LOS ANGELES, March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 22nd, 2007, podcasters around the world are joining together in an effort to propel an independent musician to the top of the iTunes sales chart. At the same time they will be raising money for a college scholarship fund.

This campaign, called Bumrush the Charts, represents a viral social media experiment in which podcasters, in conjunction with bloggers, indie labels and artists, will ask their listeners to buy one song, by one band, on one day. The goal of this synchronized effort is to leverage the prominence of the iTunes charts to demonstrate the power of social networking and new media.

The song chosen for purchase is "Mine Again" by the band Black Lab, from their new album Passion Leaves a Trace (http://www.blacklabworld.com/). Black Lab fought for ownership of their music after being pushed out of two major label record deals and has subsequently become an early adopter of podcasting.

Bumrush the Charts plans to use an iTunes affiliate link to earn a commission on each sale of "Mine Again," which it will use to build a scholarship fund. The Student Loan Network, an education finance company in Boston, Massachusetts, has made a pledge to match the first $1,000 raised on March 22nd using this web address: http://www.financialaidpodcast.com/bumrush .

The project was initiated by a group of six podcasters, and has quickly ignited the entire podcast community. Many of the biggest names in podcasting, including former MTV VJ Adam Curry, are taking part. "Major labels use their resources to mass-market their product in a unified effort," says podcaster Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff. "We're going to show that our community can do the same thing."

Paul Durham, Black Lab's singer, was surprised about being chosen by the podcasters, but responded by pledging half of all earnings from the day's sales of "Mine Again" to the Student Loan Network's scholarship fund.

Podcasters around the globe have created their own promos for the event and have asked bloggers to write about it, independent labels and artists to notify their fans, and podcast listeners to encourage five friends to participate. The experiment has already garnered mainstream media attention from the Canadian Broadcast Company, the British Broadcast Company, The College Music Journal, and others.

More About Podcasting

Podcasting is a method of publishing audio files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically by subscription. The Pew Internet & American Life Project estimates that 17 million people currently download podcasts.

For more information, to pick up a banner or hear promos for the event go to http://bumrushthecharts.com/.

Contact: Neil Bearse (613) 484-6855 podsaferevolution@gmail.com Host of the Podsafe Revolution Podcast Christopher Penn FinancialAidPodcast@gmail.com Host of the Financial Aid Podcast, Student Loan Network Black Lab website: http://www.blacklabworld.com/

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Contact: Neil Bearse, Host of the Podsafe Revolution Podcast,
+1-613-484-6855, podsaferevolution@gmail.com, or Christopher Penn, Host of the
Financial Aid Podcast, Student Loan Network, FinancialAidPodcast@gmail.com