today’s vegetable

“Why nonprofit?”

That’s usually the first question. The answer has a few parts, but starts simply: because it’s the right fit for what CASH Music is trying to do.

It’s important to understand just what it means to be a nonprofit. It doesn’t mean that the organization can’t make money, just that any money made must be put back into the mission. There can be no investors expecting returns, and a board is established to help set and oversee the organizational goals. There’s also a stack of paperwork, tax exemptions coupled with mandatory audits, and free lunch in the IRS cafeteria for the staff. Except not that last one.

My point is that we aren’t meaningfully restricted by being a nonprofit, aside from the lack of investment capital. (Okay, that is pretty meaningful but there are advantages to not being beholden to investors expecting a major return on their money.)

We explored business plans for both nonprofit and for-profit options. Some went further than others, but in the end we just had more ways to do what we wanted as a nonprofit. Yeah, it’s a harder road at first, but it allows us to focus on merit-based help as much as economically-driven initiatives. We can operate more openly going forward, and ultimately put effort into directly assisting/advising artists, reaching out to music lovers, and building tools that are driven by artists and the communities supporting them.

What we’re aiming to build isn’t a destination site, but a suite of tools, services, and opportunities for artists, listeners, labels, and anyone involved in the music ecosphere. We’d like all of it it be able to help build new music models, kick-start new businesses, and support existing organizations and artists. I know — lofty goals for a young organization. But taking an open, and open-source approach to tech allows anyone to benefit from our work, and will encourage all of the above. And while there are open-source models that make sense in some for-profit models, going nonprofit is a natural fit.

Nonprofit status offers other advantages as we grow and become more established. In many ways it helps us stay flexible in a complicated environment. We can suggest alternatives to our own technology if it’s a better fit for a specific artist or project. In the future we plan on putting major efforts into education, outreach, and even arts funding. These elements all complement the current technology push, and together form a more complete vision for CASH Music. We’ll provide case studies and research; grants for emerging artists or music/tech innovation. Knowledge and funding coupled with tech development.

This is a very simplified version of a not particularly simple idea. But hopefully it’s enough to understand our thinking and why we felt it was important to push forward as a nonprofit. More than anything this structure allows us to work directly with artists and listeners, everyone feeling true ownership in the project. Because it’s not mine. Not the shareholders’. CASH Music exists to serve music, and anyone that participates shares a claim.

Not to ruin a perfectly good hippie ending, but I wanted to say thank you to all the people who wrote in after my last post. Please feel free to keep emailing/commenting. It’s very important to me that this is as public a dialog as possible. On that note, one thing that was brought up by a few people who emailed was a lack of a specific call to action. They’re right. So we’re still working on details, but we’re planning to roll out a very specific awareness/fundraising campaign soon.

Just wanted to mention that. Now back to our regularly scheduled end-of-post. Thanks.