Recording artist Jewel and her non-profit charity Project Clean Water have announced a partnership with the Voss Foundation (www.thevossfoundation.org) and Virgin Unite (www.virginunite.com), to launch the Give A Drop campaign. The program’s goal is to support water projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and its first venture will be the village of Pel in Dogon, Mali.

“I’m very excited that Project Clean Water has formed a partnership with the Voss Foundation and Virgin Unite to help people in need,” said Jewel. “When I was homeless, I became ill and couldn’t afford to buy the bottled water I needed for my sick kidneys.  I realized then that it was hard to get clean drinking water in the United States, and discovered it was a huge problem globally.”

The project in Pel will rehabilitate five wells to modern, efficient and hygienic standards. The village will receive training sessions on well maintenance, hygiene, and water treatment. Studies will be conducted on each well to ensure responsible use and sustainability.

The Give A Drop campaign works through website and text donations. Visit www.giveadrop.com or, to make a $5 donation, just text the message “DROP” to phone number 85944.

Big & Rich will release the duo’s first greatest hits collection on Sept. 29. The DVD/CD combo Big & Rich: Greatest Hits, will include 15 hits plus the unreleased track, “The Man I Am Right Now.” The DVD includes nine music videos. A specially created direct-to-consumer piece will also be available only from the band’s website, www.bigandrich.com and will include all the above mentioned highlights plus three additional bonus tracks.

Big & Rich’s debut triple-platinum CD Horse Of A Different Color arrived in May 2004 and contained hits such as “Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)” and “Holy Water,” both of which are contained on the Greatest Hits outing. John Rich was awarded the ASCAP Songwriter/Artist Of The Year Award in 2005, 2006 and 2007, and has penned No.1 hits for Gretchen Wilson, Faith Hill, and Jason Aldean. Big Kenny was the 2005 BMI Songwriter Of The Year, and scored a No. 1 hit for Tim McGraw’s “Last Dollar.” The duo has also garnered multiple Grammy, ACM, CMA and CMT Music Award nominations.

According to an article on digitalmusicnews.com, researcher IBISWorld says that ringtone revenues in the United States are at $750 million, down from the 2007 peak of $880 million.

The shift can possibly be attributed to a mobile consumer base that prefers full-track downloads as substitutes, as well as the uploading of unpaid full-length tracks that can be easily converted to ringtones.

Though the ringtone business is still alive and well, IBIS predicts that it will be completely gone in 15 years.

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Advertising Age contends that Spotify might not be the music industry’s great savior, at least not without overcoming some difficult odds. The much-hyped Swedish company is gearing up for its U.S. launch and provides a technology capable of streaming music as quickly as most players can load an mp3. The Spotify business model includes both free (ad-supported) and an ad-free subscription service (price not yet determined) with access to all recorded music. If successful, it could offer a new way going forward to monetize digital music, as well as provide Apple’s iTunes with some viable competition.

However, the piece points out that subscription-based services in the U.S.—such as Rhapsody and Napster—haven’t fared incredibly well. Rhapsody leads the pack with under 800,000 subscribers, and Napster slightly above 700,000. Ad-supported digital music has also been slow to catch on, but shows some promise: Pandora has raised $56 million and CBS paid $280 million for last.fm in 2007.

But this could also pose a barrier for Spotify, because these ad-supported companies have millions of users for leverage with Fortune 100 agencies, and Spotify will be starting at zero.

The Academy of Country Music has announced a $750,000 endowment to its philanthropic arm ACM Lifting Lives, thanks to ticket sales from the “George Strait: ACM Artist of the Decade All Star Concert.” The gift is the second disbursement of a three-year funding commitment and fundraising campaign begun by the ACM last fall. ACM Lifting Lives works to improve lives through music.

Taped before a sold out Las Vegas crowd in April, “George Strait: ACM Artist of the Decade All Star Concert” featured Strait along with ACM Artist of the Decade for the ‘90s Garth Brooks and other performers including Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Jamie Foxx, Faith Hill, Jack Ingram, Alan Jackson, Jamey Johnson, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Montgomery Gentry, John Rich, LeAnn Rimes, Blake Shelton, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban and Lee Ann Womack. More than 10 million viewers tuned in for the CBS television special in May.

“The artists who gave of their time in April are the reason we can make this announcement today,” said Bob Romeo, Executive Director of the Academy of Country Music. “They put their time and energy into the Artist of the Decade taping, and they asked for nothing in return. They showed up, they blew the doors off the house and the ratings through the roof, reaching millions of fans with the message of ACM Lifting Lives.”

“The artists work every day to improve the lives of others with their craft,” said Erin Spahn, Director of ACM Lifting Lives. “With this endowment, their good work continues through the programs Lifting Lives supports. We are so thankful to them.”