Bandcamp has been a beacon of charity in these tough times. Having previously waived their fees for 24 hours to support independent musicians, the music website has announced they will donate 100% of their share in sales on June 19th to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
And it’s not just this one date, but “every Juneteenth hereafter…” Juneteenth is also known as Freedom Day, a holiday celebrating June 19th, 1865. This was the day the Emancipation Proclamation finally went into effect in the former Confederate States of America, two years after it was signed and a little over a month following the end of the Civil War.
What’s more, Bandcamp has additionally pledged to donate $30,000 a year to “organizations that fight for racial justice and create opportunities for people of color.”
Calling the recent “state-sanctioned violence against black people” around the country and the world “horrific tragedies,” Bandcamp said in a statement,
“The current moment is part of a long-standing, widespread, and entrenched system of structural oppression of people of color, and real progress requires a sustained and sincere commitment to political, social, and economic racial justice and change. We’ll continue to promote diversity and opportunity through our mission to support artists, the products we build to empower them, who we promote through the Bandcamp Daily, our relationships with local artists and organizations through our Oakland space, how we operate as a team, and who and how we hire.”
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Find their full statement on the Juneteenth initiative below.
Bandcamp’s next First Friday promotion, during which they’ll wave their fees for every sale on the site, comes on June 5th. They’ll then hold another one on July 3rd.
The recent killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Sean Reed, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the ongoing state-sanctioned violence against black people in the US and around the world are horrific tragedies. We stand with those rightfully demanding justice, equality, and change, and people of color everywhere who live with racism every single day, including many of our fellow employees and artists and fans in the Bandcamp community.
So this coming Juneteenth (June 19, from midnight to midnight PDT) and every Juneteenth hereafter, for any purchase you make on Bandcamp, we will be donating 100% of our share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a national organization that has a long history of effectively enacting racial justice and change through litigation, advocacy, and public education. We’re also allocating an additional $30,000 per year to partner with organizations that fight for racial justice and create opportunities for people of color.
The current moment is part of a long-standing, widespread, and entrenched system of structural oppression of people of color, and real progress requires a sustained and sincere commitment to political, social, and economic racial justice and change. We’ll continue to promote diversity and opportunity through our mission to support artists, the products we build to empower them, who we promote through the Bandcamp Daily, our relationships with local artists and organizations through our Oakland space, how we operate as a team, and who and how we hire.
Beyond that, we encourage everyone in the Bandcamp community to look for ways to support racial equality in your own local community, and as a company we’ll continue to look for more opportunities to support racial justice, equality and change.
