Musopen
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 203177592
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2016–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2015
- Location
- Redwood City, CA, USA
- Phone
- 8183924634
- Rating
- 41
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Media, Communications Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $98,660
- Expenses
- $65,303
- Assets
- $88,435
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
1 person listed
People named in this filing
- Aaron Dunn (Founder)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Musopen is a 501c3 non-profit focused on improving access and exposure to music by creating free resources and educational materials. We provide recordings, sheet music, music applications and educational materials to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free.
What it reported doing in 2025
Musopen hosts the largest collection of public domain music recordings in the US.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Membership-supported. 61% of the money available for current operations came from membership dues.
- Distribution model
- No current program activity. The filing reports no program spending for the current year.
The verdict
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and program spending has grown recently. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 0
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 69
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 0%; rating input score 0
- Program expense ratio: 0%; rating input score 0
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 33.8%; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.35; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 24.8% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.8% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 0% of revenue deployed · 0% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 1 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 1 filed schedules
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2016 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 0/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 56/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.