There was a story told about the internet and music: the old industry was gatekept and extractive, pirates were everywhere, stealing your revenue. Streaming would protect your work, democratise distribution and let artists connect directly with audiences. It was a persuasive story. It also turned out to be considerably more useful to the platforms than to the artists.

What actually happened was that the infrastructure of music distribution was rebuilt around a different extraction model — one that kept artists as necessary inputs while moving the profits elsewhere. And it's still owned by gatekeepers pirates… they've just gone legit…

I've been thinking about this for the better part of a decade, which is part of what led me to co-found The Pack. Not because nostalgia is a viable strategy, but because I think the original premise — that artists deserve to own their distribution infrastructure and not be owned by labels and billionaire tech bros - was right and remains achievable. We're crowdfunding to do it. Can you help?

https://crowdfunding.startsomegood.com/thepackmusiccoop #CreativeEconomy #FairWork #CooperativeValues #MusicIndustry

#readinggroup #mondragon #cooperativevalues #HappyHour

We have potential dates for the Social.Coop Happy Hour zoom chat with @GeorgeCheney about his book Values at Work.

https://www.loomio.org/p/YeNH2nMu/social-coop-happy-hour-reading-group?utm_campaign=user_mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_source=catch_up

@emi @GuerillaOntologist @mattcropp @michaelafisher