"Book of Love" wake-up

The seven Atlantis astronauts are awake for their first full day in space and getting ready for today's chief activity: inspecting their spaceship's heat shielding for any damage that might have been done during Thursday's launch from Kennedy Space Center. Mission Control beamed up Peter Gabriel's Book of Love as this morning's wake-up music for the shuttle astronauts.

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080208/NEWS01/80208001/1002

The astronauts awoke Friday to "Book of Love" by Peter Gabriel, a dedication to French Air Force Gen. Leopold Eyharts from his wife and family. Eyharts greeted his loved ones in English and French, saying, "I know it has been a somehow hard day for them and I want to thank them."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h1W8dcUP9H70AmlSfDSenPteDT9gD8UM78R80

Artists Support Record Store Day

Saturday, April 19 has been declared Record Store Day in the USA and big name artists are getting behind the campaign.

Paul McCartney said in a statement, "There's nothing as glamorous to me as a record store. When I recently played Amoeba in LA, I realised what fantastic memories such a collection of music brings back when you see it all in one place. This is why I'm more than happy to support Record Store Day and I hope that these kinds of stores will be there for us all for many years to come. Cheers!" The day is a promotional drive by Independent retailers to rekindle the thrill of scouting through music releases.

"I was introduced to lots of great music through my local record store. It was a place where people knew music and they knew me, and could make great suggestions and discoveries. Whether it is in the physical world or on-line, the value of a great and knowledgeable record store has not gone away," said Peter Gabriel. Singer/Songwriter was a little bit more poetic with his quote. "Dusty violin maker shop small corner record store water holes for dreamers don't stop breathe more," he said.

Blur's Damon Albarn says his local store is like a library. "My local independent record shop (Honest Jons) is a library, where you can go to listen to music, learn about it, exchange ideas about it and be inspired by it. I think independent record shops will outlive the music industry as we know it because long term their value to people is far greater, because even in our era of file-sharing and blogs, you cant replace the actual look on someone's face when they are playing something they really rate and think you should listen to it too. It's special," he said in his statement.

As a prelude to Record Store Day, an introductory party will be held at Waterloo Records at SxSW in Austin on March 15.

by Paul Cashmere - February 6 2008

Lanois’ U2 Warm-up

“I’M doing some writing with (Brian) Eno and U2,” mega-producer Daniel Lanois tells Spinner magazine when asked about his work with Bono and the boys on their new CD. “We’re gonna knock out another record that’s promising to be a fantastically innovative collection of songs. I’m excited about that.”

Lanois is much more than a U2 insider. His fingerprints have been all over the production knobs of some of the greatest CDs by the likes of Peter Gabriel, the Neville Brothers, Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan. He creates that trademark spooky, atmospheric vibe on the discs he touches. It’s that same aura that made U2’s The Joshua Tree unlike anything you ever heard.

Lanois has also made a number of albums on his own, and they’re just as satisfying as some of the ones he shepherded for his famous friends. He just started a record company, Red Floor Records, and has chosen to release his newest disc on the label.

A soundtrack to a homemade documentary film of the same name, Here Is What Is sports a haunting collection of rough hewn tunes. “Joy” is a spooky gospel tune set atop a churchy organ and watery pedal steel guitar riff. It’s a little bit country, a little bit Sunday morning. “On my way home I looked up at the sky/and the stars held up the night/destiny set me free,” he sings, a trio of pleading voices behind him in chorus. “Luna Samba” has a wicked backbeat that bounces the guitar riffs to new heights.

Lanois also revels in his collaboration with Eno, also a former U2 collaborator who appears in Lanois’ film, Here Is What Is. “I play really well with Eno,” Lanois says. “In a manner of minutes we’ve got something happening in the room that’s special — even without talking about it. We just pick up our instruments and we’re there. We just thank our lucky stars that we have that chemistry within us.” There is a snippet of dialogue from the film spoken by Eno. “I hope this film shows how beautiful things grow out of s***,” he says. “Everyone thinks Beethoven has those tunes in his head and they think that they just tumbled out. Things come out of nothing. The most beautiful seed can sometimes grow into a promising forest.”

This disc is a fascinating look into a very different kind of life. Log onto www.daniellanois.com for more information.

