Eventually I got so frustrated, I started a new project to help creative people release work together. It's called Metalabel. And one of the first releases was by myself and 10 other writers who'd all independently written about the same subject. So I reached out to these people who I didn't know, and I proposed a way that we would work together. We would publish our pieces together in a book, and the initial sales would go back to paying the cost of making it. After that, 70 percent of the profits would be split equally among us, and 30 percent would go into a shared treasury that we could use for a future project if things went well. Everyone agreed, and we became the Dark Forest Collective. And now, a year later, we've sold 2,000 copies of this book. More than 70,000 dollars has automatically flowed through our arrangement. And just now we published our second book by another author, even better than the first. And our little collective is going to make six figures, which is wild.最终，我感到非常沮丧，于是开始了一个新项目，目的是帮助创意人士以合作的方式发布作品。这个项目叫做 Metalabel。而第一批发行的作品之一，是我和另外十位作家各自独立写的同一个主题。我联系了这些原本不认识的人，提出一个合作方式：我们将各自的文章集结成一本书出版，最初的销售收入用来支付制作成本。之后，70%的利润平均分给我们每个人，剩下的30%进入一个共享资金池，如果项目顺利，可以用来支持下一个项目。大家都同意了，我们成立了“幽暗森林联盟（Dark Forest Collective）”。一年后，我们已经卖出了2000本书，通过我们的机制自动分配了超过7万美元的收入。现在我们刚刚发布了第二本书，由另一位作者撰写，比第一本还要好。我们这个小联盟的收入很快就会突破六位数，真是难以置信。

But then I realized it was kind of silly to be so legally YOLO about this, and so I should create some sort of structure to represent what we were doing. And I was surprised to find there wasn't an obvious fit. We could be an LLC, but that just puts a shield over the project. It doesn't help you grow the pie or share it. We could be a C corporation, but then you're taxed twice and you have all sorts of overhead. You could be a nonprofit and then be wrapped in red tape.但后来我意识到，这样在法律上“随便搞搞”其实挺不靠谱的，我需要为我们正在做的事情建立一个正式的结构来承载它。但令我惊讶的是，竟然没有一个现成的、合适的形式。我们可以注册成有限责任公司（LLC），但那只是给项目加了个保护壳，无法帮助我们“做大蛋糕”或合理分配成果。我们也可以成立C型公司，但那样就要被双重征税，还会有各种运营负担。如果选择非营利组织，就又陷入繁琐的行政和法律程序中。

So I started thinking, what if you could create a new structure for a project like ours? So I reached out to a trusted colleague, and soon we were speaking to experts in making new corporate forms. And for the last year, a small team of us have been working together, digging into this question, and I'm here representing our work because we've come up with something. A new structure for creative work. We call it the Artist corporation or A Corp.于是我开始思考：我们能不能为这样的项目创造一种新的结构？我联系了一位值得信赖的同事，没多久我们就开始和设计新型企业结构的专家对话。在过去一年里，我们组成了一个小团队，一起深入研究这个问题。今天我来分享我们的成果：我们确实创造出一种新的创作组织结构，我们称之为“艺术家公司”（Artist Corporation），简称 A Corp。

Now I realize that a new corporate structure sounds like the last thing creative people need.我知道，说要搞一个“新企业结构”听起来完全不是创意工作者所需要的东西。

And that these two words are the exact opposite of each other. But the A Corp just might be the door that opens up a new path to prosperity for creative people. You could think of an A Corp as like a company but built for how creative people work.而且“艺术家”和“公司”这两个词，几乎听起来就是相反的概念。但 A Corp 可能正是一扇大门，为创意人打开通往繁荣的新路径。你可以把 A Corp 理解为一个公司，但它是为创作者的工作方式量身打造的。

And we can imagine a band starts, and right from the beginning they have an A Corp. So not just five individuals, they're people who collectively own an organization that has the power to own their intellectual property, their gear, their business. As they start to get paid, that money can automatically flow to each of the members according to pre-set amounts, and they could even set aside money to be saved for future projects in a treasury, or pooling together with other Artist Corporations to get better healthcare or other benefits.比如，我们可以设想一个乐队刚起步时就成立了一个 A Corp。他们不只是五个单独的人，而是共同拥有一个组织，这个组织可以拥有他们的知识产权、设备和整个业务运营。收入进来后，资金会根据预设比例自动分配给每位成员。他们还可以设立资金池，用于未来项目的投资，或者和其他 A Corp 联合起来，共享更好的医保或其他福利。

As an Artist Corporation, they would also be able to receive both commercial revenue as well as non-profit sources of funding. And if a label or a bigger commercial entity came along, rather than just selling the rights to their intellectual property, which has been customary until now, as an artist corporation, they can issue shares. So instead, that entity would make an investment in the artist corporation, allowing it to be valued more highly and everyone to benefit if things went well.作为一个艺术家公司（A Corp），他们不仅可以获得商业收入，也可以接收非营利性质的资助。而当唱片公司或大型商业机构出现时，他们不需要像以往那样直接出售自己的知识产权，而是可以发行股份。这样，外部机构相当于是在对艺术家公司进行投资，从而提升其整体估值，一旦项目成功，所有人都能受益。