Some time ago my current lease partner announced his desire to get out of the lease I hold with him here: http://www.butlerrecording.net/?q=view/studio... thus I find myself able to offer infrastructure for the project of collective recording... I can offer up to my lease partner's 50% of available studio time. I enlisted the help of the Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project, an initiative of the NYC Bar Association, for help with contractual and other legal stuff. After many months of legal wrangling, recently my lease partner and I finally signed a deal allowing me to move forward on this.

I have had hours of discussion with various interested parties. I have had a lot of time to think about the expressed needs of potential members versus balancing the needs of the studio as a business, and to hear advice from my attorneys. Earlier ideas on the shape of this project have mostly not survived. My current thoughts on how it could work follow. I am now waiting for a new attorney to be assigned to me to work out member agreements, so there is still a little time to offer input, and any input would be much appreciated.

The concept: recording time on a subscription basis at around cost. Cost takes into account equipment maintenance, utilities and other operational costs (insurance, etc), and the fact that Member payments will be considered my taxable income by the IRS, averaged across the year.

The rate will be about $150.00 per up to a 24 hour day sans engineer. Engineer members will offer their services to other members at a steeply discounted hourly rate, or on a barter basis (I and several other interested engineers have agreed to this in principal).

For each day subscribed, members will have the option to choose another in the same month. Members will contract for an annual commitment and would choose a subscription/scheduling option per the below on a first come, first served basis:

1. Subscribed to some number of days per month, scheduled starting at the beginning of each month or as available thereafter.
2. Subscribed weekly per month on a hard schedule (i.e. every Thursday). Depending on demand, there will be 1 or 2 (probably 1) days a week available on a hard weekly schedule. This time will be shared among a self - organizing group needing both rehearsal time, and recording time. This group would be subscribing to either 4 or 8 days a month @ $150.00/day and sharing the cost as they saw fit.
3. Subscribed on an annual basis. These subscribers would commit to a minimum of 12 days per year instead of 1 day per month and would have the option of scheduling multiple days monthly subject to availability. There would not be more than 24 days available annually for this sort of subscription - but probably just a single annual subscription at 12 days.

With the exception of the hard weekly schedule, the basic calendar structure will be that the Collective will alternate weeks with me. Trading days between myself and the Collective will be an option.

Scheduling priority will either be on a first come, first served basis, or possibly on a rotating basis, "shuffling" through the list of members in order of seniority or something, for the 50% of days reserved for Members.

Hours can be traded flexibly from week to week and month to month among all members and myself.

I have created an online session booking system and calendar on this site for scheduling purposes. Ask for a username and password to try it out.

This site will also be offering all kinds of other benefits to members - a Member contact system, a blog for each member, Studio FAQ, Forum, probably MP3 uploads/hosting for collaboration purposes, etc. (still working on some of this). Online music sales are an eventual possibility.

In aid of fostering community, the studio will also offer a regular grant of recording time: a full day in each month having 31 days: Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Aug, Oct, Dec. Use of this time could be curated on a rotating basis among members, or possibly by people outside the membership-Todd P and his milieu, Charley Blass or others hooked into the jazz or improvised music scene, come to mind.

Members should give back on some yet to be determined level, both to the Collective and to the studio. This might involve assigning some small amount of rights in the recordings per project, donating occasional physical work days to improve or repair the space, etc. Members could agree to offer their services to the collective at steeply discounted rates (as mentioned above/earlier, particularly engineers-much as I'd like to I can't work 24/7), on spec, for small percentages of rights in the recordings (particularly as an incentive for member engineers who work for discounted rates), etc. The idea would be that the collective and the studio would invest in one another and create lasting value together. Eventually the Collective could begin to own recording gear and/or a share in the build-out. It could also build a brand like a record label-in fact perhaps we would just start one.

So, above are my thoughts on specifically how this will work, and I think at this point they're pretty close to what will actually happen. But again, I'd greatly appreciate any feedback. Thanks for your interest.