we could be music música musik musique おんが
A new kind of music company
defying traditional labels.
Our mission
Established in 2020, We Could Be Music is a non-profit music label making music for social impact and investing in a new generation of artists from underrepresented communities.
Our mission is to shift power in the music industry toward artists whose stories have been historically excluded from popular culture. From our music and storytelling studio in San José, Costa Rica, we provide world-class label services to new Latin artists based anywhere, under non-profit contracts.
Additionally, we support established artists to constructively engage their audiences in social issues by facilitating high-impact partnerships with visionary social movements.
What We Do
Artist Development
We love hit singles but, when we invest in an artist, we think more about high-impact, sustainable careers. That’s why we support new artists to clarify their message and brand, develop their sound, attract loyal audiences, build their teams, expand their networks, and create medium and long-term strategies for success.
Releases
We are passionate about excellent, detail-oriented execution across songwriting, recording, production, mixing, visuals, and marketing. Which is why we built a team of world-class writers, producers, directors and strategists who make sure every release looks and sounds incredible — and reaches the right audience.
Partnerships
Our team combines deep experience in both the music industry as well as the social change sector. We understand the way both worlds think, work and measure success. So we’re uniquely suited to facilitate effective, efficient, high-impact partnerships between artists and social change organizations.
Cultural Strategy
We believe in music’s unique power to inspire new perspectives. Time and again, we’ve seen how -by influencing hearts and minds- it can produce systems-level change. We co-create strategies with other organizations looking to change hearts and minds, with the ultimate goal of making a more just world.
Check out our “Music” page for examples of our work.
Why We Do It
We believe in music’s unmatched power to shape our world. But we also believe that too many voices have been systematically marginalized or excluded from the commercial music business.
In the 2024 Top 100 year-end charts of the United States — the biggest music market in the world:
- Only 35% of represented artists are women.
- Only 1% have a permanent physical disability.
- Only 2% have bodies larger than the typical beauty industry standard.
- Only 5% are immigrants from the global south.
- Less than 3% are Arab or Muslim, and zero are Arab or Muslim women.
- Only 0.6% are gender non-binary.
- Zero of them identify openly as Indigenous or Native.
How We Fund It
We Could Be Music is a not-for-profit organization, legally registered as a foundation in Costa Rica, with a 501c3 fiscal sponsor in the United States. As such, donations to our work are tax deductible, and we are audited every other year by Costa Rica’s fiscal agency (Ministerio de Hacienda) to ensure our activities and impact remain worthy of the privilege of receiving tax deductible donations.
Our work is funded in a variety of ways: Like most non-profits, we receive private donations and foundation grants. Some of our music is also co-financed by partner organizations. And finally, we also often provide production and creative services to other mission-aligned organizations, and invest the surplus from those services into our label’s work.
Over the years, our funding partners have included Amnesty International, the United Nations in Costa Rica, Eko.org, Global & Collective, the Quantum Leap Foundation, the United States State Department, among others.