As part of the music industry, Topshelf Records will be judged by our actions and we must never go back to business as usual. We should be held accountable for lifting the voice of others, educating ourselves, and always fighting injustices. Topshelf Records will be shifting our dialog on social media platforms to focus on educating and lifting voices that need to be heard. We will promote music through our newsletter (please sign up if you haven’t yet) with limited public facing promotion of music for the near future. We would not exist without the supportive community around us and our artists and in order to keep that community strong we are refocusing our priorities as a company because these injustices must be stopped.

This week we made donations to Black Lives Matter LA, Racial Justice Action Center, Women on the Rise, Philly Liberation Center, and Urban League of Portland. Our employees have made personal donations to multiple other organizations and we will continue to make more. We will aim to highlight more organizations over the next few months (see previous news posts for ones that have already been highlighted!) in an effort to raise awareness and educate ourselves and others. Kevin, Mack, Will and myself are discussing what our role in this fight for equality is and how we can be making a continued impact. We are opening the door to all of our artists for conversations on how we can work together through this important time.

I urge anyone reading this to look in the mirror and ask yourself “what am I doing to make a change”. I ask you to register to vote and become involved in your local elections. Pay attention to local policies, budgets, and voting rights legislation, because in most places those are directly impacted by your city council, mayor, and state reps. Here is a tool to find out who represents you and how to contact them. Black Lives Matter, your vote matters, and together we can create a better future.

Seth Decoteau