Third Way Cultural Alliance to Preserve and Champion the Album Format Through Socially Conscious Releases
Nonprofit founded by Ropeadope CEO and President applies fine-arts patronage model to intelligent contemporary music
Has there ever been a more challenging time to be a working independent artist? Streaming payouts are abysmal — if you can even get your track streamed enough to qualify for a payout. Recording costs have become impossible for many, if not most, artists to recoup, and the deluge of tracks delivered to platforms daily makes breaking through in any meaningful way nearly impossible. What’s more, when an artist does manage to get a foot in the door, the impression is too often track- or soundbite-oriented — and utterly devoid of the expressive range and storytelling impact that the album format celebrates.
The end result means nothing less than the complete devaluation of music — of art — as well as the decline of a creative ecosystem that encouraged artists’ long-term growth, fostered enduring communities and supported social change. Without infrastructure, every aspiring singer, musician and composer needs to act as a social-media guru, a label manager, a publicist, a booking agent and a merch manager — whether or not they have the business mind and stomach for it. To pursue one’s love of music means entering into a manic online hustle, too often bereft of the joy of real-time collaboration and the time to think and write at album length. For creatives and audiences alike, the passion burns as brightly as it ever has, if not more so. But the indignities of digital commerce are hindering that devotion at every turn.
In 2025 and beyond, how can inspired, adventurous artists with something to say deliver their message? How can they create with focus and intention?
Enter Third Way Cultural Alliance, a new 501(c)(3) dedicated to the furtherance of the album format in a variety of contemporary genres. By offering comprehensive funding for new album-length projects, Third Way will thrive on the axis between a cultural institution and an ethically-run, creatively-nurturing independent record label. Further, Third Way’s thoughtfully selected projects promise to explore issues of social justice and empowerment for disenfranchised communities.
Rooted in the endowment-funded model that has long fostered the preservation of fine arts and folk culture, Third Way takes that framework to contemporary music serving socially engaged audiences. At last, artists will be able to respond to our current sociopolitical moment with ambitious long-form works — away from the exploitation that overwhelms the current music industry. Through Third Way, musicians will also have access to a vast network of veteran artists, cultural and social organizations, and educational initiatives that share their convictions. “It’s about patronage for art, as opposed to getting caught up in the balance sheet and the profit-and-loss system,” says Ropeadope CEO Louis Marks, a Third Way co-founder and board member alongside musician and educator Joe Pignato and Ropeadope President Fabian Brown.
Without a doubt, Third Way’s mission presents a multitude of hurdles. But the roots of this emergent nonprofit lie in Ropeadope, among the most important and fearless defenders of independent music over the last quarter-century. With its legacy of innovation, artist advocacy and social consciousness, and its ability to foster genuine creativity within the profit-driven record industry, Ropeadope will provide as-needed label services to Third Way’s grant recipients. To say it again, Ropeadope is rarely suited to supporting the Third Way mission, because the company has in essence already been engaged in this work for decades.
Founded by entertainment lawyer and entrepreneur Andy Hurwitz in New York in 1999, and led today by Marks in Philadelphia, Ropeadope has released more than 700 albums over 25 years, including a surplus of landmark LPs: the breakout recordings of fusion masters Snarky Puppy, the lauded final records by Ramsey Lewis and Col. Bruce Hampton, the futuristic roots of King Britt, game-changing jazz by Lakecia Benjamin and Ellen Andrea Wang, the visionary “Stretch Music” of Chief Adjuah, politically fiery projects from the Masta Ace and Antibalas, essential “sacred steel” recordings by the Campbell Brothers, and so many others.
Beyond the music itself, Ropeadope’s influence has quite possibly been even more profound. The company was among the earliest adopters of wholly artist-first deals that allowed musicians 50/50 profit-sharing, in addition to the ability to retain their publishing and masters. Ropeadope also pioneered a network of artist-run sublabels, among them Snarky Puppy’s GroundUP, the Black-woman-owned imprint Artists First and Chief Adjuah’s Stretch Music. The recently launched AfricArise, a partnership between Ropeadope and the advocacy organization City of Gold Arts, provides international distribution for artist-run labels producing the best jazz on the African continent. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a Ropeadope apparel initiative called “Renew Orleans” generated $90,000 for impacted musicians in the Crescent City.
Ultimately, the altruism that defines Third Way — elevating artists with a powerful message, while protecting the integrity of the album format — has been in practice at Ropeadope for 25 years. “We understand the landscape; we understand the ecosystem,” says Marks. “We can see what is wrong, and we have a clear path forward.”
To fulfill its mission, Third Way is building a strong collaborative team of ambassadors who are active within the organization. Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Todd Clouser, Wulf Müller, Shayna Steele, Chief Adjuah, Ben Rubin, Lydia LIebman, and Robert Sadin have all embraced the concept and are initiating their own powerful contributions in a variety of ways.
Meet the Founders:
With 45 years of independent business experience, Louis Marks brings a persistent spirit of advocacy to all that he does. Marks has led the independent label Ropeadope since 2006, curating an important and historic collection of contemporary music.
