Bum Rush the Charts and Send a Message to the RIAA

Today is Bum Rush the Charts day, a day on which we’re supposed to send a message to the RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) by voting with our dollars. I’ll leave it to the folks at the Bum Rush the Charts site to explain:

People are sick of the watered-down, cookie-cutter content that networks and record companies expect us to enjoy. People are tired of watching friends and loved ones get sued by record labels who only care about profits and nothing else, not even the artists they supposedly represent.

We want and deserve more. On March 22, 2007, we’re going to change that with your help.

We can do better. We can match and exceed the reach of big media, corporate media, labels, and the entrenched interests. On March 22nd, we are going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street.

Better still, some of that money will go to college scholarships:

What’s more, we’re going to take it a step beyond that. We’ve signed up as an affiliate of the iTunes Music Store, and every commission made on the sale of “Mine Again” will be donated to college scholarships, partly because it’s a worthy cause, but also partly because college students are among the most misunderstood and underestimated groups of people by big media. Black Lab has taken it up another notch – 50% of their earnings are going to be donated to the scholarship fund as well.

Sending a message to the RIAA and helping people with their education? All for the price of 99 cents (the cost of a song at the iTunes store)? Sign me up!

The song in question is Mine Again by Black Lab. Black Lab were dropped from not just one, but two major record labels — Geffen and Sony/Epic — and in the process, they had to fight the labels to regain the rights to their music (when you sign with a major label, the rights to the music you created go to the label, as your work is considered “work for hire” — see this entry for more details). You can listen to Mine Again — a tune reminiscent of How to Save a Life by The Fray — on their MySpace page.

(I’ll admit, Mine Again isn’t my cup of noise, but it might be yours, and the cause is just.)

I’ll leave the last word — in both text and video form — to the Bum Rush the Charts people:

If you believe in the power of new media, on March 22nd, 2007, take 99 cents and 2 minutes of your time to join the revolution and make iTunes “Mine Again”. If you’re a content producer (blogger, podcaster, etc.), we’re asking you to join up with us and help spread the word to your audience. Nothing would prove the power of new media more than showing corporate media that not only can we exceed their reach and match their purchasing power, but that we can also do it AND make a positive difference in the world. If we can succeed with this small example, then there’s no telling what can do next.