Music streaming site Bandcamp has announced that their second annual Juneteenth fundraiser will continue this Juneteenth 2021. Similarly, they announced their popular fee-free Friday will continue through August 2021.
The Juneteenth fundraiser will occur on June 19, 2021 and 100% of the proceeds of the fundraiser will go to the NAALCP Legal Defense Fund, non-profit dedicated to fighting racial injustice. “Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans. LDF also defends the gains and protections won over the past 80 years of civil rights struggle and works to improve the quality and diversity of judicial and executive appointments,” reads a statement on their website. Juneteenth, also called Emancipation Day, celebrates the day that the final slaves were freed from bondage, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Juneteenth is the oldest celebration of the emancipation of slaves in the United States.
“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,” wrote Ethan Diamond on the initial Juneteenth fundraiser announcement.
Fee-free Fridays will also continue through August 2021. Fee-free Fridays began in March 2020 as artists were faced with an inability to earn money by performing live due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The program was immensely popular, and continued through 2020 into 2021. On the first Friday of every month, Bandcamp has waived all revenue collected in transaction, meaning that nearly all of the money fans spend on artists’ Bandcamp pages go directly to the artists. Though there’ve only been 12 Bandcamp Fridays, fans took to the idea eagerly and have raised $52 million for participating artists thus far. “Although vaccines are starting to roll out, it will likely be several months before live performance revenue starts to return. So we’re going to continue doing Bandcamp Fridays in 2021… Please see isitbandcampfriday.com for time zone demystification,” writes Diamond.
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