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Would David Bowie do? http://www.davidbowie.com/

Trent Reznor, great musician, got his idea from http://www.davidbowie.com/neverFollow/ David Bowie

Sincerely,
David Bowie

Man, you look like a fag too. By the way, did you see that short film on Channel 4 last night, after Bitter Moon? You probably would have enjoyed it, it was set in a gay club.

Did you even read the article?

Bowie accepts that the (rather modern) "traditional" concept of music sales is on its way out, and forecasts that bands will have to tour in order to stay alive. From the tone, he's comfortably excited about it.

If you want to support this ideal, snag tickets to one of his concerts. If you -really- want to give him money, buy a t-shirt as well. The bands make a killing on those when they sell them at shows, and you'll be able to display your support for David Bowie (the "word of mouth" concept he spoke of in the interview).

Meanwhile, go ahead and leech his new album, Heathen, from Gnutella or gIFT or KaZaA or IRC or whatever your fancy is, enjoy it, and look forward to the show, unless you also feel like supporting your local hole in the wall record store and like the feel of glossy jewel case inserts.

Nevertheless, I've never seen any mp3s on his web-site.

Besides, with Bowie's Al-Gorish claims to geekdom in the past, and a webpage that insists I go get a new plugin... Hey, where's the non-flash version?
This sort of eyecandy whoredom that goes with most bands' web-sites is rather quite sickening. If you're in a band, what would your fans want?

• Samples, mp3s, demos, unreleased material
• Tour dates
• photos
• A way to communicate with the band
• etc.

Bowie has had some interesting quips in his day, but he seems altogether too self-absorbed. Okay, the music is okay, some of it. But his 15 minutes of fame are over.

The man's been on the bleeding edge for over 30 years:
David Bowie

I saw an interview with him at around the time it was launched and he did seem to know what he was about, rather than just a figurehead.

Rob Young, love him or hate him, has also made a notable contribution to the net this year, for it was his company, Red Hat, that first demonstrated to the larger world that you can build a successful company by pursuing your dreams. He's a good orator and promoter of Linux, and a lot of people bought into the belief that Linux really is the future of computing on the Internet. While some (many) disdain the fact that people refer to "Linux" and "Red Hat" interchangably, we should all be happy that they're here with us, supporting the Linux community.

Another name of my list, equally important in a different fashion, is David Bowie (whose website is here). No, he's not a tie-dyed Linux boy, but have you seen the extent of what this guy has done this year? He practically concocted the first major "aid" event that had its roots in the Internet community (that's NetAid). It's so important that, in today's high-paced, high-technology world, the people who need our help the most aren't the mindless goobers who live and breathe Microsoft products, it's the children and families who are destitute in so many areas around the world.

It's easy to forget, but suffering takes many forms in this world. It's highly commendable that people like him (and U2's Bono), who are in a position that they don't have to give a damn, are trying to make a difference. The net is a great way to communicate this message, since so many people (with money) are here, online.

Daltorak.

K.
-

I wrote this email to the contact listed on the press release. Hopefully someone important will read it, but probably not.

Hi, I am writing to you in response to a press release from David Bowie's official website at this address on August 30th. The Outside Org website is listed to obtain more information at the end of the release and on David Bowie's page on Outside Org, this email address is listed as the contact. Forgive me if I am directing this to the wrong place and I would appreciate it if you could forward to the right person.

While I certainly believe that digitally downloaded music is the far, if not near, future of music, I am disappointed with David Bowie's (and/or his record label's) decision to release his album in only Liquid Audio and MS Audio, encoded with SDMI. I, along with many other consumers, would have preferred the open and flexible MP3 standard, which started this digital music revolution. Because anyone is free to write an MP3 player and anyone is free to write an MP3 encoder (as long as they do not use a patented algorithm) without paying licensing fees, there is a much wider selection of MP3 players for a wide variety of computer systems. Personally, I use the open source Linux operating system, for which I believe there is no Liquid Audio or MS Audio player. A quick search on the de facto website to get Linux software (Freshmeat), reveals no matches for "SDMI" or "Liquid Audio" (I also looked at Liquid Audio's official site which only has players for Windows and Macintosh), while almost 100 matches for "MP3". This includes MP3 players, encoders, and graphical frontends which make it simple for people to create MP3's from their own purchased CDs. Without a doubt, an MP3 release would enable many more people on different hardware to have access to David Bowie's music. Not only is it wrong to force people to deal with one or two companies (in this case Microsoft and Liquid Audio) as the sole source for a certain format, it is also bad business. While the technically superior Betamax was held tight by Sony, the open VHS standard won the consumer war. I expect that formats such as Liquid Audio and MS Audio (and maybe even SDMI, though it is open) will fail in the same way.

There is a concern growing in the traditional record industry that downloadable music is more subject to piracy than normal purchased CD's and that a secure, encrypted standard that only allows play only on one device is necessary for commercially released music. This is wrong for, at least, two reasons. First, most of the music available illegally in MP3 format was not originally downloaded from a website. It was originally purchased on a CD and then encrypted to MP3 and put on the internet. There is no way to stop this from happening. If you release your album on a CD and it is popular, it is subject to being encrypted into MP3 and put onto the internet. In fact, if you ever intend for music to be listened to, then it will always be technically possible to copy it. Secondly, as fast as new "secure" formats are being created, they are being unsecured. Read this article about Microsoft's WMA format being cracked for evidence of this.

While there will always be some people who insist on pirating music, the majority of consumers simply don't have the time for it. It usually takes more than $15 worth of effort to find a CD that you would pay $15 for in MP3 format illegally on the web, especially if you want a certain CD in particular. When given the choice between affordable, easy-to-use, downloadable music in a popular format from reputable companies and illegal, hard-to-find from who-knows-where, _most_ consumers will pick the former. By using non-open standards to release digital music, such as Liquid Audio and MS Audio, and using encryption such as SDMI, you are simply making it harder for consumers to get and enjoy legal music.

There are also some interesting "facts" about David Bowie's involvement with digital music and how he is the "first" to do this and the "first" to do that. He is most certainly _not_ the first major recording artist to release an entire album online (some have even made some albums available _only_ online). Check out Emusic for this. Some of the more notable artists are Frank Black (former lead singer of the Pixies and a guest at Bowie's 50th birthday bash, where he performed with Bowie on stage at Madison Square Garden) and They Might Be Giants. But press hype is what it is. I suppose I should expect it.

Despite of this, I am a very big fan of David Bowie. I will buy his new album, though not online, because I couldn't listen to it even if I did. I will wait for the CD and encode it myself into MP3 format so that I can listen to it through my computer and on a portable MP3 player. I hope that in the future he will realize the demands of market and use an open standard that is available to everyone.

Salon is carrying today an article echoing Davie Bowie's raves about MP3 and the culture it allows.

Ha det!

--algebraist