“Charity is no substitute for justice withheld"

- St Augustine

Technology, at its best, helps us realize long-held dreams.  

Airplanes fulfill our dream to fly. Cell phones fulfill our dream to be connected to each other. And now, technology has made it possible for another deep-seated dream to be realized:  the dream of music flowing through the ether like tap water. An endless stream of music. That dream, that heavenly vision, as most of us know, is technologically possible today.  

The challenge before us is not a technological challenge. It is as a human challenge. Sustaining the vision of endlessly flowing music reaching all corners of the world and our hearts requires not just a technological vision but a social and economic one. What is required, what we want, is a human exchange….a HUMANE exchange. We dream a dream not just of beauty, but of fairness, and justice. We want to receive beauty, but we also want to give thanks for the gift. And we want our giving back to be as beautiful as the dream received. We want it to be generous and unexploited. This dream, of endlessly flowing music fueled by fairness, is the foundation, the heart and soul, of mim.fm.

Some may be skeptical. Some may believe that a model built upon the hope of a generous and just exchange, the expectation that we want to give as much as we want to receive, is not a dream but a pipe dream. The skeptics, the cynics, are wrong. Evidence is beginning to pour in that visions built upon the ideals of beauty, justice, and compassion not only survive but thrive. SAME Cafe, a donation-based restaurant in Denver, has been building community by providing affordable-for-all healthy and delicious food since 2006. Humble Bundle, the independent “pay what you want” media distributor that donates a portion of each sale to humanitarian causes, has been going strong since 2010. And the list does not stop there.     

An endless stream of music sustained by a humane exchange. That is the vision of mim.fm. It is a beautiful dream, a dream we all share. It is possible. And we are making it real.  

Because music is medicine.