February 6, 2008 From the hob

Young singer creates intelligent pop music

Courtney Jones is a self-confessed “piano-lesson dropout.” However, she did find “a couple of chords I liked. I just played them over and over again and then found some words I liked,” Jones says. It all started when she was walking home from school one day. “I just had a concept stick in my head,” she says. “Nobody ever told me I couldn’t write a song.”

That’s quite apparent from her new album “Awake & Dreaming,” a tasteful collection of her soft rock tunes that would fit comfortably in anyone’s collection along with titles from Fleetwood Mac, Sarah McLachlan and Paula Cole.
The album was mixed by Mark Needham, who’s worked with Fleetwood Mac as well as The Killers, and features a number of standout musicians, including Stevie Blacke, Bob Glaub and Butch Norton, who’ve worked with Jennifer Hudson, Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams, among others.

One of the CD’s cuts, “Long Way Down,” is part of the soundtrack for the new movie “Cosmic Radio,” which stars Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah, and which also features cuts from Peter Gabriel, Elton John and Cat Stevens. It’s a long way from her days as a regular karaoke singer in a pizza parlor, Jones notes. “It started to bother me after awhile,” she says. “I didn’t want to keep singing other people’s songs.”

But she also knew she didn’t quite fit in with her peers, some of whom are more concerned with producing blaring, belligerent music that rips out your heart rather than tickles your ears. She feels called to a more meditative sound. “It’s not angry enough to be any number of genres,” she says with a chuckle. “I think there’s a really subtle connection that’s happening here with music that doesn’t smash your face in with a lot of bass and percussion.”

She also knew she had no desire to create escapist fantasies for her audience. “A lot of people go for flash because they want to distance themselves from reality, their reality. But that’s not me. I go for the narrative. I want it to be what’s actually happening.”

With her father, Andrew, encouraging her to concentrate on music, Jones left college a few years back and devoted her self to writing and singing. Just 21 years old, Jones, who hails from the Salem area, has made a relatively quick rise, having already worked with some top music industry guns, including Peter Malick, who’s played his guitar alongside another Jones – Norah Jones – not to mention Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Otis Spann and others.

Malick notes that unlike Norah, whose first hit “Don’t Know Why,” was written by Jesse Harris, Courtney pretty much wrote all of “Awake & Dreaming.”

“She’s a much stronger writer than Norah,” Malick says of Courtney, adding that her words betray great emotional depth. “I think lyrically she really gets into the heart of human existence, and you can’t do much better than that.”

Courtney, who’s done 140 shows over the past 15 months, has played everywhere from the House of Blues in Chicago and Room 5 in Los Angeles to Berbati’s Pan and The Roseland in Portland. She’s set to perform with her band – guitarist Mike Dongug, bassist Steve Morgan and drummer Steve Turnell – at Borders in Gresham this Saturday.

Jones hooked up with Malick through myspace.com, sending him a demo of her music, and the rest was history. “She’s got a great voice,” he says. “She is captivating.” Jones adds that she hopes his opinion is something people of all generations share. “I want to reach everybody,” she says. “I really aim to write and make music that everyone can draw from.”

By Rob Cullivan The Gresham Outlook, Feb 5, 2008 (news photo)

'Songlines': How a world music magazine came full circle and found itself

The genre wasn't even recognised until 1987, but 'Songlines', which marks its 50th issue, has found an irrepressible beat, writes Jonathan Brown

"It is not a much-liked term," the former BBC producer concedes. The term "world music", it seems, was dreamt up over a few pints at the Empress of Russia pub, in the distinctly British confines of Islington in 1987. Among the group gathered were record-company owners, festival organisers and promoters who had become frustrated at the inability of their potential customers to find the latest cut by their favourite Ethiopian begena player or Portuguese fado singer when browsing in their local record shop.

"Now, you can put all these people with unpronounceable names in one place, alongside classical or opera. It has worked brilliantly," says Broughton.

The north London drinkers not only brought practically the entire musical world together under one umbrella, they even agreed to spend £3,000 promoting their niche. And while there are some – including the British-Asian composer Nitin Sawhney – who refuse to label their music thus, the niche has grown large enough to sustain a publication devoted entirely to fans willing to part with £4.25 to read the lowdown on the latest sounds emanating from the streets of Dakar, Belize or Jerusalem.

Songlines sprang into life in 1999 as an occasional supplement to the stately Gramophone magazine, the leading classical-music publication. The venture was conceived in response to a growing interest in music from beyond the English-speaking world and outside the confines of Anglo-American musical norms.

