I recently met Canadian singer/songwriter Deni Gauthier on Twitter through a mutual friend. Deni was kind enough to share his music with me through Dropbox, and I really enjoyed it.
As the tragedy in Japan unfolded, first with the earthquake, then with the tsunami, Deni watched the footage, and like many of us, he was moved. But, unlike many of us, he was moved to actually do something. But what can one independent musician do? Surely he’s not made of money.
Deni came up with a great idea. He wrote a song, recorded it with the help of a bunch of friends, uploaded it to iTunes, and is hoping to get enough people to download it at 99-cents a piece to raise $100,000 for relief efforts in Japan. And he’s using nothing but Social Media to spread the word. But that strategy just may work. After all, Deni has friends. And they have friends. And so on…
The beauty of this is that the song, World’s Apart, cost him nothing (but his time) to make, and it gives him a chance to give back and truly put others first. While he doesn’t have any official reports from iTunes regarding how many times the song has been downloaded yet, he does know that the song has ranked #4 on the Canadian singer/songwriter charts. Also, his YouTube channel is in the top 50 for Canadian musicians. Not bad after just a week on iTunes! (He uploaded the song this past Monday evening)
So here’s what you can do:
1. Visit DeniGauthier.com and check out the videos and song
2. Head on over to iTunes to download World’s Apart for just 99-cents (easy for anyone to afford)
3. Tell others. Share this blog, Deni’s site, his iTunes page, etc. on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networks you’re a part of, and encourage your friends to help out by chipping in their 99-cents.
If each of us does all three of these things, I don’t thing Deni will have any problem raising $100,o00 to make a difference in Japan.
One musician with one idea writes one song…and taps into Social Media. It IS possible for each of us to make a difference, just by doing our little part.
[...] other day I posted an article about my friend Deni Gauthier and how he is using Social Media to raise money for Japan. He wrote a song and is hoping to raise $100,000 for relief efforts…99-cents at a time. As [...]