Corporate social responsibility can be defined as “actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law.” The music industry is a huge influence on people’s lives already, I feel that they are required to uphold ethics, sustainability, and social responsibility.
While musicians aren’t technically “corporations,” I feel that they are so admired and looked up to, that even they need to uphold these practices. Artists like Tyler Childers are doing a good job of this as he vowed that $1 from every ticket sale would go to his non-profit, the Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund, which funds efforts in education, civil rights, and addiction recovery in the Appalachian area. Linkin Park is also doing some good by providing non-profit, Love Hope Strength, an opportunity to swab concert-goers cheeks to see if they are a match for bone marrow donation for those battling cancer and also allowing organizations like Reverb, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and Linkin Park funded Music for Relief to talk about their missions and initiatives at their concerts. Even Odesza, an internationally recognized electronic duo who had their start here in the Pacific Northwest, includes a page on their website stating their sustainability actions and goals, while Grammy award winner and wife of former Seattle Seahawk’s quarterback, Ciara, joined the board of a Seattle startup called Amperity to help guide their corporate social responsibility efforts.
Record labels are also making efforts in social responsibility recently. You might have heard in the news or realized while scrolling through TikTok last week that Universal Music Group has taken their music off of popular app, TikTok. I was upset when I first heard this news, as I enjoy using TikTok to find music and make videos, and I am sure I was not the only one. However, after looking into the reasoning behind this decision, I have changed that disappointment into pride. Universal Music Group did not remove the music as an act of greed, they did it out of an act of social responsibility that aligns with their mission of helping their artists attain their greatest creative and commercial potential while also standing up for the safety of consumers.
Universal Music Group and TikTok could not reach a deal on the terms of the renewal of their contract together, as UMG laid out three conditions for the renewal: appropriate compensation for artists and songwriters, protecting artists from the harmful effects of AI, and better online safety for TikTok’s users. TikTok responded to their conditions by proposing a rate that is just a fraction of the rate the artists receive from other major platforms and will continue to develop tools to enable AI music creation on their app, which some could see as sponsoring artist replacement by AI. TikTok has also responded by accusing UMG of putting greed above the interests of their artists because TikTok considers themselves an important tool for promotion and discovery of these artists. However, most of the artists that UMG works with do not need free promotion as much as fair compensation.
UMG is also a great example of good corporate social responsibility as they have a page on their website listing their social responsibility initiatives and partnerships, working with organizations such as City of Hope and Education Through Music. They also partnered with The Mental Health Coalition in 2022 to publish a “roadmap to climate change mental health.” This roadmap helps people take care of their mental well-being amid stresses caused by the climate emergency. UMG also recently joined Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group to launch a Music Industry Climate Collective which will address challenges and changes in the world’s climate and guide the music industry on measuring scope 3 greenhouse gases. In addition to forming the Music Industry Climate Collective, Warner Music Group also joined Live Nation and music group, Coldplay, in supporting MIT’s study of environmental impact of concerts and their solutions to these impacts in the live-music industry.
You may be wondering about The Pacific Northwest’s music industry and the corporate social responsibility occurring here. Washington and Oregon based independent record label, Kill Rock Stars, is arguably the second most popular record label in The Pacific Northwest. They work with a variety of genres but are originally known for their work in underground punk rock. They most notably worked with Elliot Smith, a popular indie-rock/indie-folk artist from Portland, Oregon who passed away in 2003 at only 34 years old after his rise to fame. Kill Rock Stars isn’t a huge corporation, they only have around 45 signed artists and 37.1k followers on Instagram, however they do use what influence they have to be socially responsible.
They pride themselves on being a “queer, feminist, anti-racist, and artist-friendly label” as stated in their Instagram bio and they do a good job of showing these values through initiatives, social media posts, and even the music they represent. A scroll through their link tree link posted on their Instagram profile shows a lot of music and artist promotion, however you can also find things like a link to an actionnetwork.org petition to tell Songtradr to recognize and negotiate with Bandcamp United.
Songtradr bought Bandcamp a few years ago, and after doing so, they laid off half of Bandcamp’s employees. However, Epic Games, the company that sold Bandcamp to Songtradr, was in the middle of ongoing contract negotiations with Bandcamp’s staff union, Bandcamp United, as the sale occurred. Bandcamp is a music platform that exists as more of a community than a marketplace, allowing artists to communicate with fans and other artists directly and the layoffs and new management put that all at risk. By Kill Rock Stars posting that petition, they were taking a stand for not only their artists who use Bandcamp and are affected by this situation, but also for their consumers and the music industry as a whole.
Kill Rock Stars also posted a link to a playlist celebrating queer voices within their brand and beyond, a link to a blog recognizing their brand as being one of the first to ever use the .gay domain online, a link to their pride event last year, and a link for an article on NBC news about 4 queer artists helping to shake up country music. All of these links are them taking a stand and showing their position on supporting queer artists in the industry. They also posted a link to an OPB news article about the podcast, Starting a Riot, which talks about the riot grrrl scene, an underground feminist punk movement that originated here in the PNW. A lot of riot grrrl songs address issues such as domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, patriarchy, classism, anarchism, female empowerment, and sexual abuse. One of the primary bands associated with the movement is Bikini Kill, who is represented by Kill Rock Stars.
Kill Rock Stars has also published posts on Instagram reaffirming their stance on a variety of political and social issues. One post from November 2, 2023 reads “Trans people aren’t going away. Gay people aren’t going away. People on the gender and sexuality spectrum aren’t going away. Women aren’t going away from music. Nobody’s putting anybody back into a box.” Another post reads a quote from an NBC article with Kill Rock Star artist, Mya Byrne who talks on queer visibility and representation in country music: “Country music in itself is a very diasporadic thing, because we’re all searching for a sense of home. A common theme in modern country music is pride in one’s home, while queer country tends to be about the quest to belong. There’s a lot of searching for home or how we make home within ourselves,” said Byrne. While another post quotes Ryan Cassata, a Kill Rock Star artist featured in a Newsweek article about trans country artists, “I’m going to keep using my music as a message to put down transphobia.”
You always know what Kill Rock Stars stance is because they stay consistent and direct in their position on these issues. You can tell that they are not worried about how this will affect their business at all, they just honestly want to use what influence they have to get their view out there and make a change. They may not be partnered with non-profits and philanthropies like UMG and other large music groups, but they are still finding a way to be socially responsible however they can. I have trust in the music industry to keep making these socially responsible decisions and promoting solutions to issues that everyone in the music industry or consuming music may face.
PNW music recommendation of the week:
Emma Wright-Cloutier 
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