CASH Music (Coalition for Artists and Stake Holders) had released two simple yet powerful free applications - Tweet for Track and FB Connect To Track - that could become the cornerstones of many viral music marketing campaigns. But as awesome as these two pieces of code are, the stories behind their
creation and of CASH Music itself are even more powerful.
FBConnect-To-Track asks you to become a Facebook fan and then automatically sends out a "_____ just became a fan of..." message to their friends to spread the word. Existing fans are also offered the track. Tweet-for-Track offers a song in exchange for a tweet. You can require the use of a specific phrase, require that they follow you or not, and the download can be sent using a link or secured using Amazon S3.
CASH Music is the brainchild of Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses and 50FOOTWAVE) and indie musician Donita Sparks. But the board of the non-profit now includes tech savvy musician Jonathan Coulton, manager Emily White, industry veteran George Howard and others. Their collective goal is nothing less than the empowerment of musicians with no expectation for financial reward by building open-source tools and services.
More From CASH Coming Soon...
CASH Music appears to be just warming up. "It’s our belief that the need for technology should never get in the way of promotion, distribution, or support of great music," states the group's manifesto. "Our goal is to help people in music translate inspiration into sustainability." Their plan is to work with artists, managers and labels to build custom projects that are then released as open-source code available to anyone.
Tweet for Track was conceived and first coded by indie musician Zoe Keating to help create pre-SXSW buzz. Keating then encouraged Jesse von Doom and his team at CASH to improve it and make it available to others.
FBConnect to Track is the brainchild of manager Emily White and her client Brendan Benson who were looking for ways to build his Facebook presence. The result is another CASH Music creation shared free with the rest of the music community. CASH also offers a free set of UI Tools that are a collection of music appropriate JavaScript, CSS, and ActionScript resources. More is planned for the coming months.
All require a bit of technical knowledge. But CASH has just added some how-tos for their latest creations and there's nothing that some outsourced help can't add to a web page in less than an hour.
CASH Music is a powerful concept created and led by a savvy group that deserve support. As they continue to fulfill their mission, what open course tools would you like to see them build? And how can you help them create them?
