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Rock Bands Use Twitter to Raise $850K for Fan's Heart Transplant

by Warren Riddle on May 28, 2009 at 04:30 PM



Some musicians have criticized Twitter for being the "highest form of narcissism," but, over the last few weeks, Twitter users have given thousands of reasons to prove that the microblogging community will overwhelmingly come to the aid of others. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, with the help of the band Jane's Addiction, has managed to raise $850,000, thanks in part to Twitter, for a fan in need of a heart transplant.

Eric De La Cruz was recently denied a transplant in Nevada, so his sister, former CNN anchor Veronica De La Cruz, began a campaign on her own site two weeks ago to raise donations for his treatment and to also raise awareness of Nevada's need for more transplant centers. Reznor became involved by posting a letter on the Nine Inch Nails site last Wednesday and, with Jane's Addiction, by offering incentive packages to concerts for varying levels of donations. A regular tweeter, Reznor -- with the help of his nearly 600,000 followers -- managed to light up the Internet with awareness of the cause. The bands have already had to stop distributing VIP passes, which came with a $1,200 donation, because of the high level of demand.

As we've reported, Reznor has previously urged fans to "steal" music because record labels are, in his words, "ripping people off," and has also allowed free downloads of his own band's music. In an era when many bands and musicians gripe about how fans are killing their profits with free downloads, we applaud Reznor for putting his money where his tweet is when a fan is truly in need. [From: Mashable]

Tags: charity, janes addiction, JanesAddiction, medicine, microblogging, music, nine inch nails, NineInchNails, top, transplant, trent reznor, TrentReznor, twitter

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