Downloading music for charity sounds too good to be true don’t it? It isn’t but well you have to pay for it.
I recently discovered this acoustic version of All within my hands on Youtube. Even though St. Anger has some highlights I must admit that it isn’t my favorite Metallica album (that is of course Master of Puppets). However, I really liked the acoustic All within my hands and I wanted to get it eh … all within my own hands.
It turned out that it was played at the yearly Bridge School Benefit for children with severe physical impairments and complex communication needs. I am no big fan of people running after me in the streets or calling me on the phone to ask me to donate money to whatever reason. Even though the causes are good I just don’t like being nagged into doing something. I prefer doing it of my own will. I must admit though that I am not much of a charity giver (shame on me) but when I could get good music and support a good cause I felt it was right.
The solution was of course the live Metallica catalog which I think is a good source for music and a great store. The store sells all (?) live Metallica shows since 2004 and gives you about 20 older shows for free. The music comes without DRM in either MP3 and FLAC. You’ll get the MP3 version of a show for $9.95 and the FLAC version is going at $12.95.
Metallica played at the Bridge School charity both the 27th and the 28th of October 2007. Metallica played only 8 songs each night (some covers and some Metllica songs) so the shows are a bit expensive. However, you have to remember that all net proceeds goes to the Bridge School. The set lists have some variations between the two days. Of the cover songs I really liked I’m only happy when it rains.
This is by far not the first thing I have bought after seeing it on youtube or somewhere else. I just don’t see why people are against it and so afraid of people posting copyright protected material there. I think the exposure it gives an artist and the sales this generates is well worth the potential loss of income. I could have chosed to continue listening to the youtube version but I wanted to have the song and I decided to pay for content of higher quality in the sense that it is Flac and therefore also transportable to other devices but my computer.