Hailed by Tape Op as a “musician, educator and music business visionary,” Joe Pignato regularly works as a consultant with organizations in the areas of music, music technology and music education. He has held management positions at leading music companies, including N2K Incorporated, BMG Classics, RCA Victor, ECM Records, CMP Records and Latin Percussion.
A musician, entrepreneur, educator and community advocate, Fabian Brown has gained a wide range of experience in his 20 years in music. Fabian’s unflagging enthusiasm for lifting up artists and community is evident in all of his roles, from President of Ropeadope to co-founding the nonprofit organization Heights in Progress.
Meet the Ambassadors:
Among the most dynamic and versatile voices of her generation, Shayna Steele has applied her gifts to an impossibly rich and wide range of situations: as a guest soloist with more than 100 symphony orchestras throughout America; in hit Broadway shows including Hairspray; and as a collaborator to such luminaries as Snarky Puppy, Moby and Chris Botti. Her own discography, including her 2023 Ropeadope release Gold Dust, seamlessly melds soul, jazz and blues.
One of the most successful record-industry executives in jazz history, Wulf Müller did legendary work for PolyGram throughout the 1980s and ’90s, with jazz and classical deities including Pavarotti, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, among many others. Moving into the 21st century, he reactivated the storied Emarcy label, signing titans like Sonny Rollins, Roy Hargrove and Branford Marsalis; in 2012, Sony invited him to resurrect another fabled imprint, Okeh. Müller released his memoir, A Life in Music, in 2022.
Over the past half-century, the creative polymath Jamaaladeen Tacuma has been one of the most compelling and distinctive voices on the electric bass. He is perhaps best known for his vital presence in Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time during the 1970s and ’80s, offering a profoundly nimble understanding of the saxophonist’s Harmolodic concept. Tacuma has also recorded prolifically under his own name, including an influential run with the Gramavision label during the ’80s, and collaborated with many of the greatest musicians in jazz, rock and the avant-garde, including James Blood Ulmer, Vernon Reid and James Carter.
The musician and songwriter Todd Clouser belongs on a short list alongside Bill Frisell, Ry Cooder, Marc Ribot and other extraordinary guitarists whose sound is at once impossibly wide-ranging and utterly singular. Clouser tours and records regularly with his power trio A Love Electric, which he formed through his experience in Mexico City’s improvised-music scene. He has also worked as a solo act and in collaboration with avant-jazz greats like John Zorn, John Lurie and John Medeski. Equally committed to the arts and community outreach, Clouser founded the nonprofit Music Mission, facilitating large-scale instrument donations and music education throughout Central America and beyond.
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, who began making his name in jazz as the gifted trumpeter Christian Scott, ranks among the most innovative and critically lauded musicians of his generation. He is a cultural visionary who combines his interests in technology, political activism and contemporary music with a profound respect for his heritage — especially his role as a revered torchbearer for Afro New Orleanian or Black Indian traditions. Scott is the pioneer of the genre-averse, groove-obsessed style known as “Stretch Music,” and the inventor of a bold array of emergent technologies and instruments, including the Stretch Music app, the Adjuah Trumpet and Chief Adjuah’s N’Goni. Naturally, his list of collaborators contains jazz icons alongside such prophets as Prince, Thom Yorke and Thundercat.
The acclaimed musician, producer, composer, arranger, conductor and educator Robert Sadin has shaped ambitious orchestral recordings for some of the greatest artists of our time. His discography includes Herbie Hancock’s multi-Grammy-winning Gershwin’s World; Wayne Shorter’s Alegría, a winner of two Grammy Awards; Sting’s If on a Winter’s Night…; and more. Other highlights include Plácido Domingo’s Encanto del Mar and Sadin’s own Art of Love, a star-packed tribute to Machaut featuring Natalie Merchant, Brad Mehldau and others. As an arranger and guest conductor, Sadin has worked with many of the world’s finest symphonies.
Whether he’s mashing up hip-hop and jazz with Masta Ace and Donny McCaslin, rocking the bass with Lower Power or Marshall Crenshaw, or producing the jazz organ trio Larry Goldings/Peter Bernstein/Bill Stewart, 2x-Grammy-nominated producer/mixer/bassist Ben Rubin is known for making music that is genre-bending or pure or both.
A seven-time pick as a DownBeat International Critics’ Poll “Rising Star Producer,” he has also played upright bass at Newport Jazz Festival with Dred Scott Trio, remixed tracks for Killah Priest and Karsh Kale, and won an Independent Music Award with his critically- acclaimed trip-hop band Mudville. Ben has well over 150 recording credits in a diversity of genres, including many releases for the Ropeadope, SmallsLive and Imani labels.
Lydia Liebman is a New York City-based music industry professional with experience as a publicist, educator, radio host, promoter, journalist and musician. She is the founder and president of Lydia Liebman Promotions, a leading PR agency based in New York City.
For a direct personal discussion of Third Way, contact Fabian Brown