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Peter Gabriel: Digital Music Downloading's Future

Posted by michael on from the world-according-to-gabe dept.

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."

4 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Last hope for the independents by RLiegh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Gabriel: That's always the question. There are deals being done now where the independents are going to get screwed again, I think. Where they're told they're on a level playing field but actually the big boys are. And again, I think it's only by staying together, and consolidating as a lump, that has some leverage and some power, that the little guy can have a chance to compete. The great thing about the economics of the digital world is that it's much cheaper to do everything and to reach people.


    I think that this is something that everyone outside of the time/warner, sony, etc cartels who want to be in the music industry need to take heed of. If the big boys are consolidating, then maybe the smaller labels and distributors should put aside their personal ambitions and look at the larger picture...before they're written out of it.
    1. Re:Last hope for the independents by stilist · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This does seem to be one of the big problems, as he mentioned a couple times in the interview - the little guy (independent, or just an artist) gets run over in the mad dash for power. Independent labels and artists are simply too diffuse to have an real say.

  2. OD2 still here, yea, but a success? by JasonUCF · · Score: 3, Insightful
    a businessman who guided a digital music on demand distribution (OD2) and download service to success.

    Durrr... I dig Peter Gabriel, and I dig this concept, but, uh, success? Can we have any stats to back that up?

    In January, it seemed like the store had varying rights per label, delivering only Windows Media songs. Varying DRM'd files with fine print? Ok, I guess people were buying into it when they introduced that penny per streaming song thing.

    Outside of that I've seen no press releases or 3rd party sites talking about OD2 as a "success". Are we qualifying it by the fact that they're still here after 6 months? The submission just feels weird to me.. I couldn't even find any stats thru google.

    (again, I dig Mr. Gabriel, and I appreciate him and Mr. Eno coming up with a new concept. It's nice for iTunes to have competition.. but I need to see some numbers to endear a service with only DRM'd WM9 files servicing 3-4 countries of the EU as a "success". Even the BBC calls them a success with no numbers!)

  3. Won't work, unless..... by tenjinzan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This won't work for any artist other than mainstream artists, unless the indie artist gets airtime. Radio stations are still owned by big corporations, and like to shove thier music down your throat...until there are more places like IRL, then this model will probably not work for small artists. What Gabriel is suggesting is alot like communism...looks great on paper, but in the real world, other things need to change, not just how you buy the music. He is suggesting a change that will alow ANY artist to sell thier own works, but that really does need alot of help in the "Gabriel: Well you see, I think that a lot of artists aren't very good when it comes to marketing or accounts or doing a lot of the jobs that record companies do" area....and that doesn't necessarily mean that the RIAA can still have a job. Fsck the RIAA! I want to choose the music that I want to listen to!