Renton nonprofit helps jump-start local music careers

At the beginning of December, 4Culture announced it was awarding $2.5 million in funding to new and emerging arts and heritage nonprofits throughout King County, including How2Listen, which has its roots in Renton.

After soft launching in June 2025, How2Listen has set out to support independent music artists in the Pacific Northwest, providing connections, meaningful opportunities and grants of their own. Co-founded by Justin Pinder, Babar Ali and Vanessa Rodriguez, How2Listen describes itself as a “public arts utility for music” that has been given a real boon with their $90,000 grant.

“We’ve been sprinting pretty fast in just a few months, and we’re fortunate enough to get this 4Culture grant award,” said Executive Director Pinder, who was inspired to co-found the nonprofit by his own career in the music industry as an artist, manager, A&R (short for “artists and repertoire”) and executive after moving to Los Angeles.

Pinder and Ali both wanted to bring LA’s musical resources back to Seattle to create an industry presence in the Pacific Northwest.

“We do have a lot of art and a lot of talent here that’s under-discovered and under-served,” said Pinder.

Ali, who serves as How2Listen’s Director of Finance, said that the modern era of streaming music actually ends up making the industry more difficult for artists.

“This business is absolutely brutal, so to be able to make it, especially as an independent artist, and especially today with the streaming ecosystem and how money flows in and out of the system, it’s hard,” said Ali. “This is sort of our effort to provide another outlet where somebody doesn’t have to mortgage their house to release a project.”

The two directors and co-founders had met working in California at Venice Music, a music distribution platform that focuses on independent artists, and the two quickly found that they had both grown up in Renton. While Ali went to Hazen High School, Pinder attended Renton High, and the two have a lot of pride in the city’s grit, creativity and diversity.

“We obviously connected right away,” said Pinder, who added that the rich culture of the PNW is the “perfect testing ground” for creating a nonprofit that helps jump-start local music careers.

“It’s the perfect community to see if we can build a new system that is self-funded, self-fueled, and community-driven vs. driven from the top down,” he said. Ali added that the greater Seattle area has a great energy and that people have a thirst for new music, but that there is little opportunity to succeed.

“There’s not a ton of opportunities, which is a weird thing to say for a legendary music city,” said Ali of the modern Seattle music scene. “But even if you look at it right now, the number of independent labels that are out there, there’s not that many here.”

Ali said that How2Listen is focusing on putting on musical events, finding artists and getting people involved.

“I like to call it the Bernie Sanders model where a lot of small donations come in where [someone] donates $5 and is sort of invested in this artist, or at least in the community, and be more likely to be invested in an artist’s success and follow along with them, all the things that really lead to success,” said Ali. “These grants are fantastic, but I would love a scenario in the next five years where these grants are dwarfed by individual donations, and that’s really the key.”

With the $90,000 grant, How2Listen is focusing on providing grants to artists and as much support and opportunities as possible. As they are still in the fundraising phase, which Pinder calls the foundation of the metaphorical house that How2Listen is building, the nonprofit currently has close to 40 local artists who have submitted applications for grants that can go toward sound mixing costs, studio time, artwork and anything else that’s needed.

“The ecosystem, I think, is just crucial,” said Ali. “For example, if [an artist needs] 10-20 hours of studio time, we can either give it to you as cash, or we can leverage our own network and develop the relationship with the studio to give [the artist] studio time as an in-kind contribution, which effectively works the same way.”

Ali also spoke about the importance of providing performance opportunities for artists, like How2Listen’s first “Listen Better” event that took place on Dec. 11 at Métier Brewing Company in Seattle. Local DJs and producers like Vitamin D, Brain Got Blaps, Stas THEE Boss and Jusmoni were able to play their tracks at a fair rate, build their fan bases and get exposure to new people.

Artists applications are currently open on How2Listen’s website and grant money will be awarded once the team can go through each application. “We’re still early in our mission, and I think we’re going to do great work in in the years to come,” said Ali.

For more information, visit How2Listen.org and to stay up to date on live performances, follow @howtolistenmusic on Instagram.