Save The Music – previously VH1 Save the Music, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps music training in 285+ college districts nationwide – introduced at the moment that it’s going to start a brand new chapter as a totally unbiased nonprofit separate from Paramount International.
An unbiased Save The Music will stay devoted to its imaginative and prescient of each pupil in each college making music – by offering colleges with devices and know-how, coaching and supporting academics, and funding and convening community-based music organizations.
As a part of this transition, Save The Music has launched a $10 million endowment fund, with almost $4 million already raised. The brand new endowment will make sure the cultural establishment’s sustainability and long-term help for music training, empowering future generations of scholars with entry to the transformative energy of constructing music.
Whereas the formal partnership with Paramount is ending, the connection will stay, as the corporate has pledged an preliminary six-figure donation to the endowment.
This milestone marks the completion of a course of that started in 2019 when the group rebranded, eradicating the VH1 identify. This was step one of a technique designed to cut back reliance on a single funding supply and as an alternative embrace a extra broad-based strategy to monetary help.
Over the previous 5 years, Save The Music has attracted a various group of funders, with 95% of the organizational price range in 2024 coming from non-Paramount sources, together with community-based foundations, particular person donations, and contributions from the music trade.
Notable funders embody main report labels, expertise businesses, Dwell Nation, AEG Presents, and tech giants similar to Amazon, TikTok, and Meta. In 2021 Save The Music additionally acquired a $2 million grant – the most important within the group’s historical past – from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
Since its inception, STM has invested over $75 million in additional than 2,800 college music packages. Since 2019 it has doubled the variety of colleges it reaches, funding greater than 600 new packages in U.S. cities similar to New York, Newark, Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Nashville and Columbus; in addition to important regional tasks in West Virginia and the Mississippi Delta.
“Going unbiased is a large step ahead for us – and the end result of a five-year effort from our group, companions, and boards,” says Govt Director Henry Donahue. “In each college I go to – from the Bronx to Miami, Philadelphia to Los Angeles, Detroit to Columbus, Memphis to New Orleans – I discover that the music room is a particular place. The scholars are excited to be there, and they’re inventive, considerate, and optimistic in a method that ought to give us all hope for the long run.”
Save The Music has additionally strengthened its artist partnerships, led by inner management and the Save The Music Advisory Board, which incorporates Eric Wong (President, East West Information & Head of International A&R, Warner Recorded Music), Caroline Abs (Head of Advertising, Sony Latin-Iberia Area), Jonathan Azu (Founder & CEO, Tradition Collective), and Gurj Bassi (Head of Music Advertising & Partnerships, SiriusXM), amongst others. Latest Artist Ambassador campaigns have been led by Ed Sheeran, Becky G, and Jelly Roll and STM has additionally collaborated with Breland, Brittney Spencer, Younger The Large, Tank (Tank and The Bangas), Durand Bernarr, Ed Sheeran, Lawernce (the band), Chelsea Cutler, Rainbow Kitten Shock, and Infinity Music.
STM’s widespread trade help was on show final fall at its signature Nashville occasion, the fifth annual Hometown to Hometown profit. The night raised greater than $300,000 for music teaching programs in under-resourced public excessive colleges and honored Maren Morris, Brittney Spencer, and Dwell Nation Ladies’s Ali Harnell because the 2024 “Champions of the 12 months.”
To mark this thrilling new chapter, Save The Music has rallied an unimaginable lineup of artists for an unique giveaway marketing campaign hosted on the Propeller platform. Now by means of the top of February, followers can bid on over a dozen distinctive public sale prizes from abilities like Sabrina Carpenter, The Struggle And Treaty, Denzel Curry, GHOST, Widespread x Pete Rock, Patti LaBelle, Blake Shelton, and extra! Proceeds from the public sale will instantly help the creation of latest music packages throughout the nation as Save The Music proudly steps into its new period as an unbiased group.
In 2025, Save The Music plans to additional develop the scope of its Okay-12 music training grants to satisfy demand from college students and educators for funding in hip hop and Latin music packages. STM’s J Dilla Music Tech Grant, which launched in 2018 in partnership with Pharrell’s company I AM OTHER, Pay Jay Productions, Inc., and the Property of James DeWitt Yancey is now dwell in over 100 colleges nationwide. The grant helps highschool packages targeted on digital music manufacturing, interesting to college students fascinated about cutting-edge music know-how.
Moreover, constructing on the success of their mariachi packages, STM will develop their center college grants to incorporate extra Latin music genres, including extra percussion and different devices for college students and academics exploring the culturally wealthy world of Latin music..
The success of the J Dilla Music Tech Grants and the enlargement of the Latin music program exemplify STM’s dedication to empowering college students nationwide by means of music packages that replicate the wants of their accomplice communities.
