[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > OK, I'm talking about David Bowie, and there are plenty of anomalies in that > comparison (for one thing, Joni never committed a Tin Machine!). Where I see > a big difference is that Bowie has always been a great enthusiast, working > with different, often much younger collaborators, championing up-and-coming > bands, and generally embracing cultural life.
There was an article about him in Sunday's New York Times. I don't know much about him so perhaps he's already spent years complaining about the music business, and has now gotten past that and figured out what to do about it, for himself anyway. He comes across in the article as a creative businessman and farsighted realist: One of rock's most astute conceptualists since the 1960's, he has toyed with the possibilities of his star persona, turned concerts into theater and fashion spectacles, and periodically recharged his songs with punk, electronics and dance rhythms. Now he has emerged as one of rock's smartest entrepreneurs. "Heathen" is the first album from Mr. Bowie's own recording company, Iso, which has major-label distribution through Sony. In 1997, he sold $55 million of Bowie Bonds backed by his song royalties; the next year, he founded the technology company Ultrastar and his own Internet service provider-cum-fan club, Bowienet (davidbowie.com). In a nod to his art-school background, his bowieart.com sells promising students' work without the high commissions of terrestrial galleries. His deal with Sony is a short-term one while he gets his label started and watches the Internet's effect on careers. "I don't even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don't think it's going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way," he said. "The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it's not going to happen. I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing." "Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity," he added. "So it's like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You'd better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that's really the only unique situation that's going to be left. It's terribly exciting. But on the other hand it doesn't matter if you think it's exciting or not; it's what's going to happen." Full article is at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/09/arts/music/09PARE.html He was the musical guest on the Letterman show tonight. What good marketing... a NYTimes article and a late night show appearance just before his new cd goes on sale. I couldn't tell what he was singing (was the song really about a snowbird?), but it sounded good and he did seem to enjoy himself chatting with Dave. Debra Shea
