Metalabel is a growing universe of tools, knowledge, and resources that elevate and support creative releases.

Metalabel is built by a small egalitarian team scattered around the world. We operate as a heterarchy, rotating leadership and decision-making among our squad members depending on the context and the drop.

We’re supported by a wider group of partners, contributors, and community members who share our belief in the power and importance of creative work.

Austin Robey (Community)
Brandon Valosek (Engineering)
Cedric Payne (Curator)
Erin Rimmer (Design)
Gina Pham (Operations)
Ilya Yudanov (Design)
Lauren Dorman (Engineering)
Rob Kalin (Board)
Yancey Strickler (Director)

Alumni
Anna Bulbrook (Cofounder)

Creativity in multiplayer mode (video)
First presentation of Metalabel at ETH Denver 2022

Rethinking labels: the origins of Metalabel
Post explaining how it began

The internet culture era
The original essay that led to Metalabel

What DAOs and coops can learn from each other
Essay by Austin before Metalabel that was big

What’s after the creator economy? 
Essay expanding on ideas in our zine

Reinventing the Record
The origins of our new format

How culture is made
The historical view of labels

Evolution of the solopreneur
How solo creators have evolved to become collaborators

Five creative lessons from Factory Records
What all a label can be

Spotted
Library of quick dives into dozens of labels, what they’ve released, and how they work

Metablogging
A core practice for how we work together, since adopted by other teams and squads

Progressive productization
Our strategy for manifesting this universe

Heterarchy: A structure for DAOs
Yancey on the Seed Club podcast explaining how Metalabel works

On the other side: Rebundling the Creator Economy
An early conversation with Chase Chapman

Interdependence: Post-individualism, metalabels, and web3
Conversation with artists Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst 

The Culture Journalist: what’s a metalabel
Austin and Yancey discuss metalabels

Creativity in multiplayer mode (video)
First presentation of Metalabel at ETH Denver 2022

Metalabel 001: Introducing Metalabel
Debut essay/drop

Metalabel 002: Elements of a metalabel
An RPG-like experience to explore the form

Metalabel 003: Assembly
Cohort-based learning experience for 40 metalabels with speakers and programming

Metalabel 004: Chorus
An open source bot that lets groups of people in Discord vote on what to tweet together

Metalabel 005: Public Record
An online publication exploring metalabels and creative collaboration

Metalabel 006: After the Creator Economy
A physical and digital 90-page zine and the first onchain record

Metalabel 007: Quality Drops
A series of releases by metalabels and creators using onchain records

Metalabel 008: New Creative Era
A zine released through a physical newsstand in downtown NYC

Metalabel 009: Lonely Writers Club
An experimental club for writers looking to connect with others