On June 2, Colorado governor Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 133, a bill that creates a new type of limited liability company (LLC) called an Artist Company, or A-Corp, report the Art Newspaper and the Colorado Sun. The new business structure is designed to help artists in the state—defined in the bill as “individuals that create works of authorship or artistic expression comprising written, oral, visual, graphic, literary, musical, audiovisual, digital, or performing art in any medium”—set up their own business while ensuring they retain creative control of their work.
The idea for an A-Corp was first proposed by Yancey Strickler, the co-founder of Kickstarter, at a TED talk last year. According to Strickler, who spoke at the bill signing, an A-Corp might represent an individual artist, but it can also be a more dynamic entity such as a holding company that owns the work or business. “A-Corps,” he has written, “are designed around a simple, powerful, principle: creative people deserve the same economic advantages as everyone else.”
While an A-Corp, as defined in the bill, is an LLC, there are some differences between them: with an A-Corp, artists must control 51% of the voting securities at all times, guaranteeing them creative control of the company; investors may purchase shares of the company without getting voting power; ownership units can be based on either financial contributions or in-kind artistic contributions, enabling artists to build equity in the company; every A-Corp must define its artistic mission; and—perhaps most importantly—artistic work licensed to an A-Corp can never be transferred to non-artist investors or third parties, meaning that if the company is dissolved or sold, the intellectual property rights revert back to the artist owner(s).
By July 1, 2027, the Colorado Secretary of State will provide long-form articles with check-box and fill-in-the-blank provisions — covering ownership structure, governance, IP terms, tax treatment, and more—so artists can set up their own A-Corps without needing to consult a lawyer. “Most of what the A-Corp offers is technically possible today — if you hire the right lawyers and draft the right agreements,” writes Strickler on the Artist Corporations website. “The Colorado Artist Company Act makes it a standard form, accessible and affordable to anyone.”
Colorado is the first state in the U.S. to create an A-Corp. “I’m interested to see the ripple effects that this will have in the community,” Sarah Darlene, an independent artist with an LLC who testified during the bill’s Senate committee hearing, told the Colorado Sun, “Every artist is going to do something totally different with this business structure.”
