Buy the CD, Boost your Karma

Omstream and Zaadz Visionary Music announce benefit album to support developing-world entrepreneurs through Kiva.org Profits from ‘name your price’ album available exclusively at Omstream.com to support the global poor Omstream today announced the availability of The Dream Is Valid, a digital CD compilation of 16 songs from the musicians of Zaadz Visionary Music at GAIA’s social networking site Zaadz.com. All profits from The Dream Is Valid will fund “microloans” through Kiva.org to help developing-world entrepreneurs lift themselves out of poverty. The Dream Is Valid is available only at www.omstream.com, and is sold as a ‘name your price’ album to encourage sales. Zaadz Visionary Music is a community of artists committed to re-imagining the relationship between art, business, and loving effort. The album’s broad range of socially conscious music allows the purchaser’s entertainment money to make a difference to an entrepreneur in the developing world. All profits go directly into Zaadz Visionary Music’s Kiva Lender account, viewable at www.kiva.org/lender/zaadzvisionarymusic, where it will be continuously and repeatedly loaned as microloans are repaid and additional albums are sold. “Everyone involved, including our kind hosts at Omstream, has relinquished their profit from the sale of this album so it can go directly to empowering sustainable business practices in local economies all over the planet,” said Michael Garfield, founder of Zaadz Visionary Music and one of the compilation’s contributing artists. “This CD will generate funds not just once, but over and over; as our microloans are repaid and album sales continue, this compilation will be the center of an ever-expanding wave of global support.” Kiva.org is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, enabling individuals to make loans starting at $25 to entrepreneurs such as goat herders in Uganda, carpet weavers in Afghanistan, and rice farmers in Ecuador. Currently Kiva.org connects lenders in more than 50 countries with entrepreneurs in 39 developing countries through 62 microfinance partners. To date more than $14 million has been loaned to more than 20,000 entrepreneurs worldwide. “The support and generosity of this community of musicians, and everyone who purchases the album at Omstream, can make a real difference in the lives of the poor who may not otherwise have access to needed capital to build their businesses so that they can send their children to school, afford medical care, and pull themselves out of the poverty cycle,” said Kiva.org president Premal Shah. Michael Perricone, founder and president of Omstream, was equally honored to offer the services of Omstream.com to make The Dream Is Valid available to the broadest possible audience, opting to introduce the album as a ‘name your price’ product. “Americans spend more than one hundred million dollars on music every day, and if just a small percentage of that can be used to fund the dreams of people around the world, we will be alleviating poverty and building a better future for our world." The Dream Is Valid includes a spectrum of music from ambient to chants, contemporary rhythms and world music. The album features the music of Raymond Powers, Caroline Waters, Rob Costlow and allMeadow, Ric Hordinski, Michael Garfield, Michael Waters, Jaik Miller Band, Phil Castillo, Rane, Chaparral, Andrew Hodges, Willow Pearson, Carl Jacobson and Daniel Abreu, Cari Cole, David Serotkin, Sean Clarke, and Akhentek. The album features cover art by visionary painter David Titterington. Links to more work from each artist can be found at the compilation’s Artist Info page on Omstream.com. About Omstream Omstream.com was created out of a need to locate music that elevates consciousness amid the clutter of more than two million songs available on iTunes and other download services. Omstream sells new and exclusive music from popular artists such as Krishna Das, Deva Premal and Robert Gass. World music takes center stage, including Tibetan, traditional Kirtan, Native American and Pan-African music. Omstream also offers thousands of songs for the practice of massage, relaxation, meditation and yoga, including instructor playlists, as well as nature sounds. Downloads are available in multiple formats for the iPod or other MP3 players, and individual songs cost only 99 cents. The Omstream Preview Channel streams a free playlist of Omstream selections 24 hours a day. For more information, please see www.omstream.com. ###