Introducing metalabel | Metalabel

About MetalabelAbstracting the concept of a label away from the music industry: it’s a hyperstructure (borrowing the term of Jacob Horne from Zora) that I call the metalabel. It’s a person or group of people creating a common identity for a shared purpose producing public releases that manifests their point of view.

A metalabel is like an indie record label, but for all forms of art, culture, and ideas. A book publisher, a local collaborative creative project, an online community, an activist movement, an artist collective, a record label, and other collective cultural projects are examples of metalabels: groups of people using a shared identity for a shared p... See more

Twentieth century labels are focused on selling products and maximizing financial returns. A metalabel exists to promote ideas and encourage new ways of seeing according to the values of the label itself. Twentieth century labels are focused on owning a creator's intellectual property and exploiting it financially until the end of time. A metalabel... See more

Every metalabel shares four core elements that shape their behavior and output. There’s (1) a core purpose why they exist; (2) a squad of collaborators who operate and release projects with the label; (3) public releases they put out into the world to express their worldview; and (4) rules for participation, like how they make decisions, who owns w... See more

At a high level, a metalabel is a group of people using a common identity for a common purpose with a focus on public releases that manifest their worldview.

metalabels are startups and institutions for culture.