The Metalabel rabbit hole

Metalabel is a release platform for creative work, built to help people build and share value together. This project is built on ideas and inspirations that stretch from centuries ago to today. 

Since the start of this project in 2021, we've documented our thinking deeply, with a steady stream of releases, as well as blogging and publishing that connects our form to past structures and practices that inspire us.

This page goes through some of the highlights of our history to date.

Founding ideas

Metalabel began first as an essay by Yancey Strickler, thinking out loud to himself about how to feel less lonely as a creative person. That first essay was privately shared as a Google Doc with some friends, and the idea began to pick up steam.

• “Introducing Metalabel” — The initial manifesto that introduced the idea.
• “Rethinking labels” — An essay exploring the origins behind Metalabel.
• “Creativity in multiplayer mode” — The first public talk introducing Metalabel
• “Culture labels V1” — The original Google Doc where the ideas behind Metalabel were first sketched

Cultural foundations

So much of how we work is directly inspired by previous subcultures and mediums and how they learned to build community or make an impact from their work. These inspirations range from record labels and art movements to the Royal Society and political organizations.

• “How culture is made” — How the histories of Dischord Records, The Royal Society, and the Guerrilla Girls show a model for cultural production.
• “Interdependence: Post-individuals and metalabels” — A conversation with Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst about the ideas behind Metalabel.
• “Five creative lessons from Factory Records” — How the label behind Joy Division and New Order paved our path.

Metalabel releases

As we've brought put our ideas into action and connected them with the rich history around us, these are the distinct works the Metalabel squad has released together:

• 001: Introducing Metalabel — Our debut manifesto (Feb 2022).
• 002: Elements of a metalabel — An RPG-like experience to explore the form (April 2022).
• 003: Assembly — Cohort-based learning experience for 40 creative groups featuring guest speakers Holly Herndon, Nabil Ayers, and more (May 2022).
• 004: Chorus — An open source bot that let groups of people in Discord vote on what to tweet together (August 2022).
• 005: Public Record — An online publication exploring creative collaboration (October 2022).
• 006: After the Creator Economy — A physical and digital 90-page zine featuring interviews and perspectives on the future of creativity (December 2022).
• 007: Quality Drops — A series of releases using onchain records that generated $1 million in support (February 2023).
• 008: New Creative Era — A zine released through a physical newsstand in downtown NYC (June 2023).
• 009: Lonely Writers Club — An experimental club for writers looking to connect with others (July 2023).
• 010: Collaboration Cookbook — A zine featuring artists like Mindy Seu and leaders of Extinction Rebellion offering recipes for how they work (August 2023).
• 011: Canvas — A living moodboard of artwork and inspiration that reflects where we’re coming from (December 2023).
• 012: Metalabel.com — A curated platform for artists and creators to release, sell, and split proceeds from their creative work (February 2024).
• 013: Nine creative meditations — A short digital book and video essay exploring how we as artists can manifest our visions and feel grounded in our work (July 2024).
• 014: Fall/Winter 2024 Collection — A curated set of releases from remarkable artists and creators across creative fields (October 2024).
• 015: Anonymous Creative Futures Report — A survey of 75 anonymous artists and creators sharing their point of view on the state of creative culture today.

Podcasts

A few conversations we've had over the years.

• The Dark Forest of Creative Capital — Yancey Strickler on Future Commerce (December 2024).
• Is online life heading into dark forests? — Yancey Strickler on the Looks Like New podcast (December 2024).
• Metalabel and post-individualism — Yancey Strickler in conversation with Josh Citarella (August 2023).
• Post-individuals and metalabels — Yancey Strickler in conversation with Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst about the ideas behind Metalabel (July 2023).

How we work

We have many unique working practices we will need to document more extensively. But one key one is metablogging.

• “Metablogging” — One of the unique ways the Metalabel squad collaborates using a culture of internal blogging.