Fairsharemusic: Download choons for charidee
Fairsharemusic is a music-download service that not only supports artists by letting you legally buy their music, but also donates to charities of your choice when you buy a tune
Music lovers, now's your chance to do your bit for charity, and with nary a neon-jacket-clad clipboard-toter in sight. Fairsharemusic is a music-download service that not only supports artists by letting you legally buy their music, but also supports charities of your choice.
The site has the backing of the big record labels, with more than 8.5 million songs in the catalogue. Each song costs from 79p, like iTunes, but half of the net profit, or at least four per cent of each purchase, goes to charity.
When you sign up, you can choose to donate to one charity or spread donations across the partner charities. At launch, participating charities include the British Heart Foundation, NSPCC, Oxfam, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Amnesty International. With a 79p per track, 12p is VAT, 57p goes to the record label and music publisher, 3p goes to the bank, and 3p goes to your charity. Buy an album for £7.99, and the charity makes 32p.
Music services are all the rage these days. As Spotify prepares to break America, Google is set to start its own online music store, while LimeWire is planning a switch to a subscription streaming service -- if it survives legal action by eight record labels.
Other recent charity drives include the Kea.nu link shortener, designed to help the needy and simultaneously cheer up sad Keanu Reeves. Woah.