Funding & Economics
This section covers how the co-op makes and uses money: how artists and labels get paid, how supporters can contribute, how outside investment works, and how member ownership is tracked over time.
How money flows on the platform
Subvert charges a platform fee of 0% on all sales. Artists and labels keep 100% of their sale proceeds after Stripe's payment processing fees. We do not take a revenue share from artist or label sales.
The cooperative's revenue comes from a few sources: Optional Contributions made voluntarily by buyers at checkout and sales of the zine.
Optional Contributions
Optional Contributions are voluntary payments that buyers can add at checkout to support the cooperative directly. They are entirely separate from the artist's sale price and go to the co-op rather than the artist.
At checkout, buyers see preset options of 10%, 15%, or 20% of the purchase price, plus a custom amount field and an option to decline. The 15% option is selected by default. Optional Contributions are how supporters who want to fund the co-op directly can do so on every purchase.
The full Optional Contributions policy lives in the Payment Policy.
What members get back
When the cooperative is profitable, surplus may be distributed back to members as patronage refunds proportional to each member's contribution to the co-op over time. We track contribution through Ownership Points.
Patronage refund distributions are not active yet. We expect to reinvest profits in the platform for some time before the cooperative starts distributing them to members. When that day comes, members will receive their share based on the Ownership Points they have accumulated.
→ How investment works → Ownership Points & Patronage → Funding history & investor list → Payment Policy