By Matt Conner, CCM Contributor

It's all a bit too much for me. And it surprises me to say that. A few years ago, Derek Webb was the maven of web marketing, a musician who understood the changing culture of the digital age and someone well-prepped to navigate through the slow decomposition of the music industry as we know it. I was well on-board the bandwagon, championing his music via word-of-mouth, downloading Mockingbird for free and hitting any show within a reasonable driving distance. Noisetrade was next and it's a beautiful website. The premise is fantastic and some of my favorite artists have taken advantage (and still are, with Sleeping At Last recently getting in on the act). Better yet, the move further cemented Webb's reputation as a forward-thinking pioneer in this Internet era. But this latest stunt has me both puzzled and tired. In case you're new to the party, Derek Webb is having a tussle with his record label - at least at the time of this writing. To be honest, it all comes across a little Bruno/Eminem staged to me, so who knows what to believe. But in the meantime, Derek is releasing his new album through little snippets that you can find and piece together both online and in real-life - for those fans who live in Nashvegas. Literally they are two second sound bytes. Um, yeah. Then there are the code e-mails that I delete as quickly as the ones encouraging my participation in helping Mrs. Dahulu from Kenya to claim her fortune. It's kitchy. It's campy. It's lame. Derek Webb's artistry is solid. More than solid. He's an honest songwriter who was birthed in an industry afraid of telling the truth. He speaks on topics that Jesus did but the church refuses to touch. And he keeps his artistic integrity in tact the entire time. He's equally lyrically intriguing and musically interesting and you can count those artists on one or two hands who fit that bill. In other words, he's quite special. So resorting to these antics - and yes, I think they should be called that - is a bit disappointing. "No harm done," I can hear someone saying. And maybe so. I could just ignore the process, wait for the final release and let whatever fans are having fun with it go about their business (or perceived pleasure in this case). But it's the same feeling as seeing your musical hero jump the shark, so to speak (i.e. Springsteen's ridiculous Super Bowl performance). Webb stands for more than just his music and part of that is avoiding the Audio Adrenaline displays online. Who knows. Maybe the online Where's Waldo competition will provide something of true beauty. Maybe there really is the drama I'm hearing about. Perhaps Webb has calculated all of this and it won't look so bad in the end. But in the meantime, I find myself both disinterested and frustrated.