B&W, Peter Gabriel Launch Music Club

Home Theater News By Mark Fleischmann

June 10, 2008 — British loudspeaker maker Bowers & Wilkins has teamed up with Peter Gabriel to offer subscribers exclusive music in DRM-free lossless surround.

The B&W Music Club launched last month. The online community commissions and records music in Gabriel's Real World Studios in Bath and then offers it online. It also offers blogs, feature stories, and video interviews with the likes of Gabriel, James Newton Howard, Cassandra Wilson, Dave Stewart (of the Eurythmics), and others.

This may be the most artist-friendly online venture ever. The Music Club foots the bill for studio time and mixing, but two months after the initial online Music Club distribution, the rights revert to the artists. They can then release their own CDs, set up their own download arrangements, or re-license to a record company. Initial recordings will feature Little Axe, Grindhouse, Gwyneth Herbert, Dub Colossus, and Tom Kerstens and G+.

The subscription fee is £23.95 for six months or £33.95 per year (that would be $42 or $67 at current exchange rates). That may seem a bit stiff, but we're talking about music never heard before, in lossless surround, and free of DRM, so you can convert it and use it on any device. Visit the site at www.bowers-wilkins.com/sos.