Organized in 1997, VH1 Save the Music Foundation is the brainchild of John Sykes, an English music artist who was also a pioneer executive in Music Television (MTV). When he was Video Hits One (VH1) President in 1994 to 2002, John Sykes observed a problem in the music education program of the public schools during his volunteer work in an elementary school in Brooklyn, New York: there was a pronounced lack of musical instruments. Acknowledging that music education is important in youth development and being a hard rock guitarist himself, he poured his efforts to address this concern through VH1 Save the Music Foundation, which provides musical instruments to its recipients. Since 1997, the foundation has produced $43 million worth of musical instruments donated to 1,600 of its recipient public schools across the U.S.A.

VH1 Save the Music Foundation has successfully gathered support not just from music artists and music educators but also from the corporate sector. It has found support through partnerships among companies that are from the music label industry, producers, and the International Music Products Association. More commercial events like the Lollapalooza have tied up with the foundation. From the music industry, notable fund-raising activities were the annual Divas Live music concert, which ran from 1998 with the stellar participation of Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, among others until 2004; and music festivals across America.

Recently, the foundation has been bolstered by its Ambassadors program wherein talented stars such as Beyonce, Jaime Foxx and Venus Williams help in advocating for the support and importance of music education.

Through the years, VH1 Save the Music Foundation has earned many accolades for its advocacy including a special Emmy Award in 2000, three Beacon Awards from 2000 to 2002 and the George Foster Peabody Award in 2000.

The foundation’s main office is in Broadway, New York.