protestreaming

Protestreaming is a form of artistic self-taxation. The artist gives a song to a cause.
The artist must be independent, so there are no financial barriers between song and cause.

The first PhC Protestreaming song was Caoimhe B.
It was written in 2007 for the Irish peace activist Caoimhe Butterly.
All streaming royalties go to the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

The second PhC Protestreaming song is Disclose Divest
It was inspired by Palestinian Ambassador, Husam Zomlot.
All streaming royalties go to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

A Protestreaming Story

In 1971, I was six years old. We lived in Beechmount Street, just off the Falls Road in Belfast. My Mum’s vinyl records - and the radio - were my only source of songs. Her record collection consisted of three styles of music; 1950s pop songs, film soundtracks and republican songs. There were two albums by republican bands; Four Green Fields by The Flying Column and The Barleycorn Live, whose song The Men Behind The Wire was sung by everyone. Everyone knew the words. But what I didn’t know, was that the royalties for the song were donated to the families of internees; men who had been rounded up and interned without trial by the British Army.

My friend’s dad was interned.

Sometimes, when we sang the song, we would replace the words of the chorus with his surname, singing “every man will stand behind the men behind Dwyer.” And the melody that we sang was sending money to his mum. That's protestreaming.