TOUR WITH INTENTION
Aid The Already Active
Live Nation reported that they are anticipating over 70 million fans attending shows this year. At concerts, the music industry has a unique opportunity to create on-ramps to activism: mass signing of petitions, educational opportunities for fans that are not frustrated enough about this attack on our democracy and creating strong bonds between fans and local advocacy organizations by inviting them on site.
—Adam Met, AJR
Bring Meaning To The Merch Table
Connect with Noise for Now, a nationwide initiative that connects artists to organizations that support reproductive justice. Simple actions include taking abortion information cards and stickers on tour and placing them on merchandise tables and in bathrooms to get crucial information into the hands of concertgoers in every city. Musicians can donate the proceeds from merch items to reproductive justice organizations, and they can partner with Plus1 to donate $1 per every concert ticket sold to the locallevel abortion clinics and abortion funds of their choice. Agents can also use our network of promoters to help add a benefit concert to any market along the tour’s route to raise much needed funds for that community’s abortion clinic and/or fund. —Samantha Kirby Yoh partner/cohead of global music, UTA
Travel Thoughtfully
Bands should boycott states that enacted trigger laws. Or they can continue to play in those states but donate all the funds to abortion clinics — especially independent abortion clinics.
—Marissa Oliver corporate social responsibility specialist, TuneCore/Believe
Reroute Your Profits
In those states where access to abortion is removed, promoters should find a way to reroute [show] profits so they don’t contribute to the political factions that strip people’s rights away and instead are redirected to initiatives they are aligned with. This is probably one of the most important areas of music to activate since entertainment plays such a big role in state economics. Boycotting these events is one solution, but perhaps there are other ways that don’t punish the local music stakeholders behind them. One potential solution is offered by the Web3 space, where we’ve seen decentralized autonomous organizations leverage their community to raise funds — such as UnicornDAO and Endaoment’s joint initiative LegalAbortion.eth or Adriana Arce’s Hauss of Power. The beauty of Web3 is its transparent infrastructure which ensures that money flows to the right places.
—Andreea Magdalina founder, shesaid.so
As music businesspeople, we all can make informed choices around what we support, how and where, with our tours and festival appearances, with our spending money as industry organizations, as visitors, panelists and networkers at conferences or business events. There are ways in which we can use our commercial leverage to boycott events where the actions of the state — and the money collected by the state — is directly contributing to this heinous subjugation of women’s rights. We can look at choosing to tour in different places and different venues, and we can choose not to pay our business or consumer or individual monies to support states’ regimes that we do not agree with and which erode the basic fundamental human rights of women. When artists, DJs, producers and bands do need to tour or perform in those states where abortion has been banned, think about what you can collaboratively do to contribute something back to the women whose lives are affected by those decisions at the state level — for example, a percentage donation of fees or an offset of taxes earned in that state from the event/festival. When we do this industrywide, we hit home where it matters — the bank balance — we create genuine power for change.
—Silvia Montello CEO, Association for Electronic Music