Virtual Hot Wings CD steps around music industry

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.

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 (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 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.

Most important of all, the distribution of Virtual Hot Wings puts no money in the pockets of any traditional music distribution source, from distributors to iTunes to the recording industry. It's entirely a grassroots album that does not contribute a dime to any of the organizations currently attacking independent music artists and listeners.

Get your copy of Virtual Hot Wings today!

Numbers?

According to the fine folks over at IODA, sales data from iTunes can take anywhere from 30 - 90 days to be reported - and more often than not for non-RIAA labels and distributors, it's closer to the 90 than the 30. When Bum Rush the Charts data comes in, it'll be posted here.