AIDS Relief Goes Digital

Bono and his (RED) marketing campaign are constantly exploring new avenues of raising money for the fight against AIDS in Africa. Today the non-profit organization responsible for getting companies like Apple, Dell, Converse, and Motorola to let some of their profits go towards purchasing anti-retroviral medicine announced that it would be launching a digital music service

Videos by American Songwriter

Bono and his (RED) marketing campaign are constantly exploring new avenues of raising money for the fight against AIDS in Africa. Today the non-profit organization responsible for getting companies like Apple, Dell, Converse, and Motorola to let some of their profits go towards purchasing anti-retroviral medicine announced that it would be launching a digital music service. The philanthropic program has not been named yet, but it will begin in September. On board along with Bono and U2 is an all-star line up of musicians including Bob Dylan, Death Cab for Cutie, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, and Elton John.

The way the service will work is for a monthly fee of five dollars a member will receive weekly MP3s. The weekly content will include an original song by one of the aforementioned superstars, a song by an up-and-coming unknown, and one “crackerjack surprise,” which could be a video, song, or short story (Can you imagine a Bob Dylan short story?). Half of the profits raised will go to the artists and the other will go to AIDS afflicted Africans via (RED).

The service is also an attempt by (RED) to demonstrate some credibility and transparency in its work as it has been criticized for focusing more on marketing (RED) products than on its actual cause. To get this done, the service will send its members e-mails giving them specific information on where their money is going. It will also encourage members to e-mail their friends to partake in a two week free trial.

While fighting AIDS is the main concern of the program, Bono believes that the digital music package will be vital to improving the state of the music business. To insure this aspect of the service, (RED) has brought on Don MacKinnon, previously in charge of music products for Starbucks, as a president of content. According to Bono, “MacKinnon might just be the penicillin the ailing music business needs.” The U2 frontman is correct to say that music could use a pick-me-up, but it would be exponentially better to see (RED)’s newest venture provide for a continent demolished by a deadly disease than for a multi-billion dollar industry.