Bandcamp announces second annual Juneteenth fundraiser

Bandcamp has confirmed its second annual Juneteenth fundraiser, taking place this Friday, June 18th.

The initiative began last year with the company donating 100% of its share of sales from a 24-hour period to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. All proceeds from the initiative this year will once again go to the same cause, supporting the NAACP’s continued bid to promote racial justice through litigation, advocacy, and public education. 

“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 color, including many of our fellow employees and artists in the Bandcamp community,” Bandcamp CEO and co-founder Ethan Diamond said in a statement. 

He continued: “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 color 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.

“This annual fundraiser is part of our larger, ongoing commitment to racial equity, and we’ll continue to promote diversity and opportunity through our mission to support artists, the products we develop, those we promote through the Bandcamp Daily and Bandcamp Radio, how we work together as a team, who and how we hire, and our relationships with organizations local to our Oakland space.”

Find more information here.

Bandcamp’s annual Juneteenth fundraiser was one of a number of initiatives that the company founded in 2020, including the monthly fee-waive Fridays that have continued into 2021.