Aware that they had tapped into a vibrant market, the publishers soon spun off the supplement into a quarterly, if somewhat academic-looking, magazine in its own right. Broughton, who had broadcasting experience and had worked on the original Rough Guide to World Music published in 1994, was at the helm when Gramophone was acquired by Haymarket.

"They inherited it and kept it going for a couple of years, but Haymarket didn't really know what to do with it. It just wasn't their scene, so they decided to stop it. But by this time, it had made a big impression and a lot of people were upset to see it go," he recalls.

The magazine was still fairly niche, barely breaking even with just 1,500 subscribers out of 8,000 copies sold. But brighter times were in store when the title was purchased for the nominal fee of £1 – complete with the potential debt of unmet subscription payments.

Financial backing was secured from Chris Pollard, the former owner of Gramophone, and Rough Guides veteran Mark Ellingham. The magazine was redesigned, with a larger format, and it went to eight issues a year – each with a free multi-track CD of new music attached to the front cover.

Today, with a staff of five journalists and a small army of freelance writers, all experts in their field around the world, Songlines has undergone another injection of capital and relocated to new headquarters in Shepherds Bush. The bottom line is also looking healthier with a circulation of 20,000 copies, a quarter of which are sold by subscription.

Although the majority of readers are in the UK, the magazine reaches a significant audience overseas, particularly in the United States where it has no competition and where publishers see major potential for growth. The Songlines website offers a slimmed-down version of what is on offer in the magazine, plus the opportunity to listen to free podcasts on iTunes and the rundown of the latest world-music chart.

With a predominately well-educated, affluent, thirty-something readership, which Broughton says includes as many women as men, the appeal to advertisers is obvious, not least on the back of the current boom in live music.

Full-colour adverts for a dizzying array of festivals, shows, albums and travel feature heavily throughout the 100-plus pages of the magazine.

But world music offers much more than some simply beautiful tunes, says Broughton.

"It is not just about the musical interest – it is also a window on politics around the world. It is a way of looking at a much broader picture. What is interesting is that people come to it from so many different denominations, whether it is Radio 3, through folk or through travel. I am very aware we have to cater for all these audiences," he says.

It is also a force for good, Broughton says. "Take Pakistani Sufi music: someone like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (below). Extremist Islam is what grips the headlines, but if you listen to his work you realise that there is a whole different side to Islam, which is about peace and love."

We're having a vinyl revival

Everywhere you look, dark clouds are gathering over the music industry. Sales were down 10 per cent last year. The number of songs illegally ripped off the internet outnumbers legal downloads 20 to one. Last week, the musician Peter Gabriel told an industry conference in Cannes: "It's time to put the corpse of what we know as the record industry in the ground and let some other beautiful things start to grow out of it." At the same conference, U2's manager, Paul McGuinness, saw things differently - even if he agreed on the death bit. "The collapse of the old financial model for recorded music will also mean the end of the songwriter," he warned. As REM once sang, "It's the end of the world as we know it".

Yet there is a bright spot amid all this gloom: specialist vinyl shops are experiencing a mini-boom, and they're feeling fine. "Vinyl record sales aren't affected by downloads," says Phil Thomson, the owner of The Vintage Record in Annandale, which specialises in vinyl LPs from the 1940s onwards, with a classic rock bent. He bought the shop two years ago, and doesn't stock CDs. "It's all doom and gloom if you're selling CDs now," Thomson says. "I figured you can't download a record, you have to go out and buy it. So I took a punt, and it's paying off."

The mood is similarly buoyant at many of Sydney's other specialist music shops, from Newtown's Egg Records (second-hand vinyl, CDs, DVDs and memorabilia) to Birdland (jazz, soul and blues) in the city and Erskineville's Revolve Records Relics ('50s to '80s vinyl, prog, funk, jazz and hip-hop).

A steady stream of analogue purists, collectors, diehard fans, DJs and young converts keeps business turning over nicely. "Rumours of our demise are [exaggerated]," says Kieran Stafford, the owner of Birdland since 1991.

To a certain extent, specialist outlets are insulated from the effects of illegal downloading because of the type of customers they attract by offering deep back catalogues, rarities and knowledgeable staff.

"The downloads market is predominantly the Top 40 market - which is why singles don't exist any more," Stafford says. "They're the kind of people who think they've got a record collection when they've got two records. Our average customer probably buys one or two albums a week."

