Who Owns the Platform? In Conversation with Austin Robey (Subvert)

Austin Robey, Kristoffer Cornils

Streaming has democratised access to music while concentrating control over its distribution in the hands of a small number of platforms. As artists and independent labels increasingly search for fairer models, a more fundamental question emerges: who owns the digital infrastructures through which music now circulates?

In conversation with journalist Kristoffer Cornils, Austin Robey discusses Subvert, the cooperatively owned music platform that reimagines music distribution and a digital marketplace without commission, placing ownership in the hands of its members, such as Warp, Polyvinyl, and Thrill Jockey. Rather than proposing the next disruptive platform, the discussion explores the idea of digital spaces as shared infrastructure – and asks whether solidarity, democratic participation and collective ownership can offer viable alternatives within platform capitalism.

Austin Robey has spent many years exploring new ownership and economic models for digital culture. As a co-founder, cooperative member, and board member of Subvert, he is helping to build a music platform centred on collective ownership, democratic governance, and a solidarity-based economy. His work combines entrepreneurial thinking with the conviction that digital infrastructures do not have to be organised around profit alone, but can also function as shared public resources.

Kristoffer Cornils is a freelance cultural journalist. He writes for a range of print and online publications as well as Germany’s public broadcasting radio. His work focuses primarily on the music business and its economic structures. In three previous lives, he also served as an editor at Groove, Spex and field notes.