On March 22, podcasters from across the globe are planning to take a song from indie band Black Lab to No. 1 on the iTunes sales chart.

The project, Bumrush The Charts, aims to encourage listeners, through blogs, indie labels and artists, to buy one song by one band on that particular day. The song chosen by the podcasting community for the kickoff is Mine Again by L.A.-based Black Lab, former major label darlings-turned-label-less crusaders.

“An important point to make, that some people on forums have not quite understood… is that the podcasting community chose the band‚Äînot the other way around,” says Neil Bearse, host of The Podsafe Revolution podcast. “The band has reached out to podcasters by allowing us to play their music, after they were jerked around by two major labels. As the RIAA et al are considering podcasters pirates and amateurs, bands like Black Lab are embracing the technology and allowing us to play their music royalty free.”

You can watch Black Lab’s video for This Night, or download The Real You below.

The project’s manifesto follows:

Podcasting gets little respect from traditional media. To them we’re little more than a joke, than amateurs. What they don’t understand is that podcasting is more than just a delivery mechanism – it’s a social movement. People are growing sick of the watered-down, cookie-cutter content that networks and record companies expect us to enjoy. We want and deserve more. Big corporate media derives its power by having the
resources to mass market their product in a unified effort, which is why they think they’re better than us. On March 22, 2007, we’re going to give you a chance to change that.

A bunch of us podcasters started thinking, we can do better. We can match and exceed the reach of big media, corporate media, labels, and the entrenched interests. That’s why, on March 22nd, the podcasting community is going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street. The track we’ve chosen is “Mine Again” by the band Black Lab. A band, mind you, that was not just dropped from not just one, but two major record labels (Geffen and Sony/Epic) and in the process forced them to fight to get their own music back. We picked them because making them number one, even for just one day, will remind the RIAA record labels of what they turned their backs on – and who they ignore at their peril.

What’s more, we’re going to take it a step beyond that. We’ve signed up as an affiliate of the iTunes Music Store, and every commission made on the sale of “Mine Again” will be donated to college scholarships, partly because it’s a worthy cause, but also partly because college students are among the most misunderstood and underestimated groups of people by big media.

If you believe in the power of new media, on March 22nd, 2007, take 99 cents and 2 minutes of your time to join the revolution and make iTunes “Mine Again”. If you’re a content producer (blogger, podcaster, etc.), we’re asking you to join up with us and help spread the word to your listeners. Nothing would prove the power of new media more than showing corporate media that not only can we exceed their reach and match their purchasing power, but that we can also do it AND make a positive difference in the world. If we can succeed with this small example, then there’s no telling what can do next.