JOYFUL NOISE CORE PRINCIPLES: 

Joyful Noise is dedicated to amplifying artists from a wide variety of backgrounds. We work with artists that are musically and artistically adventurous who often challenge the norms of society whilst upholding a culture of kindness, professionalism, and inclusivity. 

WHAT WE WANT

• To amplify and support voices from underrepresented communities. To celebrate diversity and provide an environment where all individuals feel valued. We aim to have an intersectional view towards modes of marginalization, which include (but are not limited to) race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, nationality, or any other characteristic.

• An environment where all artists and staff feel comfortable in expressing themselves and their identities without judgement, and are not put in positions where they have to defend, explain or speak on their identity or life choices.
  

• To respect LGBTQ+ communities by using all preferred pronouns, and not assuming any one person’s gender.
  

• To combat any political targeting of gender affirming health care, gender neutral bathrooms and general erasure of trans existence and right to live.
  

• To advocate for marginalized artists and staff when in potentially triggering or traumatic situations.
  

• To recognize and seek to correct the historical power imbalances and injustices between record labels and black artists.
  

• To have a diverse roster of artists across all ages, genders, races and lived experiences and for minorities in our community to feel comfortable, respected and safe.

• To be financially fair and transparent by holding every artist to the same standard regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, nationality, or any other characteristic.

• To provide financial, emotional and material support to political causes that align with our values.
  

• To work with people who have a willingness to grow with and learn about new terms, cultural developments and inclusivity. We recognize that everyone is in a different place and has personal biases surrounding marginalized people. We understand everyone makes mistakes, but what we care about is the effort one makes to grow from those mistakes.

WHAT WE DON’T ACCEPT

• Anyone that is actively causing harm to the Joyful Noise community.
  

• Hate speech: language that is threatening, discriminatory, alienating, or antagonizing towards race, gender, sexual identity, religion or any one marginalized group. A record label is a meaningful platform, and it is antithetical to our mission to platform artists that cause active harm.
  

• Unwillingness and lack of initiative to learn about or be sensitive to the current cultural climate around race, gender, ethnicity, and religion.
  

• People that are consistently discourteous in a way that is a barrier to the work of the label.

NOTE

The staff at Joyful Noise made this list together because as our label grows and diversifies we found it necessary to spell out exactly what we will and will not stand for in the Joyful Noise community. We centered this policy around ongoing threats currently being made to specific marginalized communities by our federal government through the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion in government-funded/run workplaces and organizations. We think it is critical to be specific with certain issues surrounding communities that are facing very immediate and present threats. We will commit to reviewing, amending and adding to this list regularly as the need arises.