In light of the recent killing of George Floyd and the subsequent protests, music sales platform Bandcamp has announced that they will be donating 100% of their profits to the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund on June 19, also known as Juneteenth.
Juneteenth is the yearly commemoration of the end of slavery. June 19 marks the day Union soldiers reached Galviston, Texas to announce that the Civil War was over and that all who were being kept as slaves would be free.
“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,” writes the company in a statement announcing the donation. “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.”
According to the statement, Bandcamp plans to make the donation an annual tradition. To accompany that donation, the company will also be setting aside $30,000 a year to “partner with organizations that fight for racial justice and create opportunities for people of color.”
As previously announced, Bandcamp is slated to waive their share of sales this Friday (June 5), directing 100% of sales to the artists and labels on the platform. This is part of the company’s continued effort to help artists whose livelihoods have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the event, a number of artists and labels will be selling special releases and merch items. A full list of those releases is available here.
This is the third time Bandcamp is waiving their share of sales since the pandemic hit. They are slated to do it one more time this summer on July 3.
