The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage officially launched Smithsonian Global Sound at the 2005 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. What The New York Times has called "the ethnographic answer to iTunes," Smithsonian Global Sound offers an unparalleled experience of traditional music around the world. The project joins international institutions to document, record, catalog, and digitize music and other verbal arts and distribute them via our Web site through digital downloads. Royalties go to artists and institutions, and honor the intellectual-property rights of composers, musicians, and producers.  We hope these efforts, in turn, will spark the creation of new music and promote the appreciation of cultural diversity around the world.