Justification for Illegal Downloading?

Often on this site, I will recommend songs for download or physically upload songs for readers to "right-click-and-save as." Is this moral? Am I breaking ethical laws? Is this what the artist would want?

I'll never be able to put words inside an artist's mouth, but I will say this. For every song to which I point my readers in for downloading, I expect the reverse to happen. Take a penny, give a penny.

In my eyes, downloading music is like trying samples in a chocolate store. Some chocolates are crap, others are decent, some warrant me pulling out my credit card and buying silly amounts whilst rushing home to clear out my freezer to make room for inappropriate amounts of pimple-causers. Before, the chocolates were never free. Now, you get to steal a little taste and spit out the shit.

Getting back to giving that penny..... Let's match our physical "take" with an equal or greater "give." If you try that sample and can't get enough of it, buy the album. Enjoy the album art. Buy a t-shirt at the merch booth or online. Go to the concert when the musician is in town. Assuming the musician is of age, buy that musician a drink. If the musician is not of age, buy said musician two drinks. If the musician is living out of a van and has no place to sleep, offer them a shower and couch.

** Do not combine the offering of your house plus buying the musician drinks. Either you come off as a strange creep, or your house will turn into a deathrockparty2009dancefunkpalace. **

Downloading allows the user to avoid mistakes. Why buy an album if you cannot accurately judge from a 0:15 clip of the single that MTV briefly airs. I remember Blockbuster music would allow the customer to bring the music to the front counter, where the employee would open the CD, pop it in a player and hand you headphones. This would allow the customer to get a sample and decide on the purchase. The bigger guys aren't necessarily against this "sample" idea, they just want a hand in it. Why not download some tracks, and if you are blown away, refer to the previous paragraph and spend some cheddah.

Don't abuse the power that technology has given us to download at our leisure. Already the record companies want blood.

- Echo

An Open Letter from Gavin Castleton

My new album "Home" is available now on iTunes. For months now Five One Inc., the tiny Japanese label that is helping me release the album has pushed really hard for media publicity, and though the album has received some really good publicity from a few select sources (thanks Purevolume, KCRW, Imeem, etc.), we're finding that most press and radio folk say they like it, find it interesting, and have absolutely no idea what to do with an album like this. On the whole, that makes me happy because it confirms my suspicion that the album is somewhat original in its approach, but I find myself in the same position I've always been in regards to promotion: asking you to help me.

You have always understood my music long before the tastemakers in this industry (who still confuse me with Gavin DeGraw), and it's only you who make it financially feasible for me to continue making music. So if you have a minute, and feel strongly about my music, please consider visiting http://www.myspace.com/gavincastletonmusic, the street team site for Home, and throwing up the little profile image on your page, or a banner if you can spare the space on your page/site. If you'd like to help even more magnanimously, you can add that profile as a friend and the tiny Japanese man at Five One will contact you about other areas we could really use your help with.

Please forgive my incessant plugging of the iTunes link in these next few days, I must do so in hopes that anyone who is interested in the album might log on right in time to catch it.

Thank you thank you thank you and thanks be unto you
Gavin Castleton