THE ARTIST-OWNED CREATIVE SANCTUARY

A real place.
A real community.Built for the artists who make the music.

A global artist community and creative sanctuary where musicians flourish through fairness, friendship, and shared purpose.

“Music isn’t a category — it’s a current running through everything.”

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$300B+
Global music economy — touching trillions in adjacent activity
90%
of artists earn less than $1,000/yr from streaming
∞
Potential when artists own their work and fans share the upside
the problem

The Music Industry is Broken

Artists create the magic — and almost none of the money flows back to them.

What's really going on:
  • Spotify payouts average $0.003–$0.005 per stream
  • Royalty statements are opaque, delayed, and difficult to audit
  • Artists are disconnected from the fans who love them
  • The live and retreat economy is fragmented and expensive to access

"Artists shouldn't survive the system. They should thrive because of it."

90%
of artists earn less than $1,000/year from streaming
70%+
of global recorded revenue captured by the three majors
12–16%
typical artist share of revenue — after deductions
the opportunity

A Massive Market

Music touches almost every dollar of entertainment — live, recorded, and everywhere in between.

Measured Music Market (2023)

$250B
Live Events
Projected $775B by 2035
$28.6B
Recorded Music
Global streaming + sales
~$70B
Education & Instruments
Lessons, gear, software
~$10B
Music Publishing
Songwriting royalties

Music Powers Nearly All Entertainment

TV (incl. streaming)
$3.5–4.5B
Film (incl. streaming)
$2.0–2.5B
Video Games
$1.5–2.0B
Advertising
$1.0–1.8B
Retail & Hospitality
$1.0–1.5B
Social Apps
$1.0–1.2B

"If you zoom out far enough, music touches trillions of dollars of economic activity — but almost none of that flows back to the people who create it."

Our solution

A Creative Sanctuary

A real place and a real community where artists write, record, perform, rest, and build careers together.

A Physical Home

A 10-acre creative campus outside Austin — studios, stages, lodging, gardens, and wellness under one sky.

Community First

An invited, values-aligned collective of artists who show up for each other, on and off stage.

Retreats & Residencies

Writing retreats, recording residencies, and VIP fan experiences that bring art and audience together.

Stages & Studios

Pro recording studios, co-writing rooms, live performance spaces, and on-campus festival infrastructure.

Rest & Wellness

Gardens, healing spaces, and the kind of quiet that lets a creative career actually last.

Powered by Ekho

Partnered with Ekho for fan-direct monetization, fair payouts, and the tech layer — so OBF stays human.

Not a label. Not a platform. A creative civilization.
The Austin Sanctuary

A home for the soul of music.

More than a workspace — a home. A creative campus where artists can live, work, and flourish. Where the soul of music finds its safe space.

Recording StudiosMultiple world-class rooms
Co-Writing RoomsFor songwriters & producers
Live Performance AreasIndoor stage + amphitheater
Retreat LodgingOn-site housing for residencies
Gardens & WellnessSpace to rest, reset, create
Community GatheringDining, fire pits, shared tables
Austin Sanctuary
“A sanctuary for the soul of music — where artists feel safe, supported, and creatively alive.”
the artist experience

From first draft to festival stage

A full arc of creative life — artists arrive, create, perform, grow, and return.

1
💡
ARRIVE
Writing Retreats

Curated multi-day retreats bring artists to the sanctuary to write, collaborate, and reset.

2
🎯
CREATE
Recording Residencies

Week- and month-long residencies in world-class studios with peers and mentors.

3
⭐
PERFORM
On-Campus Festivals

Live shows, VIP fan retreats, and recorded sets broadcast to the global OBF community.

4
⚡
GROW
Career Acceleration

Training, mentorship, and monetization through the Ekho platform partnership.

membership

A new kind of fan club

Four tiers of participation. Higher tiers unlock deeper access, ownership, and a seat at the table.

Bronze
$10/mo
  • Ad-free streaming
  • Exclusive content access
  • Community forums
  • Monthly artist spotlight
Silver
$20/mo
  • All Bronze benefits
  • Behind-the-scenes access
  • Artist podcasts & shows
  • Early release access
Gold
$50/mo
  • All Silver benefits
  • Live virtual events
  • Masterclasses & lessons
  • Exclusive meet & greets
Platinum
$100/mo
  • All Gold benefits
  • Profit-sharing upside
  • VIP sanctuary access
  • Direct artist connection
Your membership isn’t a subscription — it’s participation in a creative economy.
the partnership

Powered by Ekho

The technology layer that lets One Big Friend stay focused on people and place.

ONE BIG FRIEND

The place, the people, the culture.
  • 10-acre creative sanctuary in Austin, TX
  • Recording studios, stages, and lodging
  • Artist retreats, residencies, and festivals
  • Curated membership community
  • Real-world artist development & mentorship

EKHO

The platform, the tools, the economics.
  • Fan-direct monetization & fair-pay streaming
  • Transparent, on-chain royalty accounting
  • Superfan patronage and ownership tools
  • Discovery, licensing, and distribution rails
  • Global scale — built for independent artists
✓

A natural symbiosis

OBF cultivates the artists, music, and stories. Ekho gives them a fair, global engine to reach fans and get paid. OBF stays human; Ekho scales the economics.

the founders

Founders with a shared mission

Heart + architecture. Art + technology. Spirit + system.

Rhonda LaRoy
Founder & CEO

Rhonda LaRoy

Lifelong singer, songwriter, and dancer whose voice has topped charts worldwide. A lifelong advocate for artists and the rights they're still fighting for.

  • Global hits
    "Sunday Morning" (as LaRoy — breakout hit), "Party Up" (Powersound), "Feel The Beat" (Rhythm and Dance Machine), "Deep In Love" (Rhonda LaRoy)
  • 25+ major festivals
    Performed for audiences of 50,000+ worldwide
  • Lifelong artist advocate
    A career fighting for artist rights and fair compensation
Michael Jelen
Founding Partner

Michael Jelen

CEO of Ekho — the fair-pay platform partner that powers OBF's digital economy.

  • CEO of Ekho
    Building the artist-owned platform for fair-pay streaming, royalties, and fan-direct economics
  • Forbes 40 Under 40
    Technology visionary in creator economies and decentralized ownership
  • Deep platform experience
    Expert in streaming, Web3, and community-powered media
BRINGING IT TO LIFE

$5M brings it to life.

Launch the global artist community and build the first creative sanctuary in Austin.

A home for the artists who make the music.

We're gathering $5 million in support to launch One Big Friend — a global artist community and a physical creative home in the Austin area.

Studios, stages, lodging, gardens, and wellness spaces — designed for artist retreats, recording residencies, on-campus festivals, and fan experiences.

Monetization and reach are delivered through our partnership with Ekho, so OBF can stay focused on people, place, and culture.

Use of Funds
Land & Campus Buildout$2.5M · 50%
Acquire land outside Austin; build studios, stages, and lodging
Artist Residency Program$1.0M · 20%
Fund first cohorts, retreat production, artist support
Community & Membership$0.75M · 15%
Onboarding, events, founding member experiences
Core Team$0.5M · 10%
Lean, high-impact hires across operations and creative
Launch Productions$0.25M · 5%
Initial recordings, films, and storytelling
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Join us. Help build the first real home for the artists who make the music.