At Save The Music, we’re very fortunate to have built strong relationships and work with some amazing brands and companies as music sponsors for our school programs. Companies and brands donate money to fund grants for music education, support fundraising events, and provide other in-kind support to sponsor young musicians. Check out 5 case studies of music sponsorship – and please reach out to us with any other music sponsorship opportunities!
AT&T
The AT&T Distance Learning Family Connections Fund sponsored Save The Music to accelerate equity and access to virtual music technology education online, with a focus on reaching students in thirteen high schools that have received our J Dilla Music Technology Grant in Detroit, Kansas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Newark, Brooklyn, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Miami and Roanoke. Through AT&T’s sponsor support and music partnership, Save The Music was able to produce three tutorial videos in both English and Spanish to fuel access to virtual music technology education. Together, we also hosted four virtual Music Industry Masterclasses for students and teachers to learn more careers pathways in the music industry. As part of this music and brand partnership, these interactive sessions feature special presentations from artists and industry professionals, including producers, engineers, label executives, tour managers, and more. Check out our recap videos of them below!
– September: Catherine González Pack (Assistant Vice President, Video Operations at AT&T/Veteran), Ginger Chien (Device Architect, AT&T), and international rock band, Disciples of Babylon
– October: Michelle Williams and Jonathan Azu (Founder and CEO of Culture Collective)
– November: Elizabeth Heidt (Vice President, Global Head of Entertainment Relations for Gibson and member of our Music Industry Advisory Board), Libby Coffey (President, PRIME PR GROUP, Inc.) and multi-talented artist, Celisse
– December: Alex Gale (Global Head of Editorial Copy at Apple Music and member of our Music Industry Advisory Board) and Chloe Flower (pianist, producer and activist)
Cadillac
Cadillac is an amazing sponsor of Save The Music, generously fully funding the delivery of a J Dilla Music Technology Grant to Central High School in Detroit Public Community Schools (DPCS) in Spring 2020. Full program implementation took place in the 2020-2021 school year. There is a groundswell to revive music education in DPCS, and STM is thrilled to match the district’s commitment with support! This grant serves as an entry point to jumpstart and ramp up our efforts to rebuild comprehensive and well-resourced music education programs across the school district. Through this grant program, students will learn electronic music creation, DJ’ing, audio engineering, recording & production, across a multitude of genres providing key vocational, technical skills. In celebration of this delivery, we hosted a virtual event. We were joined by J Dilla’s mother, affectionately known as Ma Dukes, who shared personal stories of her son and words of encouragement. iHeartRadio media personality Kirby Gwen talked about how music has always been there for her and how she has playlists for certain periods or moments of her life. Jay Kapadia spoke about how he combined his creative side and technical abilities to become the Lead Sound Design Engineer at Cadillac. The virtual event concluded with the music teacher, Mr. Keith Dixon, sharing a few of his students’ pieces using the equipment from the grant.
GibsonGives
As one of the world’s leading guitar makers, Gibson is also one of the leading companies for band sponsorship and artist sponsorship. In addition to being sponsors for music artists, the GibsonGives arm has been a sponsor of Save The Music for many years to ensure that students everywhere have access to making music during the day. From donating guitars for students and teachers that receive our Intro to Music and J Dilla Music Technology Grants, to providing auction items and securing honorees and talent for our tentpole events in Los Angeles and Nashville, hosting events in their incredible showrooms, and to matching funds, GibsonGives has been one of the most supportive music sponsorship companies. An example of an exciting project that involved sponsorships for musicians was our partnership with YouTube and Gibson Artist guitarist and teacher Marty Music (Marty Schwartz). Fans had the opportunity to bid on a personal virtual guitar lesson via Propeller and GibsonGives matched funds to double the impact. To celebrate our 20th anniversary in 2017, we brought together artists and musicians to create a one-of-a-kind collection of Gibson Les Paul guitars that were auctioned to fund new instruments for more than a dozen schools. Check out the Billboard article about the campaign!
