2 years ago today, SubJam – a Social Purpose Corporation (SPC) – was born. I set out on a mission to create a local music streaming network that helped build and foster music communities around the world.
SubJam’s social purposes are to:
- Positively affect global music culture
- Support music communities
- Promote content under free/libre licenses
These social purposes, as declared in our Articles of Incorporation, set us apart from other for-profit corporations. They allow us to launch projects and serve our communities where generating maximum possible profit is NOT the number one priority. We do what is necessary to fulfill our Social Purposes even if it is known that the end result will be a financial loss for us, without the fear of being litigated against by shareholders. This is what’s great about SPCs and why we decided to use this specific entity.
Not that setting out to live in the red is a good thing in any sense, obviously! Our roadmap is drawn up to benefit local music culture and us – because when we profit, those who we serve benefit through our offerings and projects as designed with the Social Purposes outlined above.
I thought long and hard about the type of business structure SubJam should hold. A traditional for-profit definitely wasn’t the best fit (see above). A nonprofit made more sense, but also had its drawbacks in our specific context. For one, it restricted the ways in which we could raise money (basically donations, grants and memberships). There are countless for-profit music related organizations and I see the creative potential for interacting with them in a financial sense, which ultimately benefits our mission and social purposes as one of the best reasons to have at least one foot in the for-profit game. It gives us the best of both worlds.
We’ve got some substantial forward momentum right now and I look forward to sharing a lot of really exciting news with you in the near future. 2 years may seem like a long time for a startup to gain traction but let me assure you, we’ve been very fortunate. I’ll keep steering this ship and moving us all toward what I know will be a very lively future for everyone involved.
With gratitude,
Jordan Erickson (Founder + CEO)