The appeal of LPs is not only nostalgic; it is also tactile and aesthetic. You lose sound quality and the romance of the object with downloads, say the store owners. Coveting a limited-edition green vinyl 12-inch of the Cure's song The Forest? (That's $80 at Revolve.) An original local pressing of INXS's Listen Like Thieves? ($16 at The Vintage Record.) The complete On The Corner sessions by Miles Davis in an embossed metal box? ($180 at Birdland.) To teenagers used to getting their music for free, the maths doesn't add up; but for fans the price is beside the point.

"I'm finding that kids are starting to come back into the shop thanks to bands like Wolfmother citing their influences as Led Zeppelin, or similar," Thomson says. "There's also been a bit of an '80s revival - Duran Duran, Adam and the Ants, the Eurythmics - kids are coming in and buying them on vinyl."
Barry Scott, the owner of Egg Records, has also seen a surge in vinyl sales. "Business is fine," he says. "We also sell reconditioned turntables, and I sell one every week or two. It figures they're going to buy vinyl." CD sales are only a tiny fraction of the business at Revolve - the bulk is vinyl and memorabilia. Employee Peter Prifunovic says: "The boss tells me vinyl sales have been growing over the last three years. It was one of the reasons he hired me. We get fairly young customers, anywhere from 18 up, and generally male. Younger guys don't collect so much, they come in to buy records to sample."

The vinyl market is not only second hand: reissues are good sellers, and such acts as Radiohead, Bjork, the White Stripes and Ben Harper have released their latest records on vinyl. Recently, a boutique pressing plant called Vinyl Factory Australia opened in Marrickville. Thomson talks about unsigned bands offering songs for download on MySpace and then pressing a seven-inch when enough people have shown an interest.

It's not all good news. Graham Nixon, who has run the punk and hardcore specialty shop Resist Records in Newtown for 10 years, says downloading has had an enormous impact on his sales. "I'd say 80 per cent of customers under 20 come in and they don't look at music, they go straight to the T-shirts," he says.

Stafford thinks the future of music retailing will include physical and digital sales.

"I think it won't be one or the other but a mixture of both," he says. "Not everyone's interested in downloading. The quality is not as good. As for the big stores - whether or not they survive, I don't care. We'll still be here."

Time they are changing

- The recorded music industry has changed enormously in the past five years. In 2003, there were about 30 legal download services available; now there are more than 500.

- People can legally access about 6 million songs online.

- The digital music share of the global music market has moved from almost zero in 2003 to 15 per cent or $US3 billion last year.

- In 2003, customers could buy an artist's release in only a few formats - typically on CD.

- Last year, Justin Timberlake's Future Sex/Love Sounds was released in 115 products or formats (including ringtones, mobile full-track downloads, video, iTunes and others) which sold a total of 19 million units. Only 20 per cent of its sales were CDs.

Kelsey Munro

Peter Gabriel : l'homme-orchestre

Figure inoubliable (et déguisée) d’un rock progressif et théâtral avec Genesis, gourou des musiques du monde et pionnier des technologies du futur appliquées à la musique, Peter Gabriel demeure un artiste toujours aussi passionnant, capable d’improviser avec des singes bonobos et d’investir le Net en précurseur avec ses plateformes OD2 (en 2000) et plus récemment WE7 (en 2007). Pour La Presse, Peter Gabriel – déclaré «Personnalité de l’année» du dernier MIDEM (Marché international du disque et de l’édition musicale) – revient sur sa carrière et ses projets.

Q- Votre précédent album, UP, remonte à 2002. Vous avez prévu de sortir un disque cette année?

R- Oui, mais j'ignore quand. Franchement, à mon âge, cela m'importe peu. Je le sortirai quand il sera prêt. Il m'est difficile d'en parler aujourd'hui, car il peut encore partir dans différentes directions. Je compose assez facilement, mais pour l'écriture des textes, c'est plus laborieux, je dois m'y consacrer pleinement, m'enfermer dans une pièce sans téléphone, ni la moindre distraction. Ce qui est un peu difficile, d'autant que j'ai une fâcheuse tendance à mener plusieurs projets de front, mais j'ai toujours fonctionné ainsi...

Q- Par exemple?