Good Dye Young
We partnered with Hayley Williams from Paramore and her brand Good Dye Young on a special candle to benefit Save The Music. For every METALHEADS candle purchased, a portion of the proceeds are donated to Save The Music to help students, schools, and communities reach their full potential through the power of making music.
Sony Music Group
Sony Music Group is a wonderful sponsor of Save The Music on three new exciting initiatives. First, Sony Latin-Iberia funded three school grants in Save The Music partner communities that serve Latinx students in Los Angeles, Watsonville CA, and Miami. Through a generous corporate donation from Sony Music Group, Save The Music will provide a Mariachi Grant to Griffith STEAM Magnet Middle School in the Los Angeles Unified School District; a J Dilla Music Tech Grant to Hialeah Gardens High School in Miami-Dade County Public Schools; and an Intro to Music Grant to MacQuiddy Elementary School in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District. The goal of this initiative is to help address systemic inequalities in marginalized communities across the country by providing music education for all. Then, Sony Music’s COVID-19 Relief Fund donated approximately 7,000 music-specific PPE for students in 11 school districts across the country. Lastly, Save The Music was one of the first nonprofit partners for Sony Music Group’s Beyond The Instrument, a new annual program designed to stimulate creativity, advance educational resources and promote career development within the music industry. In collaboration with Grammy® nominated artist Noah Cyrus, the initiative kicked off with a virtual classroom discussion with Metropolitan Nashville’s Public School students.
Sound United
As a company that lives and breathes music, Sound United leads the way as one of the companies that sponsor bands and music programs in schools nationwide. In May 2018, Sound United launched the Sound Start Foundation, with an ambitious goal to donate 10,000 instruments to children worldwide in partnership with Save The Music. As a sponsor, Sound United is donating 5% of its direct online net sales from Denon, Polk and Definitive Technology products and using them to elevate the cause. To date we have been able to deliver 3,359 instruments to 24 schools in Vista, CA, Chula Vista, Ca, Anaheim, CA, Dayton,OH, New Orleans, Patterson, NJ, Baltimore, Miami. Sound United recently published a study that revealed that music has been key to improving mental health during the pandemic. Read more to find out why music improves mental health during COVID and why online music education has been so important.
REESE’S PUFFS Cereal
REESE’S PUFFS cereal partnered with singer-songwriter Tinashe to promote its first-ever series of music boxes – the RP-FX and RP-PRO. The RP-FX and RP-PRO boxes lets fans create their own music by placing puffs on the back of the REESE’S PUFFS cereal box while using the accompanying PuffsFX.com app. The RP-PRO box served as an ultra-exclusive synthesizer with music samples, audio effects, and other special functions. The fan-favorite cereal also donated $100,000 to Save The Music to help make music more accessible. For her part in the collaboration, Tinashe hosted ‘Taught by Tinashe’ from her YouTube channel where she taught viewers about music production using the RP-FX line of boxes. Fans also had a chance to win their very own exclusive RP-PRO synthesizer signed by Tinashe herself. “Tinashe embodies so much of what we strive for at Save The Music, including creativity, innovation and self-expression,” said Henry Donahue, Executive Director at Save The Music Foundation. “So, we were thrilled when REESE’S PUFFS cereal came to the non-profit with this partnership – and even more excited when we saw the box! Together this partnership ensures that students from Newark to Los Angeles will have the musical instruments and technology they need to create, innovate and express themselves this coming school year.” “Tinashe is a multi-faceted singer, songwriter, producer and much more – that’s why we thought she would be a perfect partner to help bring the RP-FX and RP-PRO music boxes to life,” said Mindy Murray, senior marketing manager at General Mills. “She will also help us make music even more accessible to fans everywhere through the Save The Music Foundation with ‘Taught by Tinashe’. This partnership brings music education to the forefront and demonstrates General Mills’ commitment to the arts.” “My love of music runs deep, so teaming up with REESE’S PUFFS for the RP-FX and RP-PRO music boxes was no question,” said Tinashe. “I love to experiment with music and the boxes are another fun outlet for me to be creative. The cherry on top is being able to work with the Save The Music Foundation to help give more people access to musical expression.”
