Originally published on quorummedia.xyz on October 17, 2022.

Writer: Samantha Marin

Quorum is going multiplayer.

The Quorum newsletter is becoming more than a newsletter: it's becoming a metalabel.

What’s a metalabel?

A metalabel is defined as:

A release club where groups of people who share the same interest drop and support work together. It’s a lightweight structure that creates economic, emotional, and creative alignment between collaborators.....A metalabel is creativity in multiplayer mode: groups of people pooling skills, audiences, and resources in support of a larger creative vision or purpose.

— What's a metalabel? from metalabel.xyz

When I started this newsletter in March, I wanted a space to share ideas and opinions with the wider DAO ecosystem. Since then, I've been learning about metalabels and how web3 media can make sharing creations as a team so muchn richer than playing the content creator game alone.

So, I decided it was time to grow.

I'm very excited to announce that Quorum is growing into a brand bigger than just my writing. Brandon Nolte, creator and host of the Bounty Hunter podcast, and I are joining forces to build the Quorum metalabel: a brand where writers, podcasters, and creators ship their work about DAOs.

Brandon and I collaborated on a podcast mini series called the DAO Contributor Toolkit, which will be released soon on the new podcast (Bounty Hunter turned Quorum). Through our conversations we realized that we had the same goals for our creations, as well as the same beliefs on DAOs as the future of work. We were also serving the exact same audience.

So why not join forces?

That's when we decided to bring both platforms—the newsletter and the podcast—into a single metalabel, which will grow to include more creators over time.

Inspired by metalabel pioneers like Yancey Strickler, we decided to build something bigger than ourselves while still retaining our individual autonomy and creative directions.

We're building a metalabel (lowercase m) which is separate from (but inspired by) Metalabel*,** *the uppercase-M organization building tools for metalabel owners to use to collaborate.

Shared beliefs of creators in the Quorum metalabel

A brand must be unified in more ways than just name. And one of the core elements of a metalabel is a shared point of view amongst creators. Brandon and I share a few core beliefs that we will carry through the Quorum metalabel:

• DAOs are the future of work. In ten years, people will be more excited about joining a DAO than joining a traditional corporation. A career in a DAO will be just as desirable in 2030 as a Silicon Valley tech job was in 2017.

• DAOs still have a long way to go (and that's okay). We're not infinitely bullish on DAOs. We're okay with shining the light on the not-so-great parts of DAOs and providing space to explore solutions.

• Web3 is positive sum. We're stoked on the all-ships-rise mindset that web3 enables. We seek to build and participate in positive sum economics and business models. Collaboration over competition, always.

• Learning comes first. Both the Quorum newsletter and the Bounty Hunter podcast were started so we could learn more about the DAO space and explore through our mediums of choice. The Quorum metalabel, therefore, will continue to be about learning and exploring the DAO space. If you're not learning while doing it, is it worth it?

Roadmap Lite (we’re still figuring it out)

Our north star is to build a crypto-enabled media organization in the highest echelon of quality. As Vogue is to fashion and ESPN is to sports, Quorum will be to DAOs. But it will be a whole lot more web3, more user-owned, more transparent, more fluid, and more fun than any of the media engines of the past.

We're not here to recreate web2 media. We're here to create a whole new kind of media.

Here are some steps we'll take to get there:

To start, the Bounty Hunter podcast will be rebranded to Quorum, and we'll each continue releasing our own work in our own streams. We will share resources on the business side, such as sponsorships and marketing. Eventually, we will onboard more creators to the metalabel so we can all release work under the Quorum brand and ethos.

Our next big step will be to build a tight-knit, highly-aligned DAO of creators who release work under the Quorum label. Think of it as a web3-enabled media engine: a DAO of creators who share the same vision for DAOs, creating their own work and releasing it together.

The creators we onboard will be top quality in their mediums of choice. Onboarding new creators will likely be slow and deliberate to keep quality high and value alignment strong. We may also have guest writers and creators contribute their work in exchange for incentives like governance power or sponsorship revenue.

We are confident with our direction, but how we get there will be up to the many decisions we make as a group. We know our north star, but how we get there could change as we grow as a brand.

Readers and listeners, we appreciate you. More to come soon.

The possibilities of the Quorum metalabel are vast. They're vast because of you. Readers and listeners, thank you so much for being here*.* We'll share more soon on how you can get involved in the Quorum metalabel. Until then, thanks for being part of this ride and for making DAOs the most exciting space to be creating content on.

See you all around!

Sam and Brandon

Reach out to either of us on Twitter to connect, ask questions, or let us know what you'd like to see next :)

Learn more about metalabels

• metalabel.xyz

• Re-bundling the creator economy + labels in web3: On the Other Side podcast episode with Yancey Strickler

• Post-individualism, metalabels, and web3: Interdependence podcast episode with Yancey Strickler

Quorum is a metalabel for creators shipping work about DAOs. Check out Quorum’s newsletter, podcast, and Twitter.