R- Je travaille sur la bande originale du prochain dessin animé de Pixar. L'histoire, sans dialogues, d'un robot chargé de nettoyer l'espace de la pollution humaine. Je trouve l'idée amusante et intéressante. Le réalisateur, un passionné de science-fiction, l'a conçu comme une réponse, une suite au chef d'oeuvre de Kubrick, 2001 l'Odyssée de l'espace. Un film crucial pour moi. Sinon je collabore avec de nombreux musiciens dont Tom Newman, le cousin de Randy Newman. Je prends aussi beaucoup de temps avec le projet de Nelson Mandela, The Elders, une sorte d'ONG composée de sages issus du monde politique, économique et culturel. Sans oublier mon fils de 6 ans (rires).

Q- UP abordait les questionnements d'un homme confronté à la vieillesse, puis à la mort. Comment vivez-vous vos 58 ans?

R- Cinquante-huit ans dans deux semaines! Je vis bien mon âge, à part le fait que je me suis cassé une jambe au ski à Noël. Mon premier accident en 15 ans de pratique assidue du ski. Sinon, je suis un homme heureux, merci. Aujourd'hui, je vis surtout à Londres, pour ma femme - elle préfère l'activité de la ville. Par contre, tous les jeudis, je retourne au studio à la campagne, jusqu'à dimanche soir. Cet équilibre entre la ville et la campagne me convient parfaitement.

Q- Vous avez assisté au concert de Led Zeppelin à Londres. Vos impressions?

R- J'ai trouvé le concert fantastique. Pourtant, je n'avais jamais été un fan absolu de Led Zep durant mes jeunes années. Mais j'ai appris à les apprécier avec le temps. De la musique solide, puissante, musclée avec de l'intelligence, beaucoup de pertinence. La veille du concert, Robert Plant m'avait envoyé un mail avec cette blague: «Lequel va se prostituer en premier, toi ou moi?»

Q- Justement, la tournée de Genesis l'été dernier ne vous a pas donné envie de rempiler avec vos anciens camarades?

R- Je n'ai même pas eu le temps de les voir en concert. Mais je n'ai rien contre une reformation. J'ignore où, quand et comment. Mais une chose est certaine: ce n'est pas hors de question!

Q- Vous êtes musicien et un entrepreneur dynamique. Deux activités faciles à concilier?

R- Là, c'est un héritage de mon grand-père. Je refuse cette illusion un peu naïve mais toujours vivace selon laquelle l'art serait une forme d'expression pure et spirituelle, presque religieuse. Et le business une activité bassement commerciale et sale. La vérité est plus complexe. Avec l'argent gagné, j'ai pu créer mon label et promouvoir les musiques du monde, à l'époque méconnues en Occident. Le but n'était pas de gagner de l'argent pour gagner de l'argent, mais d'assouvir ma passion et de préserver ma liberté d'artiste. Et cela passe par l'indépendance financière. D'où l'obligation de me dédoubler en homme d'affaires.

Q- Bien avant iTunes et Napster, vous avez lancé en 2000 une plateforme de téléchargement de musique (vendue à Nokia en 2006). Vous semblez plutôt stimulé par la révolution internet, à la différence de l'ensemble des acteurs de l'industrie musicale...

R- Oui. Pour moi il s'agit d'une occasion excitante. J'espère voir une grande révolution se dessiner: le Net peut changer la nature même de la musique produite, avec plus d'audaces et d'expérimentations. Avec internet, les musiciens dits «marginaux» peuvent produire et diffuser leur musique par leurs propres moyens. Les artistes auront un peu plus de travail, mais aussi plus de liberté et d'occasion pour se faire connaître. Certes, le marché du disque a chuté, mais les succès de Mika ou d'Amy Winehouse apportent un démenti évident à «la crise du disque».

Q- Vous avez récemment lancé We7, une plateforme de téléchargement de musique gratuite, financée par la publicité. Vous ne croyez pas à l'avenir des sites payants?

R- Certains seront toujours prêts à payer, à condition de se voir proposer un contenu supplémentaire, avec des bonus, des interviews, des vidéos, un lien plus personnel entre l'artiste et son public. Pour les jeunes, le modèle payant est dépassé. Ils ont grandi avec l'internet et n'entendent pas débourser un centime pour de la musique. Aujourd'hui, le prix de la gratuité passe par la publicité. Et je ne suis pas un adepte fervent de la publicité, loin de là. Sur mon site, chaque titre téléchargé sera accompagné d'une publicité. Mais la «nuisance» sera temporaire puisque la pub disparaîtra au bout de quatre à six semaines après le téléchargement. A l'arrivée, vous gardez la musique sans la pub.

