Online citizens around the world got together March 22 for a good cause — and in the process gave an unsigned band a chance to race to the top of the iTunes charts.
Bum Rush the Charts was a viral social media experiment where podcasters, bloggers and independent music labels and artists worked to get people to buy one song, by one band, on one day: “Mine Again,” by Black Lab.
The campaign used an iTunes affiliate link to earn a commission on each sale of the song, which it will use to build a scholarship fund. The Student Loan Network, an education finance company in Boston, made a pledge to match the first $1,000 raised.
Did it work? According to the Bum Rush blog, the song reached No. 11 on the iTunes rock chart for the United States, No. 10 for Canada and No. 2 in the Netherlands. The song was downloaded approximately 14,000 times and it’s estimated that between $4,000 and $7,000 was raised for the scholarship fund, says Christopher S. Penn, CEO of the Student Loan Network. (Apple takes between 30 to 90 days to report iTunes sales data to music labels and distributors.)
To be eligible for the scholarship, which will be drawn randomly, students must be enrolled in an accredited U.S. college or university and have a profile on ScholarshipPoints.com.
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