Shared Commons

The word common runs through our work by design - rooted in the older meaning of the commons: shared ground, collectively stewarded, protected for use rather than owned for extraction.

Our work spreads across multiple entities, each with a specific role, but all held within a single shared commitment - to safeguard creative labor, cultural memory, and moral imagination for the common good.

Here is a listing of the core entities that operate within this commons. Each serves a distinct function; none exists in isolation.

Common People

Founded as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit home for socially conscious cultural work, Common People serves as the steward of a shared commons that includes Common Exchange, Common Hymnal, Common Thread, and inCommon. Within this ecosystem we discover, develop, connect, organize and platform marginalized creators - especially songwriters, musicians and storytellers - amplifying carefully curated underground art for a global audience.

Common Thread

Common Thread is the imprint for our storytelling work. This includes collaborative partnerships with organizations that ask us to help them put their stories to music, as well as our own initiatives on behalf of systemically overlooked communities where we uncover unheard, ignored and erased narratives and bring them to life through song.

Common Exchange

Common Exchange is the record label within the Common People ecosystem. We produce audio and video content, distribute it across digital platforms, and return value to the artists and communities that create it.

Common Hymnal

Under Common Exchange, our song publishing DBA Common Hymnal manages all song copyrights written within our shared space, ensuring participants’ creative output is protected, properly administered, and positioned for lasting impact.

Common Hymnal was the first imprint in this ever growing constellation, born to platform songs, stories and ideas from the spiritual underground. That legacy continues and our Christian-facing efforts still carry the Common Hymnal name.

inCommon

inCommon is our hip-hop imprint, channeling a street culture that sets the pace - from the front.