crayon and Independent Artist Collaborate on Community-Powered Virtual CD Release

crayon and Independent Artist Collaborate on Community-Powered Virtual CD Release

NEW YORK, May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Matthew Ebel, a Nashville-based piano rock musician and podsafe music rock star, is taking the landmark step of not only allowing fans to share his music on podcasts (downloadable Internet radio shows), but even going so far as to let fans make bootleg copies of his music for sale, culminating in a virtual CD to be released at the Coca-Cola Pavilion on crayonville island in the virtual reality world of Second Life.

Michelle Wolverton, a longtime Ebel fan from Paragould, Arkansas, said, "With his remarkable talent, Matthew has set the example for independent musicians to embrace and work with their fans in order to achieve rock stardom. Record labels can't inspire the kind of confidence and fan love that is changing the face of music as we know it."

crayon and Ebel have collaborated a number of times starting with his penning "Every Color", a company theme song launch based on the principles on which the company prides itself.

On Friday, May 25, 2007, Ebel will release his new CD "Virtual Hot Wings" and will play tracks from his album during a live lunchtime concert at the Coca-Cola Virtual Thirst Pavilion on crayon's Second Life Island (http://www.crayonvillesecondlife.com/). The album will be available at the concert for purchase for L$5,000 Lindens which at the current Linden Lab's Second Life exchange rate is approximately $20 US in real world money. Fans can download, burn, and enjoy the new CD when they want, where they want and how they want with no DRM constraints. For those not currently using Second Life, the downloads are also available from http://www.virtualhotwings.com/.

The fans took their interaction to another level by building virtual vending machines as the in-world distribution vehicle for the album. Fans that purchase the album will be able to download it immediately and burn it to a CD or listen to it on a computer, iPod, or other portable music device.

Ebel is embracing and supporting his dedicated fans that created, produced, distributed, and marketed the album on his behalf. In a new twist on bootleg recordings, fans taped his concerts digitally (with his consent) and subsequently created the cover art, ring tones and other digital media, in addition to choosing and arranging the song selections.

About crayon

crayon is a new marketing agency specializing in helping its clients identify, evaluate, implement, integrate and measure a bold mix of alternatives to traditional marketing, advertising and public relations into their existing plans and programs. For more information, please visit http://www.crayonville.com/.

Source: crayon

CONTACT: C.C. Chapman, VP, New Marketing of crayon, +1-617-934-0545,
+1-508-241-1062 (mobile), or Cleon Goff of crayon, cc@crayonville.com

Web site:

http://www.crayonville.com/
http://www.virtualhotwings.com/

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