SEATTLE, WA. & NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ iLike) - Beginning today (March 30, 2009), platinum-selling recording artist
Gavin DeGraw will world-premiere his not-yet-released album, FREE, exclusively on iLike, the leading social music discovery service. The exclusive iLike listening event will culminate with the retail release of FREE on March 31, 2009.
'My intention on FREE was to stay out of the way of the songs,' said Gavin DeGraw. 'We kept the production very minimal in order to get everything that lies between me and the audience out of the way. By removing all the bells and whistles, you really make room for someone to pay attention to the songwriting. Likewise, through iLike I'm bringing my new album directly to fans in an intimate way - with no middlemen or editorializing.'
'Gavin DeGraw is one of the most magnetic voices in popular music,' said Ali Partovi, CEO of iLike. 'I'm delighted to support Gavin's vision of connecting directly with his legions of fans.'
FREE, DeGraw's stripped-down 9-track collection of songs, is the follow-up to his self-titled 2008 Top 10 album. 'It isn't about the biggest, the strongest, or the loudest,' said DeGraw. 'It's about simplicity in its purest form. FREE doesn't sound like the big machine. It sounds like where you go to escape the big machine.'
In keeping with this intimate approach, DeGraw will hit the road on March 27, 2009 for an extensive spring tour he has dubbed his 'Where It Began' tour, in which audiences will be taken on a musical journey back to DeGraw's roots for a series of intimate full band and solo performances. 'We'll take a similar approach to the live shows as we did on the album and with the iLike album premiere,' he says. 'This tour is all about creating that very close connection with the audience.'
iLike will syndicate DeGraw's album stream across iLike.com, iLike's dominant Facebook� music app, and other leading social networks and online platforms including the iLike Sidebar for iTunes (www.iLike.com/download). To learn more about iLike's free content syndication tool for artists, go to: www.iLike.com/forartists.
To listen to Gavin DeGraw's new album in full and free of charge, visit his iLike artist page beginning on Sunday (March 29, 2009) at www.iLike.com/GavinDeGraw
