Why Incubator Uses a Shared Ownership Model
Incubator is 100% owned by the artists
But what does that even mean? Who’s an owner and who can become one? Where will the money come from and who decides how people get paid?
First, two basic rules:
- Every artist-owner owns an equal share of Incubator and splits the profits evenly every 6 months
- Decisions are made democratically by rotating committees (all power is temporary)
Now that that’s established, let’s get into it.
How will we make money?
Through publishing of music, licensing, and touring. All the normal ways. And our advantage will come from doing it as a collective.
I think people will pay attention to the music that comes out Incubator if not for the quality, simply because no one else is collectively making music in this way.
In early 2026, we’re going to launch a web series that follows our collective effort to make it in the music industry. Giving an audiences an inside look at how our songs come into this world, who created them and why will get them to connect to our music more than competitors’ music. Every song we release will be part of an overarching narrative – giving it context that competing music doesn’t have.
How can one become an owner of Incubator?
There are currently 7 owners of Incubator. Me and the 6 members of Accelerator. In February 2026, the current owners will vote to select 6 more people to offer ownership to. On March 1, 2026, 6 more people will become owners of Incubator.
6 months later, we’ll offer ownership to a lot more people. Every 6 months, we’ll bring in more owners and these new owners will receive an equal share of Incubator.
We’re going to need set designers, costume designers, makeup artists, videographers, and many more non-musicians to succeed. The bigger we are, the powerful we are, but we need to grow responsibly. That means starting slow but rest assured, the idea is to bring on many more owners.
What’s the difference between a label and what Incubator is trying to be?
Beyond the shared ownership model, the main difference is that Incubator home grows music from scratch while labels enter into temporary contracts with bands that already exist.
Incubator will essentially sign any individual that has something to offer and make them an equal owner right off the bat, regardless of experience.
Incubator will be a place where any musician can start their music career. Incubator will provide them with things like artist development, music coaching, mentorship, and in some cases, an entire team. Also performance opportunities and recording opportunities all from day one.
We’ll do this because there’s a huge untapped talent pool of musicians who labels never bat an eye at. These people maybe don’t have social media, are introverted or aren’t willing to play the game to get into the music industry. Incubator will provide a clear, fast path for these people to make a living in music.
No one else is offering this so Incubator will have exclusive access to millions of musicians and music-adjacent artists.
To review so far
Incubator is a collective where people can work together to make a living doing music.
To keep everyone accountable, individuals and teams will set a goal for themselves every 6 months and get paid their share of the profits if they meet their goal.
And we’ll draw attention to our music and make money by telling the story of what we’re doing through a web series.
Will Incubator artists retain ownership of their own music?
Incubator is an artist-owned collective where everyone shares ownership of the IP. Every song, every band name, down to every social media account.
The community owns Incubator because the intention is for us to be a classless, egalitarian organization.
Shared ownership isn’t just the most fair way to do it, but also the most effective. Tying our financial success together incentivizes cooperation at a level a normal business can’t compete with.
The worst thing that could happen is a class of stars and executives emerging in Incubator. If some people make way more money than other people, they’ll have a disproportionate amount of power. Then, bosses/dictators will emerge and Incubator will run at their whim.
Shared ownership will help us remain a true community even when money’s involved.
While higher output will be rewarded with higher pay, difference in pay will be limited to prevent anyone from hoarding too much power within the community.
What if we just keep things the way they are?
We have a beautiful, little community right now. We’re all friends and small enough in size to get by on vibes alone.
We could stay like this, but communities like ours have a way of fading away as people get older, especially in a transient city like D.C.
If we want to last, we have to make money. And we can do that by releasing music and telling the story of how it happened.
And we have to set some ground rules, the most important being shared ownership.
If we do that and keep each other accountable by setting goals, we can have a community where free expression flourishes and we all make a living doing it.
