Austin Robey

Hi, I’m Austin. I'm working on building the artist owned internet.

Contact me: austinrobey[at]gmail.com

IG: @austinrobey_

Twitter: @austinrobey_

📍Brooklyn, NY

Current

Co-founder @ Subvert

Also:

Previous

  • Metalabel builds resources, tools, and infrastructure for collectives and creative communities.
  • Ampled is a web-based platform for direct community support of musicians, formed as a collectively owned co-op.
  • Unnamed Friends is a NEW INC member-led, democratically-controlled creative ecosystem grant fund.

Writing

Zines

Plan for the Artist-Owned Internet

After the Creator Economy

New Creative Era

Collaboration Cookbook

Ampled Zine II: Radical Compassion

Ampled Zine

Articles

Friends With Benefits: What co-ops and DAOs can learn from each other

Mirror: A guide for designing online community governance

Refraction: Imagining a new creator economy

Dirt: Solid(ar)ity

Dirt: Friends With Benefits

Dirt: Radical Friends

Tally: A simple guide to quadratic voting

Forefront: Ways to improve the ownership economy

The Creative Independent: How to start a cooperative

The Creative Independent: How to create community support systems

Music Ally: Artist ownership is the way to fix Spotify's broken model

Internet of Ownership: Investor-owned platforms vs. User-owned platforms

Mutual Interest: The future of tech will be an old model, the co-op

Internet of Ownership: Equity-Free Fundraising: Here are our Revenue-Share Term Sheets

Ampled: It's time to put new ideas on the table

Press/ Interviews

Pioneer Works: How to Unlearn Capitalism through Cooperative Ownership

IDEO: “Cooperatives are an old idea, but they have so much potential for shaping radical futures”

Protein Agency: Dirty Words Report #3, Ownership

Guardian Bandcamp sells to Epic: can a video game company save independent music?

Decrypt: What would Karl Marx think about crypto?

Slate: The Music Industry Is Finally Scaring Spotify

Water & Music Why AmpledDAO Doesn’t Exist (Yet)

Resident Advisor What Does Epic Games Buying Bandcamp Mean For DIY Music?

Resident Advisor: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations and the Promise of Utopia

Salon: How a punk-inspired collective beat the streaming giants at their own game

AdHoc: Ampled Hopes to Make the Music Industry More Equitable for Artists

Future Laboratory: Neo-collectivism

Fast Company: Tech can still live up to its promise as a force for justice

VICE: There’s No Such Thing as Independent Music in the Age of Coronavirus

VICE: Is There Ethical Music Streaming Under Capitalism?

NEW INC: Rewriting the Rulebook: Creating in a Post-COVID World

Speaking

Square Portugal 25

Primavera Pro Madrid 2023

Trust: Will we still be asking people to like and subscribe in 15 years?

Wavelengths Summit 2023(Water & Music): Music Community Building and Decentralization: Lessons from History

Reboot: DAOs and cooperatives

Cooper Union: Artworldbuilding

WESTAF Creative Vitality Summit: Liberatory Investment Models for the Creative Economy

Betaworks Beyond Decentralization: Designing for Equity, Democracy, and Human Rights in Web3

NEW INC: Life in the speculative future

IDEO: Future Ways of Working

Center For Cultural Innovation: Creative Cooperatives In Practice

Next Gen Entrepreneurship: Platform Co-ops

Owners To Owners: Empowering Your Workers Through Employee Ownership

Cooperation Humbolt: Artists Dismantling Capitalism

Wavelengths Conference 2021: Alternate Streams

Berklee School of Music Innovation Con: Music Models For The New Creative Economy

Platform Cooperativism Conference: NYC 2019

CoCap Nourishing Community Wealth: Oakland 2019

Podcasts/ Radio

Joshua Citarella

Building At The Edges (Seed Club)

Big Brother and the Hodling Company

Culture Journalist

Masters of Community

Refuge Worldwide

Dublab: Peoples Portal w/ Austin Robey

Cunningham Law Review

FUTURE LEFT

8 Ball Radio

Everything Co-op

Teaching

I am currently facilitating a six week workshop called Codifying Care for Creative Businesses at NEW INC

From 2020-2021, I was a Visiting Fellow at The New School University for a course titled "Music and Platform Cooperativism".

I've also either spoken at or given guest lectures at:

  • Columbia University
  • School of Visual Arts
  • University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Wake Forest
  • Pratt Institute
  • Parsons
  • New School
  • Berklee School of Music
  • University of Hartford
  • NYU
  • Cooper Union