# About Me: Austin Robey By [Austin Robey](https://paragraph.com/@austin-robey) · 2022-05-01 --- Hi, I’m Austin. I'm interested in collective internet culture, shared ownership, and new models for the online creative economy. Here are some things that I’ve worked on. Contact me: _austin\[at\]metalabel.xyz_ 📍Brooklyn, NY Projects -------- _These are projects where I was on the founding core team._ ### Metalabel [Metalabel](https://www.metalabel.xyz/) builds resources, tools, and infrastructure for collectives and creative communities. ### Ampled [Ampled](https://www.ampled.com) is a web-based platform for direct community support of musicians, formed as a collectively owned co-op. ### Unnamed Fund [Unnamed Fund](https://unnamed.fund/) is a NEW INC member-led, democratically-controlled creative ecosystem grant fund. ### Dinner DAO Dinner DAO is a global supper club, organized as a playful expression of Web3 tooling to build IRL community. ### Other As background, I studied architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Before working in tech, I was primarily a designer, working within many disciplines. Projects I have worked on professionally span from architecture, jewelry design, fashion design, product design, and experiential design for brand activations. My first entrepreneurial venture was a design/ build studio called Make Mode. One time we made Usher’s birthday invitations. Another time we made a 3D-printed bow tie that Nas wore to the Met Gala. Writing ------- **Friends With Benefits:** [What Co-ops And DAOs Can Learn From Each Other](https://www.fwb.help/wip/what-co-ops-and-daos-can-learn-from-each-other) **Mirror** [A Guide For Designing Online Community Governance](https://austin.mirror.xyz/mE-QdUUrVSKBCNE5c3QBtqfee3PbyHqCOhYeo1ue1_E) **Refraction:** [Imagining a New Creator Economy](https://www.refractionfestival.com/editorial/imagining-a-new-creator-economy) **Forefront:** [Ways to improve the ownership economy](https://ff.mirror.xyz/ZRsr5HZMfbHOEe2lIYoWinRCI65NlvDW_QzEu1rn7As) **Forefront:** [Exit To Community For Crypto Networks](https://ff.mirror.xyz/4-CR_n-_GYXKg8Oom4gDA6hmUD2xWB8vluj53ArH_N4) **Forefront:** [Forefront Learn (Social Tokens 101)](https://forefront.market/learn/social-tokens) **Forefront:** [Friends With Benefits Case Study](https://forefront.market/learn/social-tokens/fwb-case-study) **Forefront:** [How community tokens can power cooperatives](https://forefront.news/blog/how-community-tokens-can-power-cooperatives) **The Creative Independent:** [How to start a cooperative](https://thecreativeindependent.com/guides/how-to-start-a-cooperative/) **The Creative Independent:** [How to create community support systems](https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/how-to-create-systems-for-community-support/) **Music Ally:** [Artist ownership is the way to fix Spotify's broken model](https://musically.com/2020/09/01/artist-ownership-spotify/) **Mutual Interest:** [The future of tech will be an old model, the co-op](https://www.mutualinterest.coop/2021/01/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](http://ioo.coop/2020/01/equity-free-fundraising-here-are-our-revenue-share-term-sheets/) **Internet of Ownership:** [Investor-owned platforms vs. User-owned platforms](http://ioo.coop/2020/04/investor-owned-vs-user-owned-platforms/) **Ampled:** [It's time to put new ideas on the table](https://medium.com/@ampled/its-time-to-put-new-ideas-on-the-table-c46d856221df) Speaking -------- **Betaworks** [Beyond Decentralization: Designing for Equity, Democracy, and Human Rights in Web3](https://www.startupsandsociety.org/web3-equity-human-rights-at-betaworks) **Crypto, Culture, and Society**: [Let’s DAO It: Co-ops, DAOs, and the Way Forward for Collectives](https://society.mirror.xyz/NBcfvtvxIVpf35i29MU264TTnmOgjudoEmMq9BvaVVg) **IDEO** Future Ways of Working **NEW INC** [Life in the speculative future](https://www.newinc.org/events/virtual-new-drinc) **NEW INC** [2020 Demo Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnxkhIQ0DO4) **Platform Cooperativism Conference** [NYC 2019](https://platform.coop/events/conference-2019/) **Platform Cooperativism Conference** [Berlin 2021](https://platform.coop/events/conference2021/) **CoCap: Nourishing Community Wealth** [Oakland 2019](https://cocaprevolution.net/) **Berklee School of Music** Innovation Con 2020 **Wavelengths** Conference 2021 **Cooperation Humbolt**: Artists Dismantling Capitalism Teaching -------- This Fall semester I am teaching a class at **The New School University** called "Music and Platform Cooperativism". I've also either spoken at or given guest lectures at: * Columbia University * University of Colorado, Boulder * Wake Forest * Pratt Institute * Parsons * Berklee School of Music * University of Hartford * NYU Affiliated Organizations ------------------------ [**Seed Club**](https://seedclub.xyz/) Alumni (SC02 & SC04)/ Contributor [**Friends With Benefits**](https://www.fwb.help/) Member/ Contributor [**Dirt**](https://www.dirtnewsletter.xyz/) Contributor [**Tally**](https://www.tally.xyz/) Contributor [**NEW INC**](http://www.newinc.org)**,** Y6 Member "Equitable Platforms" Track 2019 & Y7 Community Member of the New Museum cultural incubator [**Forefront**](https://forefront.market/) Season 1 Contributor [**Unlock Protocol**](https://unlock-protocol.com/) Governance Delegate [**Start.coop**](http://start.coop) Y2 cohort member, 2020 [**Exit To Community Collective**](https://e2c.how/) Mentor/ Contributor [**Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator**](https://vimeo.com/77534352) Venture Fellow, 2015-2017 [**US Dept of Arts + Culture**](https://usdac.us/) People's WPA [**Center For Cultural Innovation**](https://ambitio-us.org/) AmbitioUS investee [**Grant For The Web**](https://www.grantfortheweb.org/) research grantee Press/ Interviews ----------------- **Resident Advisor** [Decentralized Autonomous Organizations And The Promise Of Utopia](https://ra.co/features/3914) **Resident Advisor** [What Does Epic Games Buying Bandcamp Mean For DIY Music?](https://ra.co/news/76957) **Guardian** [Bandcamp sells to Epic: can a video game company save independent music?](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/mar/07/bandcamp-sells-to-epic-can-a-video-game-company-save-independent-music) **Decrypt:** [What would Karl Marx think about crypto?](https://decrypt.co/93428/karl-marx-crypto) **Slate:** [The Music Industry Is Finally Scaring Spotify](https://slate.com/culture/2021/05/independent-musicians-union-spotify-streaming.html) **Water & Music** [Why AmpledDAO Doesn’t Exist (Yet)](https://www.waterandmusic.com/music-dao-deep-dives-pt-6-why-ampleddao-does-not-exist-yet/) **Pioneer Works:** [How to Unlearn Capitalism through Cooperative Ownership](https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/strange-futures-austin-robey-danny-spitzberg/) **Salon:** [How a punk-inspired collective beat the streaming giants at their own game](https://www.salon.com/2020/01/18/how-apunk-inspired-collective-beat-the-streaming-giants-at-their-own-game/) **AdHoc:** [Ampled Hopes to Make the Music Industry More Equitable for Artists](https://adhoc.fm/post/ampled-helps-support-artists/#:~:text=Ampled%20Hopes%20to%20Make%20the%20Music%20Industry%20More%20Equitable%20for%20Artists,-nikovaneimeren%20%7C%20May%2015&text=With%20the%20current%20COVID%2D19,the%20musicians%20they%20love%20directly.&text=Ampled%20was%20made%20to%20create%20direct%20community%20support%20for%20artists.) **Fast Company:** [Tech can still live up to its promise as a force for justice](https://www.fastcompany.com/90513685/we-must-turn-technology-into-a-force-for-justice) **VICE:** [There’s No Such Thing as Independent Music in the Age of Coronavirus](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v749p3/theres-no-such-thing-s-independent-music-in-the-age-of-coronavirus) **VICE:** [Is There Ethical Music Streaming Under Capitalism?](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jgxx48/is-there-ethical-music-streaming-under-capitalism-spotify-v27n2) **NEW INC:** [Rewriting the Rulebook: Creating in a Post-COVID World](https://medium.com/@new_museum/rewriting-the-rulebook-creating-in-a-post-covid-world-419d1d87ab5e) **Friends With Benefits:** [PROOF OF STEAK: BUILDING A COMMUNITY-DRIVEN FOOD INDUSTRY WITH WEB3](https://www.fwb.help/wip/proof-of-steak) **The Spoon:** [Dinner DAO is Creating IRL Dinner Clubs Built Around NFTs](https://thespoon.tech/dinner-dao-is-creating-irl-dinner-clubs-built-around-nfts/) I've also been interviewed by the New York Times and The Guardian about the future of work & the gig economy, but both stories never ended up running :( Podcasts/ Radio --------------- [Masters Of Community](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/co-ops-vs-daos-with-austin-robey/id1519864711?i=1000554990070) [The Ownership Economy](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-018-co-creation-and-co-ownership-in-daos-and/id1609220378?i=1000565107223) [The Culture Journalist](https://theculturejournalist.substack.com/p/metalabel-yancey-strickler-austin-robey?s=r) [Seed Club](https://open.spotify.com/episode/01NeIhToCiawP932irFO3g?si=fe5e91ae209e41f4) [Digitally Rare](https://open.spotify.com/episode/61h2IWWlIwuNV5RX5KRLSW?si=faf99e71936347b0) [Blockchain Socialist](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4YKpdArQ6WtWPkfbOWmKAq?si=893b61edfd07416b) [Cunningham Law Review](https://anchor.fm/cunninghamslawreview/episodes/Interview-with-Austin-Robey--Co-Founder-of-Music-Co-Op-Ampled-em7ddd) [FUTURE LEFT](https://www.stitcher.com/show/future-left-podcast/episode/ep-186-ctrl-alt-dlt-garth-brooks-spotify-ft-austin-robey-77711060) [8 Ball Radio](https://www.mixcloud.com/8ballradio/austin-robey-ampled-tender-compliments-ep-1/) [Dublab: Peoples Portal w/ Austin Robey](https://www.dublab.com/archive/kohinoorgasm-peoples-portal-w-austin-robey-03-16-21) Contact Me ---------- hmu :) --- *Originally published on [Austin Robey](https://paragraph.com/@austin-robey/about-me-austin-robey)*