Hi! I am a US student at a US music school, but many of my friends in the program are international and are under an F1 visa, which means they cannot release music as they would receive compensation.

I was wondering if there was a way around this? I was thinking we could create a club or school sanctioned thing where all students can release their music under the Club's name on Spotify, then all the money earned from those streams would go back towards paying for annual dues and any excess would end up as a pizza party or gift to the campus from the club.

I emailed International Student Services and they said that it is considered compensation that the annual dues are paid, despite the fact that the students are receiving no money.

Would registering as a club in the institution circumvent this? How could I make it so the international students that make up about 85% of my program could release music?