Doing What You Can as a Digital Musician

Related link: http://www.spectrasonics.net/neworleans/

Musicians have been showing a special empathy with the tragedy in New Orleans, and not just because of the city’s rich musical history. After all, the heart of music is reaching out to other people, giving voice to the unspeakable.

Over at CD Baby.com, thousands of independent artists are donating 100 percent of their sales to the Red Cross to help the Katrina victims.

Today, Spectrasonics, one of the premier sound-library developers, announced an even closer tie-in, donating 100 percent of the sales of its New Orleans Strut drum-loop collection to Habitat for Humanity. Again, that’s sales, not profits. According to the company, every cent of the $25 price will go to the charity. The musical twist is that when you make a donation, you get 100MB of drum loops based on classic Mississippi and Louisiana styles, which Spectasonics hopes you’ll use to strengthen your connection with the area’s cultural history.

Admittedly, the companies get free advertising by running these events, but the charities could sure use the money, and it puts more music in the world. I’ve never met CD Baby founder Derek Sivers, but he seems like a stand-up guy. I’ve interviewed Spectrasonics founder Eric Persing at length—twice—so I know he is. Neither of those interviews is online, but there are some good ones linked here.

So I’m willing to hang up my cynic hat and take advantage of another chance to donate. Artfully.