Bandcamp have announced details of their second annual Juneteenth fundraiser, raising money for anti-racism causes.
Last year, the music platform launched a new initiative inspired by ongoing worldwide protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death and other instances of racial injustice.
The initiative took place on Juneteenth, the anniversary of enslaved African Americans being informed of their liberation in the former Confederate States of America in 1865, with 100% of Bandcamp’s profits made on June 17 going to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
This year, the initiative will return, with the NAACP once again receiving every penny spent on Bandcamp on June 18, in line with the platform’s Bandcamp Fridays initiative.
Our second annual Juneteenth fundraiser is Friday, June 18th. On that day, from midnight to midnight PT, we’re donating 100% of our share of sales to @NAACP_LDF to support racial justice, equality, and change. https://t.co/bhGz3TN22P
— bandcamp (@Bandcamp) June 11, 2021
In a statement on the fundraiser, Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond said: “We held our first Juneteenth fundraiser last year in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the long-standing structural oppression, state-sanctioned violence, and daily racism faced by Black people and people of colour, including many of our fellow employees and artists in the Bandcamp community.
“We’ve been inspired by and joined in the growing call for racial justice and equity, and have celebrated the many new reforms, practices, and policies that bring us closer to a world where Black people and people of colour can thrive without fear of violence and oppression. At the same time, we are nowhere near where we need to be, and there is still much work to be done.”
Bandcamp Fridays, set up last year during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, was created to aid those musicians whose livelihoods have been disrupted by the pandemic, with Bandcamp waiving their revenue share to ensure that as close to 100% of the profits as possible from fan purchases, downloads and merch goes directly to artists and labels.
By the end of 2020, it was revealed that Bandcamp Fridays had raised over $40 million (£29.68 million) in 2020 for artists and labels during the pandemic.
