# About Me: Austin Robey

**Published by:** [Austin Robey](https://paragraph.com/@austin-robey/)
**Published on:** 2022-05-01
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@austin-robey/about-me-austin-robey

## Content

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, NYProjectsThese are projects where I was on the founding core team.MetalabelMetalabel builds resources, tools, and infrastructure for collectives and creative communities.AmpledAmpled is a web-based platform for direct community support of musicians, formed as a collectively owned co-op.Unnamed FundUnnamed Fund is a NEW INC member-led, democratically-controlled creative ecosystem grant fund.Dinner DAODinner DAO is a global supper club, organized as a playful expression of Web3 tooling to build IRL community.OtherAs 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.WritingFriends 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 Forefront: Ways to improve the ownership economy Forefront: Exit To Community For Crypto Networks Forefront: Forefront Learn (Social Tokens 101) Forefront: Friends With Benefits Case Study Forefront: How community tokens can power cooperatives 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 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 Internet of Ownership: Investor-owned platforms vs. User-owned platforms Ampled: It's time to put new ideas on the tableSpeakingBetaworks Beyond Decentralization: Designing for Equity, Democracy, and Human Rights in Web3 Crypto, Culture, and Society: Let’s DAO It: Co-ops, DAOs, and the Way Forward for Collectives IDEO Future Ways of Working NEW INC Life in the speculative future NEW INC 2020 Demo Day Platform Cooperativism Conference NYC 2019 Platform Cooperativism Conference Berlin 2021 CoCap: Nourishing Community Wealth Oakland 2019 Berklee School of Music Innovation Con 2020 Wavelengths Conference 2021 Cooperation Humbolt: Artists Dismantling CapitalismTeachingThis 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 UniversityUniversity of Colorado, BoulderWake ForestPratt InstituteParsonsBerklee School of MusicUniversity of HartfordNYUAffiliated OrganizationsSeed Club Alumni (SC02 & SC04)/ Contributor Friends With Benefits Member/ Contributor Dirt Contributor Tally Contributor NEW INC, Y6 Member "Equitable Platforms" Track 2019 & Y7 Community Member of the New Museum cultural incubator Forefront Season 1 Contributor Unlock Protocol Governance Delegate Start.coop Y2 cohort member, 2020 Exit To Community Collective Mentor/ Contributor Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator Venture Fellow, 2015-2017 US Dept of Arts + Culture People's WPA Center For Cultural Innovation AmbitioUS investee Grant For The Web research granteePress/ InterviewsResident Advisor Decentralized Autonomous Organizations And The Promise Of Utopia Resident Advisor What Does Epic Games Buying Bandcamp Mean For DIY Music? 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) Pioneer Works: How to Unlearn Capitalism through Cooperative Ownership 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 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 Friends With Benefits: PROOF OF STEAK: BUILDING A COMMUNITY-DRIVEN FOOD INDUSTRY WITH WEB3 The Spoon: 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/ RadioMasters Of Community The Ownership Economy The Culture Journalist Seed Club Digitally Rare Blockchain Socialist Cunningham Law Review FUTURE LEFT 8 Ball Radio Dublab: Peoples Portal w/ Austin RobeyContact Mehmu :)

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