This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
A proposed law with bipartisan support that would create a new business entity option just for artists unanimously passed its first state senate committee hearing on Thursday.
Artists can already form limited liability companies (LLCs) for their creative work, but the Colorado Artist Company Act would create Artist Corporations, or A-Corp, a legal framework with specific guidelines that aim to make incorporating easier for artists. On the A-Corp website, artists can simulate what it takes to create a company and compare how much revenue they could potentially make with an A-Corp versus a traditional LLC model.
“We've made a version of an LLC that is specifically designed to have the best policies and practices for artists and creative people that will make it right from the jump,” Yancey Strickler, a key force behind the bill, told CPR News.
Strickler is the co-founder and former CEO of Kickstarter. He originally launched the idea of A-Corp in a TED Talk last year. Strickler says multiple people from Colorado approached him after the TED Talk, including the Sundance Institute’s Eugene Hernandez, asking him to bring the A-Corp concept to Colorado.
“With the move of the Sundance Film Festival to Boulder, it's just a state in an area that I think is poised to grow even more,” Strickler said. “Colorado has a really big creative economy.”
In 2024, more people attended cultural programming in the state than sporting events, and spending on the arts contributed more than $3 billion to the local economy, according to a report from the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts.
The bill outlines that with A-Corp, artists are ensured at least 51% ownership — a majority controlling share in their work.
“If Taylor Swift had had an A-Corp, she wouldn't have lost control of ‘1989,’” Sen. Bridges said during the committee hearing. “This sets a precedent. This sets a standard. This says artists control what they make, and while they can use the financial tools available to every other LLC out there, as long as they stay in this configuration, they won't lose the rights that they have to their material.”
Strickler also claims that A-Corp could provide artists with expanded access to health insurance.
“It allows there to be more of a collective power where, for example, we can go to insurance companies and argue, ‘Hey, there should be a group plan for artists corporations. This is a great customer base for you to introduce a specific plan for,’” he said. “Whereas right now, artists have nothing like that.”
Multiple Colorado artists testified in support of the bill.
“Many artists, myself included, operate in ways that are deeply public-serving,” Sarah Darlene, a Denver artist, testified during the hearing. “Structurally, we are forced into a binary. Either operate as a traditional for-profit business, which doesn't account for our public impact or protect us fully, or form a nonprofit, which often comes with administrative burdens that are not feasible for individual artists or small teams.”
State Sen. Marc Catlin, a Republican, is one of the bill’s sponsors. He says A-Corp could benefit rural communities, citing that creative workers on the Western Slope need “a system that matches how they actually operate.”
“This gives people a tool they can actually use to build something and hang onto it, especially in rural communities that I'm proud to represent,” he said.
Only one person testified against the bill, Herrick Lidstone, a lawyer who spoke partly on behalf of the Colorado Bar Association.
“This statute is completely and totally unnecessary,” he said. “There is nothing that the statute provides that cannot be done with an existing limited liability company.”
He also called the bill “horribly drafted” and said artists “would be a lot better served hiring someone who knows what they're doing in the limited liability company world.”
The Senate Business, Labor, and Technology Committee voted to move the bill forward. The Senate Appropriations Committee will hear it next.
State Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Democrat, is another sponsor of the bill. He also sits on the Senate Business, Labor, and Technology Committee.
“There are amendments coming that should get the fiscal note to a place where it does not have an impact on the budget,” Bridges said during the Thursday hearing.
If passed, Colorado would be the first state in the country to allow for the creation of Artist Corporations. Since out-of-state entities can create LLCs in Colorado, people in other states, and even internationally, could benefit from the proposed law.
