While the benefit concert/charity recording has long been a fixture in the music industry, Thierry Deruelle, president of startup music label Aquamuzic is undertaking something rather unusual. Deruelle is claiming that Aquamuzic will “give 100% of its net profits to drinkable water projects in the developing world.”
In a press release on the subject, Deruelle is quoted, “So many people on this planet can’t even safely drink their water and we need 3 iPhones?”
Deruelle is doing more than merely setting up a site and presumably some semblance of an organization to facilitate his stated goal. He is promoting the first release of Unlimited Guitar Experiments Vol. 1 by Nic Mc. Nic Mc, who studied classical guitar as a teenager, but then gave it up to become first a pilot, then a businessman, before getting back to guitar, happens to be none other than. . .Thierry Deruelle. This is the total package.
In the “Terms of Use” on the Nic Mc blog he seems rather severe, which makes one feel somewhat less than generous about this undertaking:
Under no circumstances may you use, copy, transfer, publish, broadcast, reproduce, store or save locally, re-engineer, create derivative works from, post, distribute, display, use commericially [sic], make or express claims of ownership, authorship or contribution to, or incorporate any part of this website in original or modified form (for example in a shorter version), for any reason whatsoever, without the express written consent of Nic Mc and/or his production company DPR inc.. All rights are reserved.
One would imagine that to the extent that there would be the potential for this noble undertaking to be more widely distributed in some form such that people would become aware of what’s going on and subsequently spend some money on his prog rock guitar works so that there would be the investment in water treatment technologies for the needy, but this legalese seems unnecessarily severe, although it was manufactured by the legal staff of the Canadian analogue of the RIAA.
That said, this is undoubtedly an interesting undertaking, and if he truly manages to help those in need get clean, drinkable water, then more power to Nic Mc.
MP3: Nic Mc – The official Aquamuzic dot org ring tone
Update: Thierry Deruelle emailed us to let us know that “This whole project is over and done with.” —April 28, 2009.
Hey,
It is the first time somebody talks about me :) and I am aware of it. (for this project)
Thank you for taking the time to review. You are rigt about the terms of use, I have to adapt it. I just wanted to protect my self from people using my music commercially without my consent, such as soundtracks for publicities, etc…
I needed an alter ego to go back into music, my life is so different than before… It helped me to separate my self from the tunes.
I did not sell one album to this day, and have spent thousands of dollars. So I will continue this endeavour as much as I can $ money wise.
I tried to get some support from bigger organizations also, not for the money, but for the credibility and no one wanted to join, so that is why I started aquamuzic, to show it a little bit clearer.
I would be open to have the money go directly into an other organizations’a account just to demonstrate an irrefutable credibility. It would have to be a big, ethics driven one, obviously.
Anyway, thanks for your time,
Thierry