Not-For-Profit or Non-Profit studios?

[Tibbon]

So it seems rather difficult with most studios to make a profit (clicky). If the point is not to profit, then has anyone toyed with the idea of a Non-Profit, or Not-for-Profit studio?

I know that there is more to a non-profit than simply not making profit (community ownership, objective as to help the community, etc...), but has anyone tried this? There are plenty of perks to being a non-profit in a taxation sense, and there's even a lot of grants out there for non-profits.

If we aren't going to make money on it, why pay taxes on it!

[Jonathan Starr]

I am running a non-profit studio.

I made a decision years ago that I would not take payment for any music related works. When I play paying gigs or someone I record can afford to pay for studio time, I contribute it to a non-profit or use it to pay musicians.

I know I am in a unique position, having had a successful career in another field. I used to own Artkraft Strauss which built most of the large signs in Times Square and around NYC. I lowered the New Years Eve Ball for 20 years. I own a bunch of commercial proerties in downtown Wailuku, and it doesn't cost me much to utilize a thousand square feet of space in the back of an old warehouse that I built out myself.

Anyway, my studio sticks to trying to empower good local musicians who are not likely to break out into music industry success. I won't take on a project that could go to a commercial studio: I don't want to take bread off their table. Many of the projects that I do are Hawaiian cutural or have a hard political or social message, and are important but not commercial. I also help fund (and housed for the first 2 years) a great non-commercial community radio station.

We're getting good at this, and the limit to what we can do is based on my own time constraints to engineer or get others with ability to volunteer their time.

It's fun and fulfilllling, but I doubt it's a model that would make any sense to many other folks.

[Tibbon]

Jonathan,

That's awesome what you're doing. Wow. That's really respectable of you. Most people who have owned big companies and such just buy Yacyts and Airplanes and tip poorly at the bar. It's rare to find someone with that amount of... coolness.

[Pohaku]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Starr

I am running a non-profit studio.


ker snip

It's fun and fulfilllling, but I doubt it's a model that would make any sense to many other folks.

Way cool. And Wailuku is a really great place to do it too. A bit of old time Hawaiian ambiance (I grew up in Hilo). Have you actually got it structured as a tax exempt entity? Takes a bit of work to jump through the IRS hoops, but it could make you eligible for tax exempt contributions if you wanted to go that route. On the other hand, there are significant advantages to having it purely your own show if you have the personal financing to support it.

Hana Hou!

[tidalbomb]

I work in a non-profit studio in Charlottesville, VA. It's called the Music Resource Center and it's for 7-12 grade kids only. Kinda like Boys and Girls club but way cooler. Its not just recording (a big studio and 4 small personal rooms) but also two rehearsal spaces, a dance room and a performance venue as well as instrument lessons. Check it out:

http://www.musicresourcecenter.org

[Jonathan Starr]

That music resource center for kids is fantastic. I'm board member and recent Chair of Boys Girls Club Maui. We are trying to put together a vocational training program and have got as far as a radio station. Perhaps it will evolve into a studio...

I would like to structure this into a real non-profit and keep it busier, with real staff, but so far I am so busy trying to get music projects done along with my other interests that I just expense it out of my real estate business and figure I could be blowing it on cars & bikes & yachts instead of mics and pres and Accel cards.