FairShareMusic: iTunes with a heart donates to charity when you buy music

Do you buy Fair Trade chocolate? ethical food? how about ethical music? Earlier today we interviewed the founders of FairShareMusic. It’s a social enterprise that sells music mp3s at the same prices as iTunes and donates half the profit to charity. So, that song will cost you exactly what it would anywhere else

It’s kind of like Live Aid but a digital shop, see?

We had a Twinterview with FairShareMusic founders below – this is what they told us over the lovely medium of Twitter.

US: @fairsharemusic great – question one, can you tell us in a tweet what your company does? #fairsharemusic
THEM: @shinyshiny we are a new music download site with a difference-1/2 of the profit from each track is donated to charity #fairsharemusic

@fairsharemusic great. So it’s a like an small iTunes which gives half of the profit to charity.. #fairsharemusic
@shinyshiny we provide an ethical alternative to the likes of iTunes – so yes iTunes with a heart #fairsharemusic

@fairsharemusic So… are tracks more expensive than on comparable download sites to allow you to make the charity donation? #fairsharemusic
@shinyshiny same price, same choice, same experience only better! #fairsharemusic

@fairsharemusic What gave you the idea to combine music downloads with charity donations? #fairsharemusic?
@shinyshiny with 20 years music industry experience we understand how music can be used to motivate and inspire #fairsharemusic

@fairsharemusic Okay so you came up from within the music industry, saw the possibilities. it’s like a digital live aid? #fairsharemusic
@shinyshiny we’ve worked on a number of charity projects, our site is about embedding generosity into music everyday #fairsharemusic

@fairsharemusic impressed you have the same prices as iTunes. 50% of profits go to charity. how much is that on a 79p track? #fairsharemusic
@shinyshiny we guarentee to give at least 4% of the rrp of any download. see here for more info:http://bit.ly/bTQRd6 #fairsharemusic

@fairsharemusic cool, thanks. so you have enough to function as a business but you’re not a profit-making organisation then? #fairsharemusic
@shinyshiny Yes, we are a commercially focused social enterprise giving 50% of our profits away to our founding partners #fairsharemusic

@fairsharemusic how did you sell that deal to record companies? or is it str8fwd to buy music off them if you pay them? #fairsharemusic
@shinyshiny Record companies support what we are doing. We pay them for the music and donate 1/2 of our profits to charity #fairsharemusic

@fairsharemusic okay that makes sense. I see you donate to Oxfam, Amnesty, WWF and Centrepoint among others.. #fairsharemusic
@shinyshiny you choose your own cause to donate from our 11 charity partners #fairsharemusic

@fairsharemusic for the user how does the site wrk? they set up an a/c? plus card detials and then download mp3 files? #fairsharemusic
@shinyshiny Yes, set up an account no card details, high quality downloads are compatible with all devices #fairsharemusic

@fairsharemusic oh cool – so how do pple pay if there are no card details..? #fairsharemusic
@shinyshiny Card payments are via Barclay Card at the end of your transaction #fairsharemusic

@fairsharemusic final Q – what has the reaction to this been like? are pple interested in ethical music buying? #fairsharemusic
@shinyshiny overwhelming response especially from women who are willing to spend more as average basket size up due to USP #fairsharemusic
@shinyshiny thanks for a great twinterview -for first time users spending £10 or more we will give 20% more to charity #fairsharemusic

Browse and Download ethical music from FairShareMusic