The first legal structure for artists in America is now law

Yesterday morning, Governor Polis signed the Colorado Artist Company Act — the law that creates Artist Corporations (A-Corps), the first legal structure in the United States built specifically for how artists work.

I watched it happen at the Sie FilmCenter in Denver, alongside two dozen members of Colorado's creative community who helped make it real.

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Video of our brief remarks at the ceremony

Over the past two years, more than 5,000 artists and creators signed up to form an Artist Corporation, and dozens shaped this alongside us. The A-Corp is no longer an idea. It's law.

What the A-Corp does#

An A-Corp is a new legal structure built on the familiar LLC framework, with artist-specific protections written into its foundation:

• Artists keep control. At least 51% of voting shares stay with artists, always.
• The mission is protected. Every A-Corp states an artistic mission in its formation documents, and you decide whether that mission comes before financial goals, sits alongside them, or follows a balance you define.
• Your IP is yours. Your intellectual property counts as a capital contribution — its value is part of the company's value — and reverts to the artists if the company dissolves.
• Ownership reflects reality. You can create shares and fractional ownership at formation, and separate economic rights from governance rights — so a band, a film crew, or a studio can build ownership that matches who made the work.

The full text of the law and a sample registration process are at ArtistCorporations.com.

What happens between now and your first A-Corp#

The hard part is done. Now Colorado has to update its filing systems and infrastructure before the first A-Corps can form — work we expect to run through the rest of this year. We're projecting early 2027 for the first filings, and we'll sharpen that date as we go.

That's not waiting time. It's building time. Between now and then, we'll:

• Host educational sessions on ownership, governance, IP, and taxes
• Publish fill-in-the-blank formation articles so you're ready the day filing opens
• Walk through exactly how to form an A-Corp, step by step

Join the A-Corp space on DFOS to get every step the moment it's ready, and to be first in line when filing opens. We'll post updates here too.

A win for all of us#

There are more people to thank than we can count. But we especially want to celebrate the core team on this: Jennifer Arcenaux, Susan Mac Cormac, Stephanie Drumm, Lena Imamura, Mikael Moore, and several others.

We also want to thank the bill's bipartisan sponsors — Senators Bridges and Catlin and Representatives Martinez and Taggart — and to everyone who testified, signed the pledge, and shared their wisdom over the past two years. I'll publish a full account of how this happened later this month.

For years, artists have tried to fit themselves into structures that were never built for them. Now we have one of our own.

If you know an artist or creator who should hear this, send it to them. This is the part where it spreads.