The Reverb NOligarchy Profile
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Reverb earns a NOligarchy Score of 83.01 out of 100 — well above its sector average from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026 (8 quarters — the two-year tracking period). As a private online marketplace for used musical instruments and gear, Reverb leaves almost no footprint in federal politics and carries zero regulatory fines. The drag on its overall score comes entirely from the wealth extraction pillar, where private ownership means the public cannot verify how the company pays its workers relative to its leadership.
Current Pillar Scores
Political Access
95.2
Wealth Extraction
46.2
Playing by the Rules
100.0
Score history — 23 quarters
Tier bands show where each quarter's score falls — no numeric y-axis needed. The dashed ring marks the year-over-year comparison point. Tap any quarter but the first to see its pillar breakdown.
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Political Access Grade: 95.24/100. Reverb filed no federal lobbying reports and operated no Political Action Committee (PAC). The only political spending on record is $6,000 in individual executive donations to federal candidates — a trace amount that keeps the score near the top of the range.
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Wealth Extraction Grade: 46.16/100. Reverb is a private company with no obligation to disclose executive compensation, CEO pay ratios, buybacks, or dividend distributions. The score reflects the accountability gap that creates — not a confirmed record of extractive behavior.
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Playing by the Rules Grade: 100.0/100. No regulatory fines, penalties, or violations appear anywhere in the public enforcement record for this period. No government subsidies were recorded either.
The Sector Context: Reverb ranks 7th out of 22 companies sharing its federal industry classification (Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Retailers), scoring 83.01 against a sector average of 68.6 — a meaningful distance above the baseline, placing it in the upper third of its peer group.
The Bottom Line: A Clean Public Record With Private Books
Reverb’s near-perfect political and legal scores tell a straightforward story: no lobbying machine, no PAC spending, no fines. But the wealth extraction pillar — scoring just 46.16 out of 100 — marks the accountability gap that comes with private ownership. Because Reverb does not file public financial disclosures, there is no way to verify what its top executive earns relative to workers, whether profits are being reinvested or extracted by owners, or how the company manages its tax obligations. The public record confirms what Reverb has not done in Washington and in the courthouse; what happens inside the books remains invisible.
A Minimal Footprint, With One Small Trail
Reverb reported zero dollars in federal lobbying expenditures from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026. The company retained no outside lobbying firms, employed no registered lobbyists, and ran no PAC. It also hired none of the revolving-door former government officials that larger competitors deploy to fast-track regulatory access.
The only political spending on record is $6,000 in individual executive donations, filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and recorded in Q3 2024. In a sector where some rivals pour significantly more into shaping trade, intellectual property, and consumer protection policy, Reverb’s absence from Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) filings stands out — the Senate LDA database returns nothing for this period.
An Undisclosed Pay Gap
Reverb is not required to publicly disclose its CEO pay ratio. The best available figure is 430:1, based on AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch industry benchmarks for comparable companies in this sector. That benchmark estimate means the gap between the person at the top of Reverb’s pay structure and a typical worker could reach 430 times — but without a public filing, neither the ratio nor the underlying executive salary can be confirmed or contested.
No stock buyback or dividend data is recorded for Reverb. As a private company, neither figure is publicly disclosed, so no per-worker calculation of redirected capital is possible. The combination of an unverifiable pay gap and invisible capital flows is precisely what keeps the wealth extraction score near the bottom half, even as the rest of the profile looks clean.
A Clean Record on the Public Docket
Over the two-year tracking period from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026, Reverb accumulated zero regulatory fines and zero recorded violations across federal and state enforcement databases. No government subsidies were awarded to the company during this period, meaning Reverb neither received public financial support nor triggered public enforcement action.
That clean docket places Reverb in genuine contrast with many of its sector peers — companies like Guitar Center and Michaels that carry significant violation histories — and it earns a perfect Playing by the Rules score of 100.