MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY

Nashville artist Bari Leigh decided to add the #irespectmusic theme to the release party in Nashville recently for her new record, “Tonight, I’m Unchained” on Bari’s Starfish Media imprint through ECR Music Group (available at iTunes and other retailers).  In addition to the marketing and promotion support for Bari’s record, she used that effort to focus attention on the #irespectmusic campaign.  Bari told MTP:

I wanted to turn my record-release party and concert into an #IRespectMusic event here in Nashville for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a great opportunity to celebrate how far we as artists have come this year––a year that’s seeing the tide turn on Capitol Hill with artists’ voices truly being heard now. People who make music, along with people who love it, have been stepping up all year to simply say “I Respect Music,” and it’s worked. People everywhere are getting behind musicians to say they should be paid for their recordings and songs. It’s a happy, positive message that I wanted to bring to my record-release party.

Second, I wanted to see what I could do in my own grassroots way to impress upon my own fans how personally this affects someone like me. I’m just starting out in my own career, and if musicians like me (young singer-songwriters, for example) are going to have a fair shot at succeeding, we’ll need our leaders to stand up for us, and for what’s right. Everyone was thrilled to take part in what we did at the party…just look at the photos, everyone’s pumped!