AceShowbiz -

In a bid to encourage young people to participate in voting for the upcoming presidential campaign, Sheryl Crow will give away her music for free. She announced on Wednesday, August 20 that she will give the first 50,000 people who register themselves to vote, a free digital copy of her album "Detours".

"I hope people wake up and emotionally engage in issues," the singer said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. She added that "Detours" actually is the perfect reflection of what's going around the world that may contribute to the vote. "It's about the issues that everyone's talking about, but there's a lot of hope. At this moment in my life, writing about anything else would be uninteresting and impossible because I feel such urgency," she added.

Crow's give-away is part of her campaign as one of Rock the Vote's founding artists. In addition to the digital copy, she will also give free download for "Gasoline", a track included in "Detours", for anyone who logs on to Rock the Vote official site or for those who join the mailing list.

On bridging music and political issues, Crow said "There was healthy competition among artists to create art that was commercial and political at the same time. Our music (now) is not representing the times - at least not socially and politically. Or maybe we're just distracted."