Non profit
Online music to help Africa
(RED) to launch new way for people to get music in their lives
(RED), the non profit organization that arranges for companies to contribute a share of profits on certain products to fight AIDS in Africa launched by Bono Vox, is starting a new digital music service.
The service, scheduled to start this month, will deliver customers three new pieces of exclusive content a week for a monthly fee of $5. Half of that money will go through (RED) to the Global Fund, and the other half will go to the artists who contribute songs and to their record companies. As with (RED)’s branded products, like a special iPod companies will sacrifice part but not all of their profits, and consumers will know that some of the money they spend goes to the AIDS-in-Africa cause.
Each week (RED)’s service will deliver two songs in MP3 format, one from a superstar act like U2, whose frontman, Bono was a co-founder of (RED), and one from a less established artist. The third piece of content will be a “crackerjack surprise,” a song, video or short story. The idea is to appeal to Internet users who are interested in music but alienated by commercial radio or the chaos of some online music sites.
