corp is designed to enable creative people to benefit from corporate success.
"An A-Corp can represent an individual or a group working together," the website says. "A-Corps are designed around a simple, powerful principle: creative people deserve the same economic advantages as everyone else."
So Could Artist Corporations Actually Exist?
Right now, the concept of A-Corps is still hypothetical — but its something Strickler and a team of soon-to-be-named collaborators are working to make happen.
The biggest hurdle? It doesn't happen without passing laws. And that's where the team behind the artist corporation concept is currently focused. "The good news: this is doable," the site says. "We're following an existing path for making new corporate structures and have people on our team who have successfully done it before."
The current timeline aims for national adoption and expansion by 2027 and beyond — and incredibly ambitious goal. The current phase of the plan involves "coalition building" and "research." The next step is to get legislation passed in the first state in 2026. Depending on which state it is and who is involved, this may be attainable.
As for support, the biggest thing the A-Corps team needs from individual right now is registered interest in the project. The team is asking for individuals to register interest in being in an A-Corp on their website, fill out a survey about current experiences in corporate structures, and share the news with their networks.