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What we do

PeaceTones® recognizes that musicians play a powerful role in local community building, which in turn contributes to global peacemaking.

PeaceTones®’ mission is to build global justice and equality through local culture, one musician at a time.

OUR VISION: A world where music takes an active role in reducing political, social and ethnic conflict.

OUR WORK: PeaceTones®, an initiative of Internetbar.org Institute, recognizes that musicians play a powerful role in local community building, which in turn contributes to global peacemaking. We enable musicians to develop and disseminate their art by bringing crucial legal, technology, and business skills to historically unheard musicians, empowering them as leaders and shapers of positive social change.

“The Internet and technology have opened up global access to music. Through the Internet, there is potential to reimagine the entire music industry as one that favors the artist instead of the label, that gives weight to the role of the innovator (the artist) and his or her community as the central pieces in putting together a musical work (whether it be tangible or downloadable album) and accordingly attributes income from that album in the same way.”

Jeffrey Aresty – PeaceTones Co-Founder

Our Model

Implementing a social entrepreneurship model, PeaceTones® also operates as a nonprofit record label for musicians that exemplify positive voices for social justice and demonstrate distinguished musical talent as determined by PeaceTones® fans via a worldwide online competition.  With these musicians, we create fair trade business relationships coupled with mentor relationships to amplify their voices and talent.  With the far majority of profits going directly to the musician and a community development project of their choosing, PeaceTones® is reducing poverty and injustice and creating an arts-led movement for peace, social change and economic development.

Music

Why music? We work with musicians because they have the unique ability to transcend socio-political and economic divides and speak the universal languages of peace and justice.  In times of difficulty as well as joy, musicians bring their communities together, act as voice boxes for grievances that are otherwise rarely heard, and act as conduits for their communities to celebrate the culture they were born into and have helped create.  Music can mirror society, but it can also transform it. We want to support musicians who do both – mirror the aspects of their cultures that are inspiring so the rest of the world can witness them, and begin to transform aspects that are problematic by starting a conversation around them.

Practical legal knowledge &
Technology-enabled access

Through our hands-on workshops and mentoring, we educate musicians on how to protect their craft using legal, technological, and practical mechanisms and strategies.  This includes information ranges from general concepts, such as the importance of written agreements and certain contract terms to the more complex and nuanced fields of intellectual property law and copyright.  We also teach musicians about the many, often free, technology platforms available to “Do it Yourself” or “DIY” musicians.  These tools allow musicians from anywhere in the world to market, promote, and sell their music to a global audience.  In conjunction with our in-country educational workshops, PeaceTones® conducts a contest using online platforms  which allow the world to vote for their favorite musicians. Eligible musicians are those that have successfully participated in the workshops, have created their own original music, and are voices for improving the world around them.  Winners receive the opportunity to record a professional studio album and work with PeaceTones® to market, promote, and distribute their music and voices to an international audience as PeaceTones® ambassadors.

Social justice &
Community development

With their unique ability to transcend what divides us, musicians speak the universal languages of peace and social justice.  Having been empowered with education, our musicians are positioned to be effective leaders within their communities and to disseminate positive messages for accountability and equality.  A lyrical voice for empowerment and justice, assisted by the amplifying power of technology, resonates not only with a community, but a country, and the world.

International market, IP &
Sustainable incomes

We promote international commerce, but we buck two trends of trade: 1) profit-taking by middle-men; and 2) the belief that developing countries’ competitive advantage is in exporting natural resources, which are often concentrated among the nation’s affluent. PeaceTones® teaches musicians to protect their rights and to sell their music online without a talent agent, promoter, or manager, by using social media marketing and direct-to-fan sales methods. The products we promote are based on intellectual property (e.g. unique musical compositions), goods usually attributed to developed nations. Our focus on digital, proprietary business ensures less profits going to intermediaries and production, less environmental impact, products with ongoing revenue streams, and product marketing and sales across national boundaries to a global audience.

Our team

Jeffrey Aresty

Jeffrey Aresty

Co-founder

Jeffrey M. Aresty is the founder of PeaceTones®’ parent nonprofit, the Internetbar.org Institute, whose mission is to shape online justice and build a culture of collaboration. Jeff is a Fellow at the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He has taught many books on internet law and the role of technology in the transformation of the practice of law.

Christy Leos

Christy Leos

Director of Operations

Christy Leos is the Director of Operations at IBO, her responsibilities include overseeing all initiative projects and operations, the organization’s growing intern program, and evaluating operational procedures. She is a Writer with a background in English Literature and digital content creation and has a liberal arts degree in English Language and Literature from Rice University. Christy is also grateful she has been given the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Board of advisers

PeaceTones relies on the advise and mentorship of a great many people to make our work relevant, effective and impactful! Our Board of Advisers graciuosly volunteer they time to give us guidance on everthing, from project design to awareness building.

Karyn Bryant  Fundraising & Development
Ruha Devanesan –
 Programming & Strategic Development
Molly Dow – Strategy, Academic Partnerships, and Special Projects

Michelle Hughes – Organizational Strategy
Daniel Rainey – PeaceTones Co-Founder, Governance & Project Design

Interested in becoming involved with PeaceTones® as an adviser? Email us at [email protected]!

Interns

Our internship program is core to the work we do.  We receive much-needed hands and feet on the ground to help us support our artists throughout the year.  We also aim to ensure that internships with the PeaceTones® team are dynamic, metric-based and relevant to academic interests and pursuits for every intern we work with.

PAST INTERNS/VOLUNTEERS

Joshua Wood (Berklee) – Artist Development
Lisa-Felicia Akorli (Harvard Kennedy School) – Development consultant
Esther Kanyua (University of North Texas) – Media intern and PeaceTones Kenya representative
Zanini Cineus  UMass Boston
Jin Park (Stanford University) – California program development

Lydia Vieraitis (Brown University) – Kenya project support, social media, and development
Robert Murphy
 (BU School of Law) – Artist Rights Materials & Website Development
Candice Chen (Emerson College, Boston) – Social Media, Design & Video
Elizabeth Norton – SMU Dispute Resolution Program
Zara Day – Northeastern School of Law
Eric Stone – UMass, Amherst

Robert Wronski – UMass, Amherst
Lindsey Helizer 
– UMass, Amherst
Emily Saunders
(UMass)- Media coordinator and campus representative
Maclellan Swan 
– UMass, Amherst
Arafat Khazi
 – BU School of Communications
Mark Goracke – BU School of Law
Valerie Kua – BU School of Law
Molly Dow – Tufts University
Julia Gregoire – BU School of Law

Interested in becoming involved with PeaceTones® as an intern? Email us at [email protected] with your resume and a cover letter.

Partners & Sponsors