"The Internet is the best thing that has ever happened to music in the history of music," said Adam Duritz, lead singer of Counting Crows. "It's just not necessarily the best thing that's happened to record companies because they won't look at it the right way."

Record companies may not get the Internet, seeing it as a threat. For Duritz, it's become another avenue for expression. He maintains a blog as well as an online magazine called Rabbit Down the Hole. As a band, Counting Crows have even launched a foundation to help others called the Greybird Foundation.

When Counting Crows were ready to end the six-year gap between Hard Candy and Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings in March 2008, Duritz had a plan for how to re-introduce the band and their new album to listeners. Reaching the top of the charts has never been easy and repeating past successes can sometimes be even more difficult. Six-year absences rarely make that task easier.

Introducing a new record in the current music industry environment is a challenge in and of itself. Saturday Nights& Sunday Mornings potentially posed an even greater challenge being, in essence, two records housed on one single CD. Duritz says the band has always thought more in terms of albums than singles throughout their history. Breaking one album in the current environment is hard. Properly introducing two? Good luck. As for finding an audience, well, that's become nearly impossible for everyone. Still, Duritz had a plan.

"What it [the Internet] really is [is] … the world's biggest billboard and it's free," he said. "It's a free billboard and you have to look at it that way. You've got to stop trying to cling to every thing and attack the people who are taking from you and start using it to promote yourself.

"It's fucking free. Use your fucking brain. It's free. How much does it take to wake you up to the fact that it's free? I'm awake to it."

Duritz wanted to give away a "digital 45" from the album for free, one song from Saturday Nights, one from Sunday Mornings. Two albums, two singles. Free.