Bandcamp has unveiled that the complete Björk discography has landed on their music service, with proceeds from all sales being donated by Björk and One Little Independent to the Black Lives Matter UK organisation from today until the end of Bandcamp’s NAACP fundraiser tomorrow.
All nine of the seminal artist’s records are available to purchase in a variety of formats, including digital, vinyl, CD and cassette.
On Friday, June 19th — aka Juneteenth, a date that commemorates the abolishment of slavery in the US— Bandcamp will donate 100 per cent of their profits to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
“This coming Juneteenth (June 19, from midnight to midnight PDT) and every Juneteenth hereafter, for any purchase you make on Bandcamp, we will be donating 100% of our share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a national organization that has a long history of effectively enacting racial justice and change through litigation, advocacy, and public education,” the service shared in an open letter.
“We’re also allocating an additional $30,000 per year to partner with organizations that fight for racial justice and create opportunities for people of color.”
On June 10th, Derek Birkett—founder of Björk’s label, One Little Indian Records, shared a statement, pledging to change the label’s name to One Little Independent after admitting the U.K. imprint’s name is “offensive.”
“From today the label will be called One Little Independent Records,” he wrote in a statement. The founder revealed he recieved an “eye-opening letter from a Crass fan.”
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I felt equally appalled and grateful to them for making me understand what must be changed,” he wrote.
“I want to apologise unreservedly to anyone that has been offended by the name and the logo,“ Birkett continues. “I recognise now that both contribute to racism and should have been addressed a long, long time ago.”
In addition to the logo and name change, Birkett has pledged to donate to Honouring Indigenous Peoples Charitable Corporation and the Association on American Indian Affairs on behalf of the label.
“It is my responsibility to take ownership of my mistakes and I still have so much more work and learning to do,” he wrote.
Björk is just one of the many musicians who have recognised their position of privilege and pledged to donate their earnings to organisations dedicated to fighting racial injustice.
Today, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco penned an open letter, announcing that he would be pledging 5% of his “writer revenue” to organizations “working toward racial justice” and encouraging other prominent industry figureheads to do the same.
“The modern music industry is built almost entirely on Black art,” he wrote.
“The wealth that rightfully belonged to Black artists was stolen outright and to this day continues to grow outside their communities. No one artist could come close to paying the debt we owe to the Black originators of our modern music and their children and grandchildren.”
