Compensation
Current salaries
FTE #1 Austin Robey, Director (NYC) — $140,000 per year
The Subvert board approves all executive compensation. The board's reasoning: "This compensation reflects several key considerations: the high cost of living for our NYC-based team, the workers' prior unpaid labor building Subvert, and our goal to eventually pay above-market rates for all workers (especially important given that we don't offer traditional equity-based incentives like venture-funded startups)." Compensation is reviewed each June to coincide with the Annual General Meeting.
FTE #2 Engineering Lead (NYC) — $150,000 per year
Our compensation philosophy
A core goal of Subvert as a cooperative is to create good jobs: better pay, better security, and better working conditions than workers typically get at capitalist organizations. We do not offer the kind of lottery-ticket equity packages that traditional venture-funded startups use to attract talent, because our structure, and economic upside at Subvert look different. Working at Subvert means steady, fair compensation; meaningful ownership; and a workplace where the workers are also the owners.
A common assumption about cooperatives is that they cannot attract or retain skilled workers because they cannot pay competitively. We disagree. Cooperatives should not be synonymous with poverty wages or with job insecurity. We are committed to paying our workers well and to demonstrating that this model can work.
It is worth noting that Subvert is also a worker cooperative. In a traditional company, labor unions might form to bargain with management for better wages and conditions. In a worker cooperative, the workers are the management. There is no boss to bargain with, because the workers themselves decide how the cooperative is run, and an elected board (which includes workers, artists, labels, and supporters) approves budgets and compensation.
Cost of living context
Both salaries are for workers based in New York City, which has a cost of living roughly 74% higher than the U.S. national average. To compare a Subvert salary to what it would be worth in another city, NerdWallet's cost of living calculator is a good starting point. A $140,000 NYC salary is roughly equivalent to $80,000 in many smaller U.S. cities.
Ratio context
The ratio between Subvert's highest-paid and lowest-paid full-time workers is less than 1.1 to 1.
For reference:
- At Mondragón, the world's largest worker cooperative, the highest-paid manager in any single cooperative earns no more than 6 times the lowest-paid worker. Across the federation, the ratio averages around 5 to 1.
- At the top 350 U.S. publicly-traded companies, CEOs were paid 281 times what a typical worker made in 2024, according to the Economic Policy Institute. At Starbucks specifically, the ratio in 2024 was 6,666 to 1.
Why we publish this
Few companies voluntarily disclose individual worker salaries. We do not know of any other music platform that does. We publish this information because members are the owners of this cooperative, and we respect their right to know how it operates and pays its workers. It is also a way to hold ourselves accountable.
We believe worker security is something to be celebrated. We also recognize that members may disagree with these compensation decisions, and we welcome that disagreement. The board approves compensation, but the membership elects the board. If members believe compensation should be different, the path is through governance: discuss it in the Subvert Forum, submit a proposal, or run for the board on that platform.