Q- Les publicités diffusées sur votre site sont ciblées à partir d'informations obtenues grâce à des données personnelles des internautes. Que faites-vous de la protection de la vie privée?

R- C'est un problème. L'option devrait toujours exister, pour l'internaute, de communiquer ou non des données personnelles. Il ne faut pas oublier un fait important: l'ère de la sphère privée est aujourd'hui révolue. Si je veux des informations sur une personne, il suffit de faire un tour sur les réseaux sociaux comme MySpace et Facebook, pour ne citer que les plus connus.

Q- Madonna a récemment annoncé son départ de chez Warner pour Live Nation, une société de spectacles américaine. À terme, les maisons de disques vont-elles devenir obsolètes?

R- Les maisons de disques existeront toujours. Radiohead ont réalisé une belle opération avec leur nouvel album: laisser l'internaute fixer le prix du CD en téléchargement. Mais dans le même temps, ils ont mis en vente un très beau coffret avec un livre, des visuels et des bonus pour 40 livres. Je l'ai acheté d'ailleurs. Et aujourd'hui, leur album se retrouve finalement distribué par une maison de disques.

Q- Durant votre carrière vous avez fonctionné comme une éponge, en absorbant différentes cultures musicales. Une démarche nécessaire pour évoluer?

R- Bien sûr. À la base, le rock est une musique noire. Des musiciens blancs ont essayé de les imiter et sont arrivés à autre chose. C'est un métissage, une musique hybride. Le rock est une culture très «affamée», mais c'est propre à toute forme d'expression de se nourrir de l'extérieur, de ce qu'il y a d'intéressant dans d'autres cultures. Dans les années 20, Picasso a peint Les demoiselles d'Avignon après avoir assisté à une exposition de masques africains. C'était le début du cubisme, mais attention, ce n'était pas de l'art africain, mais le résultat combiné de son influence. Et c'est pareil en génétique. Prenez la consanguinité: les membres d'une même famille, quand ils se reproduisent en circuit fermé, s'affaiblissent fatalement. La musique est plus dense quand elle est au confluent et se nourrit de plusieurs influences.

Q- Des nouvelles de Robert Lepage?

R- Pas ces derniers mois, mais je serais heureux de travailler avec lui à nouveau. Il a su parfaitement mettre en images mon univers musical pour lui apporter une nouvelle dimension. Son travail visuel dégage une véritable poésie. Chez Robert, le langage visuel est tout aussi important que le texte.

Q- Vous avez publié huit albums solos en 30 ans de carrière. Cela vous semble un chiffre suffisant ou vous auriez aimé en produire plus?

R- Parfois, oui. Mais si j'ai quitté un groupe, c'est justement pour avoir la liberté de m'engager dans plein de projets différents. Je suis très fier d'avoir crée le Womad, le premier festival des musiques du monde. Je suis aussi heureux d'avoir récemment lancé, The Hubb, un YouTube pour les droits de l'homme. J'aurais aimé mener à terme ce projet avec Brian Eno, celui d'un parc d'attraction interactif entre Disneyland, une galerie d'art géante et un musée de sciences... Alors bien sur, si je m'étais un peu moins investi dans différentes activités, j'aurais sans doute pu produire trois ou quatre albums supplémentaires. Mais ma vie aurait certainement été moins passionnante.

Éric Mandel/La Presse/Collaboration Spéciale

Midem "Sex Before Marriage"

Sur "My Music" : Le blog de Sylvie Krstulovic sur les stratégies marketing dans la distribution de musique en ligne

Le conseil de Peter Gabriel : "Sex Before Marriage"

Pendant le Midem, Peter Gabriel a été sacré personnalitée de l'année 2008!! Il est venu après Davos pour donner une conférence de presse... En vraie, il garde un visage assez lisse qui contraste fortement avec son bouc tout blanc.

Quels sont ses conseils pour les jeunes artistes qui souhaitent émerger? télécharger le podcast

Comment rapprocher l'industrie de la musique et celle de l'internet? Sa réponse est juste splendide! télécharger le podcast

Seattle Moore Theater : Angelique Kidjo

Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo is touring Europe to promote her new CD, Djin Djin. On the album, Angelique sings in her native languages as well as in English and French. Guests on the album include Peter Gabriel, Carlos Santana, Ziggy Marley, Amadou & Mariam, Branford Marsalis, Josh Groban, Alicia Keys, and Joss Stone.

