New York, NY: Ghana-born Derrick N. Ashong & Soulfège's Million Download Campaign has accomplished astonishing results in the first month of its existence. A global outreach initiative designed to broaden the band's movement of empowerment, the Million Download Campaign's mission is to offer a million free downloads of songs and remixes from Derrick N. Ashong & Soulfège's recently released and highly successful CD, AFropolitan, by Christmas of 2012. “We've always said that what we do is about more than music, it's a movement. We believe artistry has the power to change the world, and we create our art with the world in mind," Derrick recently remarked. And now in just four short weeks the Campaign has produced an impressive 25,000 downloads as fans from around the globe begin taking part in this global grassroots effort.
Additional early campaign successes have included AFropolitan charting in its first week of radio play, album downloads in countries on every continent in the world, critical acclaim for the self-produced, animated video of the song “Love Rain Down," successful events tying art and technology at Social Media Week NY and DC, and DNA's recent speech and performance at Google HQ in Silicon Valley.
In just a few short weeks the Million Download Campaign is well on its way to connecting people around the world through the electrifying, consciousness-raising, hybrid-genre songs of AFropolitan, and to change the music industry by offering participation in a historic global grassroots campaign to put a band at the top of the charts and in contention for major music awards without corporate label domination. The Download Campaign provides participants the opportunity to be part of history by downloading the album and then using Social Media, E-mail, and www.derrickashong.com to reach the goal of giving away 1,000,000 downloads by Christmas 2012.
As host of Al-Jazeera English's cutting-edge show “The Stream," Derrick has scooped some of the biggest social change stories in the world today, from stories tweeted live from the ground in the Arab Spring, to Occupy Wall Street and its global echoes. But long before these seismic international events, Derrick N. Ashong & Soulfège's music has presaged power rising from “the streets and the Net," as Vanity Fair's Creative Development Editor wrote on VanityFair.com: “Here are musicians, poised with a positive vibe and with lyrics so uplifting that you actually believe, if only for one night, that . . . a new world mood may emerge from the street and the Net, somehow defying the odds—a spirit of promise and hope and harmony, a spirit that denies dissonance. Soulfège lets us dream such sweet dreams, in vibrant colors."
“Its [Soulfège's] members realized they had the platform to reach ears not only with their music—a fusion of thumping African music and rhythms, sweet reggae breezes, funk, and hip-hop—but also with their message." —The Boston Globe
Additional early campaign successes have included AFropolitan charting in its first week of radio play, album downloads in countries on every continent in the world, critical acclaim for the self-produced, animated video of the song “Love Rain Down," successful events tying art and technology at Social Media Week NY and DC, and DNA's recent speech and performance at Google HQ in Silicon Valley.
In just a few short weeks the Million Download Campaign is well on its way to connecting people around the world through the electrifying, consciousness-raising, hybrid-genre songs of AFropolitan, and to change the music industry by offering participation in a historic global grassroots campaign to put a band at the top of the charts and in contention for major music awards without corporate label domination. The Download Campaign provides participants the opportunity to be part of history by downloading the album and then using Social Media, E-mail, and www.derrickashong.com to reach the goal of giving away 1,000,000 downloads by Christmas 2012.
As host of Al-Jazeera English's cutting-edge show “The Stream," Derrick has scooped some of the biggest social change stories in the world today, from stories tweeted live from the ground in the Arab Spring, to Occupy Wall Street and its global echoes. But long before these seismic international events, Derrick N. Ashong & Soulfège's music has presaged power rising from “the streets and the Net," as Vanity Fair's Creative Development Editor wrote on VanityFair.com: “Here are musicians, poised with a positive vibe and with lyrics so uplifting that you actually believe, if only for one night, that . . . a new world mood may emerge from the street and the Net, somehow defying the odds—a spirit of promise and hope and harmony, a spirit that denies dissonance. Soulfège lets us dream such sweet dreams, in vibrant colors."
“Its [Soulfège's] members realized they had the platform to reach ears not only with their music—a fusion of thumping African music and rhythms, sweet reggae breezes, funk, and hip-hop—but also with their message." —The Boston Globe
