What happens when you bring 30 makers, placers, operators into a luxury property in Joshua Tree and make music for tv and ads?
What We Built Together in the Desert
By Levi Downey, Founder of Amerge Music Cooperative
So what happens when you bring a bunch of incredibly talented music makers, music placers, and operators into the desert for a week, give them real sync opportunities, and ask everyone to work together toward a shared goal?
That's exactly what we set out to explore with the first Amerge Residency.
In September, we brought 37 artists, songwriters, producers, music supervisors, operators, and supporters together in Joshua Tree, California, for six days of collective music creation.
In the end we created 42 original songs created for 7 real-world sync briefs.
A feat that wouldn’t have been possible without our amazing sponsors 🙏
Providence Sound
Solid State Logic
Volans Tequila
Chaser
Aloha
Hu Chocolate
But making a world-class music was only part of the goal.
Amerge is a music cooperative we're building to create a more transparent, equitable, and sustainable model for music licensing. The idea is to bring the people who make music, the people who place it, and the people who help it succeed onto the same team, with aligned incentives and a shared interest in the long-term value of the work.
The Residency was our first opportunity to test that model at this scale.
Throughout the week, artists collaborated in rotating writing teams, often with people they'd never worked with before. Music supervisors brought real opportunities from their productions, provided creative direction, and gave feedback as the songs came together.
Meanwhile, we put our technology and cooperative agreements to work, documenting each song's contributors and revenue shares as part of the creative process.
It was a pretty incredible thing to see come together.
Of course, it wasn't all smooth sailing. Bringing this many people together, coordinating multiple studios, and testing a new business model in real time came with plenty of challenges. We learned a ton about what works, what doesn't, and what we'll do differently next time.
But that's kind of the point. We're experimenting with a new way of working together, and there's no perfect roadmap for doing something like this.
What stood out to me most wasn't necessarily the number of songs we made. It was the relationships, the generosity of the collaborators, and the willingness of everyone involved to try something different.
And the work is far from over. We're now finishing the music, pitching it for placements, and continuing to improve the systems that make all of this possible.
A huge thank you to every artist, supervisor, operator, sponsor, and supporter who helped bring this first Residency to life.
We're still early in this experiment, but after this week, I'm more convinced than ever that a better way to make music and share in its success is possible.
On to the next one!
Levi