CASHMUSIC.org
CASH Music (Coalition of Artists and Stakeholders) is a non-profit organization founded in November 2007 by Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses and Donita Sparks of L7 along with Hersh’s manager and husband Billy O’Connell and Sparks’ manager Bob Fagan. Other participating artists include Xiu Xiu, Adam Gnade, and Alex Moulton. The organization takes an open source approach to music production and distribution.
The goal of CASH Music, according to its site, is to provide “a way for audiences and creators to exchange creative perspectives and ideas.” Songs featured on the site are released under the Creative Commons license to download or be remixed. The site offers subscriptions ranging from $10-30 per quarter to one-time payments of up to $5,000, each with corresponding benefits. Artist participation is currently by invite only.
Currently fans can invest in individual artists projects for example Donita Sparks offering the pulic a chance to participate in the profits from the sync licensing of the track He’s Got The Hone, investors could be making money whenever the track pops up in a film, commercial, or TV show. Each investor will participate by investing $100 (limited to 100) and sharing in one-half of one percentage point of the sync license royalty checks.
CASH Music are developing open tools and solutions for the music industry with early public releases scheduled for Q3 2009.