Protosong a way to give back and get music

Give back and get music. It’s a simple idea that a group of students from Seattle Pacific University is working hard to execute.

The idea behind Protosong is to build an exclusive playlist using unreleased songs from independent local artists to help raise money for a cause. In this case the cause is clean water. The playlist is available for a pick your price donation and the team at Protosong is shooting for a $25,000 fundraising goal by Oct. 18.

Seventy percent of funds raised will go to help provide clean water to people in developing nations. The other 30 percent will go to support the independent artists who provided their music for the project.

I was speaking to Protosong co-founder Corey McGuire recently about the project and I couldn’t have been more impressed. This 22-year-old is coordinating a pretty serious project while focusing on his studies and playing soccer at SPU, which is a lot more than I could say for myself at that age.

He first thought of the idea when listening to one of his favorite local bands and realizing that most people won’t hear their great music. Corey wanted to find a way to help expose great local artists and do something bigger at the same time. After a few more ideas came together, Protosong was born.

“The idea was to focus on what brings people together. Community, music, and an important cause. We all love sharing music and every single song has value. How can that value be used for good?” said Corey.

One of the most important things I want to note about this project is that Protosong is not keeping any of this money.

Jordy Dettmer, Protosong co-founder who is a recent SPU grad who played soccer with Corey said, “We decided from beginning on that we were going to give every penny away. It seemed like the right way to start the Protosong story.”

I love that.

I support everything about this project. Obviously helping provide something as important as clean water to people who need it is amazing, and when you pair that with the chance to support local artists it gets even better.

I can’t wait to get my playlist on Oct. 18 when the fundraiser ends. Below is the list of artists and videos for a couple of songs that are featured on the exclusive Protosong playlist. Check it out and go to Protosong.com to donate and get your playlist.

• Damien Jurado

• Hot Bodies in Motion

• Zach Fleury

• Noah Gunderson

• The Young Evils

• Lemolo

• Kris Orlowski

• Ivan &Alyosha

• Mychal Cohen

• Motopony

• Big Sur

• The Providence