New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Redwood Entertainment) Ghana-born Derrick N. Ashong & Soulfège are at it again. They've recently launched the
Music Ambassadors Program, a global outreach initiative designed to broaden their movement of empowerment and increase awareness of their Million Download Campaign, whose mission is to offer a million free downloads of songs and remixes from their 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 Derrick N. Ashong & Soulfège are inviting everyone the world over to take part in this global grassroots effort.
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."
The purpose of the Million Download Campaign is to connect 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. Along with the Download Campaign, the
Music Ambassadors Program 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.
"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
Music Ambassadors will be the frontline in taking the music and message of Derrick N. Ashong & Soulfège to a global audience. The
Music Ambassadors Program is the brainchild of
James Propa, a Ugandan media personality and fan of the band, and the Ambassador's mission is simple: to share the music and empowering message of Derrick N. Ashong & Soulfège with as many people as possible. For 2012 the band is recruiting a global team of Ambassadors to spread the word. Ambassadors will receive a number of benefits including free passes to concerts, invitations to special events, first access to new music, behind the scenes footage, access to wholesale pricing of T-Shirts, CDs and other merchandise, tastemaker status and rights to share unreleased material, public recognition and acknowledgment of their efforts, as well as other perks.
To learn more about the Million Download Campaign or the
Music Ambassadors Program or join the movement, visit Derrick N. Ashong & Soulfège on the Web at www.derrickashong.com
