The Green Stock Exchange (GREENSX) trades securities in the cultural industry. Note that issuers in the cultural industry needs to keep their social and creative ideals central to their mission - to ensure both a sustainable enterprise and great art.

The cultural industry is under tremendous change, due to the rise of the Internet. Traditional retail economics limit stores to only stocking hits because shelf space is limited and expensive. But online retailers (Amazon, iTunes, etc.) can stock virtually everything.

The millions of niches that can stock anything besides just the hits are the “Long Tail”. We paraphrase Chris Anderson’s definition as: “The theory of the Long Tail is that the economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of ‘hits’ (mainstream products and markets) at the ‘head’ of the demand curve and toward niches at the ‘tail’ of the demand curve. In the new world, all content can be accessed, including the Long Tail on the right. In a Long Tail world, word of mouth will be more important; it is also the best marketing strategy for decades (lowest customer acquisition cost). The Long Tail is “pull”. Broadcast is “push”. The Long Tail personalizes content to the person looking for cultural products, which results in higher customer satisfaction.

Social Networks such as our E=MC² Creative Friends Network will become more important as a tool to create word of mouth for authentic favorites of members on a viral scale.

In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare… Economically, the aggregate size of the many small markets in goods that don’t individually sell well enough for traditional retail and broadcast distribution may rival that of ‘hits’.

The Green Stock Exchange (GREENSX) and the E=MC² Creative Friends Network serve the Long Tail, by supporting more small independent artists and independent publishers.

The LOHAS Mix

The arts strengthen social capital. In fact, the arts are a central part of the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) consumers (called "cultural creatives" or the "creative class"), that we are targeting. They are called cultural creatives for a reason, they love arts and culture. Imagine how dull life would be without any movies, music, television, art, books, magazines, dance, Academy Awards, movie stars, and other cultural products.

The term LOHAS was first coined by sociologist Paul Ray and psychologist Sherry Anderson, co-authors of The Cultural Creatives (also founders of Gaiam, LOHAS Journal and Forum in 1999).LOHAS now represent 23% of the population (about 50 million adults) in the United States, and 29% of the population in Japan (about 37 million). What is astounding is the speed with which the group appeared, moving from less than 4 percent of the U.S. population in the 1960s to more than 23% percent in the 1990s, a new record for such a population trend .Countries around the world are showing interest—Japan, Taiwan, China, Australia, New Zealand, India, Germany, Holland, England, France, Canada, and more—all want to understand and integrate LOHAS principles into their own cultures.

Statistics on this Sector

U.S. Consumer Spend Per person Per Year Note: Other includes Box Office, Video Games, Mobile Content, Broadcast/Satellite Radio. Source: Veronis Suhler Stevenson

The cultural sector includes: fine arts, music, computer games, design, museums, art galleries, archives, historic sites , film and video production / distribution, movie theatres, TV viewing, radio listening, the performing arts, book and periodical publishing, heritage institutions, botanical gardens, exhibition halls, amusement parks, dance companies, edutainment industry, country clubs, museums, amusement arcades, government and private sector funding of culture, culture trade and investment, the culture labor force, online ticket sales ...etc.

The arts and culture sector is supported both by non-profit organizations, as well as for-profit organizations.

Non-Profit

On the formal side, the United States is home to some 21,750 non-profit arts, culture, and
humanities organizations, according to federal government estimates. These officially recognized organizations hold an astonishing $37-billion in assets and spend $13.3-billion annually to enrich our understanding of truth, to enlarge our appreciation of beauty, and to give us insights into the human condition.

Report show that America's nonprofit arts industry generates $134 billion in economic activity every year, including $80 billion+ in audience spending, $53 billion+ in spending by arts organizations, and $24 billion+ in tax revenue. The non-profit arts industry, with $36.8 billion in annual revenue, is a potent force in economic development nationwide that supports 1.3 million full-time jobs. States and communities have integrated the arts into their economic development arsenal to achieve a wide range of direct and indirect economic goals. Arts programs have served as components of high-impact economic development programs by assisting state and local government.

Alongside these formally established organizations are tens of thousands of groups known collectively as the “unincorporated arts.” Under this umbrella are non-professional and loosely organized church choirs, poetry slams, recital series, chamber music ensembles, quilting guilds, reading groups, hip-hop sessions, and other largely volunteer-run groups.

As for trading between countries, UNESCO shows that the trade of cultural goods was $59.2 billion in 2002 - music, books, crafts, films and many other cultural goods and services move across international borders.

For-Profit

Here are highlights of some key cultural categories that investors might be interested in:

Art:
Art is an integral part of the LOHAS lifestyle; creative people like to share in all things creative. The LOHAS consumer ( "cultural creatives") are more open to new ideas, so they are more likely to have a diverse range of art interests.

Artists create art to communicate ideas, thoughts, or feelings. They use a variety of methods — painting, sculpting, or illustration—and an assortment of materials, including oils, watercolors, acrylics, pastels, pencils, pen and ink, plaster, clay, and computers. Artists’ works may be realistic, stylized, or abstract and may depict objects, people, nature, or events.

Artists held about 218,000 jobs in 2006. About 62% were self-employed. Employment was distributed as follows:

Artists generally fall into one of four categories.

• Art directors formulate design concepts and presentation approaches for visual communications.
  
  
• Craft artists create or reproduce handmade objects for sale or exhibition.
  
  
• Fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators, create original artwork, using a variety of media and techniques.
  
  
• Multi-media artists and animators create special effects, animation, or other visual images on film, on video, or with computers or other electronic media.
  

Of the artists who were not self-employed, many worked for advertising and related services; newspaper, periodical, book, and software publishers; motion picture and video industries; specialized design services; and computer systems design and related services. Some self-employed artists offered their services to advertising agencies, design firms, publishing houses, and other businesses.

Now, let us look at fine art - including painters, sculptors and illustrators. Well-established fine arts artists earn more than salaried artists, while others find it difficult to rely solely on income earned from selling fine art. As an investment point of view, the global public auction fine art market in 2006 generated a total revenue of $ 6.4 billion which represents double the amounts regularly posted during the 1999 - 2003 period and an increase of 52% compared with 2005.

There are also numerous fine art sold independently that is not listed above, which brings brings cultural capital, including paintings, sculptures, fine art photographs, installations and fine art digital media.

Through the E=MC² Creative Friends Network and the Green Stock Exchange (GREENSX), we will empower the fine art market with more venues for art exhibitions and art sales.

Music:
Music is the passion of LOHAS consumers; creative people loves music to give them inspiration. However, the LOHAS consumer ("cultural creatives") differ somewhat from the mainstream because the cultural creatives listens to more indep