About Us
PeaceTones aims to redefine the world music industry, creating a fair trade and community development business model that breaks down knowledge and access barriers to allow artists in developing countries to build viable and sustainable businesses. We strive to create a truly global marketplace through which musicians in low-income, post-conflict or post-disaster communities can sell their music to world markets online, keep the majority of profits from their music, and return a portion of their profits to their communities on an ongoing basis. PeaceTones works with musicians because music connects people in a way that very few other products can. Musicians hold a special place in their communities as mentors, role models and catalysts of change.
PeaceTones takes a unique approach to addressing economic empowerment worldwide. We work with musicians as they can be powerful agents of change within their communities. We train these artists in legal, marketing, and community development tools, produce an album with them which we sell online, and send 90% of net profits back to artists, a percentage of which the artists agree to contribute to their communities through a development project.
Working with local partners, we hold legal and marketing workshops for local artists. Topics range from basic contracts and intellectual property law to social networking and getting your music on iTunes and Amazon. We also inform students on local resources (e.g. legal aid). Workshops involve games, role-playing, and stories to create an engaging and non-threatening learning environment. We use a contest format for our projects as an incentive for workshop participation and practical application of tools learned, as well as a way to engage audiences around the world in the process of selecting our next PeaceTones musicians. The contest is held through Facebook, thus encouraging our musicians to put into practice the promotional tools we teach in our workshops. Contest winners record an album with PeaceTones and become PeaceTones ambassadors.
We ensure that the artists we work with (the winners of our contests) select a community development project in their community to contribute a percentage of their income from album sales to. The percentage they give and the cause they give to is entirely up to them.
PeaceTones then works with the artists to market the album both within their home country and internationally. The end products are an arts community with a greater sense of legal empowerment and marketing skills using technology, a large group of artists that have been given international recognition through the PeaceTones contest, and a PeaceTones ambassador that has launched a music career, received financial compensation for their talent, and is able to contribute to their community in a meaningful, sustained way.
