The Popular Noise Foundation is a non-profit organization with the mission to stop the accelerating disintegration of local music in the San Francisco Bay Area and put in place new programs to preserve and benefit its existence. We recognize the wide breadth of genres that define the local music community and are dedicated to supporting them all.

San Francisco's music scene, an important part of the cultural heart of the Bay Area, is gradually being crushed. The current explosion in the local economy, primarily a result of the influx of Internet-related businesses, has brought hardship to the arts community. Rent and real-estate prices are skyrocketing, forcing artists out of studios and rehearsal spaces. Performance spaces are closing in the face of quadrupled rents and noise complaints from residents in newly-gentrified areas. Artists must choose between scaling back- even abandoning their art- or moving out of San Francisco to more affordable cities. Without a vibrant local arts community, the quality of life in the city will deteriorate. Diversity, innovation, and creation are being supplanted in favor of that which is economically supportable. When art becomes entirely subservient to economic forces, it withers and dies, and we are all the worse for it.

We don't believe that San Francisco and the greater Bay Area have to choose between economic prosperity and artistic vitality. We strive to bridge the gap between the local music community and the business community, enabling companies and individuals to directly support local music through funding and donating of services, breaking down perceived barriers between the businesses of the new economy and local artists.