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David Bowie on Use Of MP3s 36

XBS writes "David Bowie told a British newspaper Thh Guardian that he is for MP3s. Bowie said, it could change the entire idea of what music is -- and that isn't so bad. Bowie's record label may not approve of his public endorsement of the enemy, but he doesn't seem to care. As he writes, "You don't have to stay with a record company forever. I get bored of those interminable situations." You can read more at Salon- it's a little ways down the page, but its worth quick read if you're into Bowie or MP3s.
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David Bowie on Use Of MP3s

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  • If you follow Bowie's career you will find that is
    not very true. Watch the VH1 show `Legends' on David Bowie and you see.
  • Another person supporting MP3. It's unstoppable!


    -----------
  • I think it sort of fits in with his selling stock with himself. Sure, it was just a way to make a lot of money fast, but it could actually end up as something good with mp3's. Imagine a world with no big distributors controlling content, pricing, etc. You could have artists sell stock in themselves and then sell mp3's of their music directly to the customers. And they could stick with the current method of putting albums together, or just sell individual songs as they release them. I'm not sure it would be any better in the long run, but it would be interesting to see it tried.
  • goodnoise.com looks like a great site - pay some money to the artist, get the mp3 (legally). Cuts out the record company from the mix.
  • Posted by antivert:

    Goodnoise is a very good idea, and they have some wonderful music there. They need to lower their compression rate.. just listen to that Frank Black and the Catholics song they have.. it's littered with swirly mp3 garbage.
  • Yeah... I just downloaded a bunch of Orbital MP3s (admittedly not legal ones), and now I know what my next CD purchase will be. Orbital is cool.

    (The reason I checked them out was the discussion of the music for Pi, which is unfortunately totally rented out at Hollywood Video...)

    I had a $15 gift certificate for The Wall, unfortunately it expired before I could figure out what to buy...
  • Have you not heard Earthling?

    It's about half-techno.
  • Yeah Bowie whatever. If you want good made-by-geeks-for-geeks post-punk, check out The Poster Children [posterchildren.com]. They're releasing their whole next album in MP3 format. And they have a cool single available now for free [goodnoise.com] -- "dedicated to anyone who spends most of his/her waking hours sitting in a small room, in front of a computer (and ENJOYS it!)."

    --

  • I dunno, the pkids are pretty damn geeky. They were high-end flight-sim programmers before quitting to be a band. And they still write the enhanced stuff on their cd, and do their own web site. (Check out the tour reports especially.)

    As for frat boy sound -- it's certainly not the typical 4/4 simplistic drek that implies. If you don't like it, you should check out Salaryman [prairienet.org], the Pkids' alter ego, for a totally different sound from the same people.

    MoA is pretty damn geeky too. And also cool.

    --

  • Sorry... Bowie sold stock in his future earnings about a year ago. So no matter what happends to music in the future, Bowie *made out* already.
    He's the last person you should listen to, because to him it's all history. It doesn't matter if you like his music. He is now out of the loop.

  • He sold his BACK CATALOG only as Bowie Bonds.
  • Some thoughts on Bowie from a fan since the mid 70s.

    1) I thought I read that Bowie Bonds were for his back catalog only and not his new stuff. Which explains why "heroes" theme was sold for a commercial. Gotta please the stock owners - which I think is something like 10. I read in Smart Money that some big time investor bought most of the shares. He was a Bowie fan.

    2) Bowie always wanted to make it "big". With the ziggy persona he did. As he drifted into the the thin white duke (white soul) he wanted greater artistic expression. He also started to team up with the likes of Eno/Iggy Pop/Sales Brothers/Adrian Belew. There came the "Berlin" period where he pushed the experimental into the pop world. This is Low. Heroes. Lodger. These are alternative and have come to grasp some of the modern developments in music in the manner of Eno and Fripp, Can and Kraftwerk. Oddly enough after a number of years pushing the limits he decided he wanted a "hit album". Only Bowie could say that and produce it at will. It was the "Lets Dance" album. With Nile Rogers he does it with great success. After that seems to be when most of the posters on this system seem to have discovered him. So Bowie has done a lot both in terms of huge market share/Pop and great creative and intellectual output.

    3) Bowie has always embraced new and exciting things. People keep shrugging him off until five years later when they keep saying "Oh, he was right." The dude is uncanny. Thats why he makes the bucks.

    4) I saw this show on TV and Bowie was listed as one of the top money makers from last year. I don't remember the number - something like 14. I could be wrong on that number so don't quote me. Its +-4. Not bad for a 50 year old guy.

    5) I also read that Bowie was the richest "British" rock star. at 800-900 Million. More than Paul McCarney. (I thought Paul was a legend at investing and the like. He owns a lot of music catalogs. Kinda like what M.Jackson did to him. Which is why it burned him up I guess. Do unto others....) I think Paul was at 400 and then it quickly dropped below 100 for a few then you got to something like 10 with Phil Collins at like 20M.

    I find it sad to see people discard the opinion just because its Bowie - someone in the business who's opinion has a bit of weight. Suits will listen to what he says.

    All the best and Peace
    Ron

    PS: We need a music section on slashdot.
  • Most indy bands will mail you a cd for $6.99. Usually less. Wow! Be the first on your block to spend a week downloading an entire cd's worth of songs from some band you don't even know!

    Their "build a website for us lazy bums" contest is pretty lame too. They invest $250 (1 rio and $50 credit) and get god know how many free man hours of web site development and FREE ADVERTISING. Build a sight for your local pet store and they'll pay you $1000!

    Be sure to check out their grueling Tour Schedule! Yowch! Hope the van can last that long!

    I'll definately download the free song to see what this band of jokers sounds like. **UPDATE** Hey! Wait! I just did (I love the way you can play an mp3 while it's still downloading) and it's...darn good. Damn. I was really hoping they'd suck. Nicely produced, but not over-done, and some fine guitar playing. Sheeeit! Refreshing suprise from the sequenced badboy over-sampled rap I was expecting.

    Aw heck. Maybe I'm just old, bitter, and jealous that I didn't do this first.

    Nah. They suck.

    ;)
  • Erm... TAFKAP (erm, Prince) earns that
    label. I believe he's the first "big time"
    artist to do so (for certain values of
    big time...).

    Depending on your definitions, there's also
    Madonna.
  • Okay, Bowie sold all his stock in his future earnings, right? Sounds like he doesn't care if he does well or not, just so long as he enjoys what he does. It looks to me like David Bowie's one of very few artists in the main arena who doesn't have a sword-of-damocles profit margin to watch out for.
  • ...when I can go onto the net, and download the complete album from any mainstream artist for like 5 bucks, and all that money goes straight to the artist rather than me paying most of my money to the record label, distributors etc. I know that's what mp3.com and goodnoise are trying to do, but it'll take a while before this happens with mainstream bands.

    David Bowie must be so rich by now, why doesn't he drop is label and be the first "big-time" artist to do this?
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Can always depend on Bowie. Lord knows...the man knows how to change with the times. Started accustical, singing love songs and songs of exploration with the 60s...then into rock for the 70s and 80s...90s are here he's doing techno. To top it off...he is supporting MP3s. Who knows...we might no longer need CD Players...
  • Thats very nice to see artists support MP3.
    But for god's sake, don't kill his music and turn it in to techno or trance or rap or any other junk.

  • I'm gonna shoot an MP3 server into space and see how the RIAA get's me then. ;)

MS-DOS must die!

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