Peter Gabriel: Digital Music Downloading's Future

securitas writes "CNN International's Becky Anderson interviews musician and OD2 online music service co-founder Peter Gabriel about the future of digital music downloads. The interview covers Gabriel's motivations in starting OD2, how technology has changed the music industry business model in the favor of artists and away from the big record labels, and where the small, independent artist fits in. Gabriel's words have weight because of his insights as both a musician/artist and a businessman who guided a digital music on demand distribution (OD2) and download service to success."

Comments

listen to the man

[jacquesm]

Peter Gabriel has always been one of the music scene's most technologically advanced members. For instance with Genesis he pioneered the use of lasers during concerts.

How disappointing....

[Asprin]

Sorry guys, OD2 is Win/IE only. No Mac, no Linux, no Moz.

Re:OD2 still here, yea, but a success?

[glenstar]

Check out the story on Loudeye acquiring OD2. Towards the bottom is this:

"For the quarter ended March 31, 2004 on a UK GAAP basis OD2 generated approximately $2.5 million in revenues, which represented over 80% sequential growth from the quarter ended December 31, 2003 and over 250% growth versus the prior year quarter."
Not outstandingly successful, but not terrible either.

Only IE and Windows Media Player

[jvkjvk]

Tiscali Music Club: System Check

In order to enter the Tiscali Music Club you must have the following on your PC:

* Internet Explorer 5.0 (or better) - Click here to download the latest version
* Windows Media Player 7.0 (or better) - Click here to download the latest version
* Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP

Lots of hope for the independents

[Anonymous Coward]

What the big guys fear is that ANYONE can simply record their music or video's and put it on line and bypass the cartels. In fact, the whole monopolistic industry of entertainment is shaking in their boots.

Why? InternetTV. Forget HDTV, cable TV, DVD and other, I want InternetTV where I get to choose what I watch and what I subscribe to.

The industry pouncing on companies like ICraveTV show how desperate they are to control what we see (and we thought it was just Outer Limits).

See http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,51303,00 .html?tw=wn_story_related for more on icravetv.

An offering to those interested in online music

[pmaccabe]

I recently discovered AllOfMP3, a Russian music store, because I was trying to find music by Eva Cassidy online and neither iTunes or Napster carry her music.

This site offers pay by bandwidth download of digital music, $10(US) per 1GB, and even allows you to select the bitrate and format of your download (including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, etc).

I was a bit wary at first, and I carefully reviewed the legal info provided on the site. I was reassured by the fact that they accept PayPal and are PayPal verified among other payment methods, I decided to risk $10.

I have been greatly pleased with the results.

My questions for the Slashdot community are: Can you see any legal problems with using this site? If so what are they? This is by far the best deal I've seen in digital music, and seems to be legit as far as my understanding goes, so I keep looking for the catch. If there isn't one, well enjoy the music!

And yes I know... in Soviet Russia digital music plays you.

Re:Virus Free Music ?

[Anonymous Coward]

KaZaA sez:

britney_spears-toxic.mp3.exe
BritneySpearsChris tinaAguilaraShakiraThreesumXXXcu m.mpg.exe
britney_spears-xxx-video-rare.mpg.exe
BRiTneySpEARS-nekkid-porn-goat.wmv.exe
SpearsBrit neyPron.exe
Download_Britney_HOT_XXX_NUDE_PHOTOS. jpg.exe