Peter Gabriel: Don’t Kill The Record Label, Just Reinvent It
Peter Gabriel doesn’t want to take a Sledgehammer to the music business. The veteran artist says in this insightful NYT profile: “I don’t believe in the death of the major record companies. But as an artist, I’d love to see them reinvented as service companies.”
Gabriel’s been doing his bit in that regard for a decade, having founded white-label music retailer OD2 in 1999, since when he’s also invested in recommendation engine The Filter and ad-supported free track provider We7. On that last one: “Twenty years ago, Mr. Gabriel says, the idea of tying a recording to an ad would have felt sacrilegious. ‘Today I have a different view: it’s a way to hold onto income for creators’.”
Eden Ventures Charles Grimsdale, an investor in both of the recent startups: “When most labels were banging their heads, he got it and saw the liberating value of internet distribution to artists, and that’s what excited him. He has a very good sense technologically of what’s going to work.”
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@robertandrews
Aug 11, 2008 5:04 AM ET
Posted In: Entertainment, Music, peter gabriel
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