CASH Music is an organization founded by Kristin Hersh

Kristin Hersh

Kristin Hersh is an American singer/songwriter who performs solo acoustic concerts; she also continues to perform as lead singer and guitarist for alternative rock group Throwing Muses and the hardcore punk-influenced power trio 50 Foot Wave...

 of Throwing Muses

Throwing Muses

Throwing Muses is an alternative rock band formed in 1981 in Newport, Rhode Island, that toured and recorded extensively until 1997, when its members began concentrating more on other projects. The group was originally fronted by two lead singers, Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly, who both wrote the...

 and Donita Sparks

Donita Sparks

Donita Sparks is a vocalist, guitarist and song-writer in Los Angeles, California. In addition to performing with her most recent band Donita Sparks and The Stellar Moments, she is also the co-founder, along with Suzi Gardner, of grunge band L7...

 of L7

L7 (band)

L7 was an American rock band from Los Angeles, that was active from 1985 to 2000. Due to their sound and image, they are often associated with the grunge movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s.-History:...

. Other participating artists include Xiu Xiu

Xiu Xiu

Xiu Xiu is an American avant-garde group originally from San Jose, California. The band is the brainchild of singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart, who has been its only constant member since its inception in 2002. His current bandmate is Angela Seo...

, Adam Gnade

Adam Gnade

Adam Gnade is a San Diego, California-born American musician and author currently living on a farm in rural Kansas. In his bio he defines his music as "talking-songs", which he describes as mixing the spoken vocals of talking blues songs with country music, Appalachian folk, noise, psychedelic...

, Portugal The Man, 50FOOTWAVE, Colourmusic

Colourmusic

Colourmusic was started in Stillwater, OK in 2005. Created by Ryan Hendrix and Nick Turner as a music collaboration and quickly evolved into a band when Cory Suter joined. The band became a quintet when Nick Ley and Colin Fleishacker from the band The Bells Are... joined...

, Learning Music

Learning Music

Learning Music is a folk/electric/instrumental band and music collective based in Los Angeles, California.Learning Music was founded in November 2006 by John Clement Wood...

 and Alex Moulton. The organization takes an open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 approach to music production and distribution.

History

CASH Music was founded in November 2007 by Kristin Hersh, Donita Sparks, Hersh's manager and husband Billy O'Connell, and Sparks' manager Bob Fagan.

The goal of CASH Music, according to its site, is to provide "a way for audiences and creators to exchange creative perspectives and ideas." Songs featured on the site are released under the Creative Commons

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...

 license to download or be remixed. The site offers subscriptions ranging from $10–30 per quarter to one-time payments of up to $5,000, each with corresponding benefits. This approach has been compared to similar initiatives by Radiohead

Radiohead

Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...

 and Jill Sobule

Jill Sobule

Jill Sobule is an American singer-songwriter best known for the 1995 single "I Kissed a Girl", and "Supermodel" from the soundtrack of the 1995 film Clueless...

.