Bowie on IP

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sun Jun 9 14:30:44 PDT 2002


Excerpt from a profile of David Bowie by Jon Pareles, in today's NYT <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/09/arts/music/09PARE.html?todaysheadlines>:


>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."



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