This is the idea:

Recording all of this music costs me in time, experience, heart, know-how, and so on, but the copies of each song — the MP3 downloads — essentially cost me nothing outside of a little bandwidth.

I’d love to charge you $1 for each download, but right now it’s more important to me that you have the music, that you love the music, and that you share the music, than it is to squeeze a few pennies out of a few people. So, if you’re scratching a broke ass, just go ahead and take it.

But neighbor, here’s the deal: If you take it for free, you have to spread it around. Tell your friends. Don’t hide me under the bed.

Meanwhile, I’ll try to think of clever and beautiful things — books, screen prints, recipes, jewelry, T-shirts, coffee mugs, pet sweaters, papercraft, firearms — that you’ll want very much to pay for, and own, and hold in your hands, and I’ll offer them here, for-real for sale. That’s phase two. I’m not there yet. Right now, I just have the sound, which you can download, and spread around.

So that’s the trade, friend: If you take the music, pay something or yell about me. I’ll love you for it, either way.

/s/ Chris Black
December 1st, 2009