The daughter of an actress, dancer, and theatrical producer, Kidjo was born in Quidah, a coastal city in the West African country of Benin. Inheriting her mother's love of performing, she made her stage debut with her mother's theatrical troupe. Inspired by the rock, pop, and soul music of Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Miriam Makeba, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin, she was singing professionally by her 20th birthday. Although she recorded an album, Pretty, produced by Cameroon-based vocalist Ekambi Brilliant that yielded a hit single, "Ninive," the oppressive political environment of Benin led her to relocate to Paris in 1980. Kidjo's husband, Jean Hébrail, a French bass player and composer she met in 1987, has played a major role in the recording of her albums.

The Moore Theatre Web Site

Please click here for a Culturekiosque interview with Angelique Kidjo.

Peter Gabriel gets Candid, Named Person of the Year at MIDEM

Revelations, Renaissance and Rights: Peter Gabriel talked candidly about his life and dual passions: the music industry and human rights.

CANNES, France (Hollywood Today) 2/1/08 – Music superstar and activist Peter Gabriel was named Personality of the Year here at the MIDEM Music meet, which gave us the opportunity to catch up with one of the most enigmatic and engaging figures in entertainment.

REVELATIONS: Leg in plaster, as a result of a recent skiing accident in Switzerland where he ran into a rock, Peter Gabriel hobbled to the stage and pointed to the irony of the situation that, he a rock artist, had come off a poor second in a recent altercation with the real thing. The last time he had broken his leg, he told the packed auditorium, was jumping backwards off the stage into the audience. The interviewer remarked that stage-diving was a common enough feat. When Peter Gabriel quipped back “real men do it backwards!” the audience erupted, they were going to be entertained as well as enlightened.

Asked why it was that he had decided, 30 years ago, to pursue a career as a solo artist after founding the fabled group Genesis, Gabriel revealed “It was really a decision to get out of the music business so it wasn’t a decision to go solo. Our first child had just been born and she was in an incubator for three weeks, at the same time the band were trying to finish an album off, for me there was no question of priorities. I hated the feeling that in two years time I would know exactly where I’m going to be and what I’m going to be doing, I wanted a sense of freedom, so I just stopped everything for about a year and worked on my vegetable garden very unsuccessfully but enthusiastically.”

Genesis first album was “From Genesis to Revelation” and he left in 1975 after the classic progressive concept LP “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.”

It was Gabriel’s deep-rooted love of song writing that had brought him back into the business, he said. “But the only catch to that is very often no one wants to record your songs, so you have to do it yourself. So I got back into singing.”

The song about his departure from Genesis “Solsbury Hill,” led a string of solo hits and early MTV video breakthroughs including “Sledgehammer,” “Big Time,” “Shock the Monkey,” “Biko,” and “Games without Frontiers.”

Later, he created Real World Studios and record label, which came about as a result of Gabriel’s involvement in world music festival WOMAD 1980. “We had all these amazing artists coming through who at that time, could not get signed to labels.” Virgin offered £10,000 for each release — out of which the artist’s advance, the making of the record and sleeve all had to be funded. It was, he said a tight budget but a good discipline.

It was clear that Gabriel cared passionately about the spirit of music and the freedom of the artist “My dad was a dairy farmer and was one of the first farms to introduce loud speakers to the milking parlour and what he found out was when you treat the cows well they produce more and better quality milk!”

RENAISSENCE: Dealing with the digital earthquake that Gabriel saw it not as a death knell for the industry but as a rebirth “All sorts of wonderful new life forms grow out of a corpse and sometimes there’s a smell! I think both things … as a studio we get less today than we got 20 years ago per hour , that’s not a good business model ….but at the same time there are all these exciting opportunities and my own passion and hope is that the fundamental revolution in the economic model is the fact that in the old days you had to convince someone you were going to sell 100,000 copies to get into a studio – that’s gone; people can make records in their bedrooms people can survive with 100 fans if they’re passionate enough and willing to pay. So if the economic model really catches fire, which it will do, then all sorts of new forms of music will exist that were not commercially viable…there should be a renaissance of creativity.”

Speaking about the bands and brands furor, Gabriel said that advertising could represent “Free music for an audience that had grown up expecting music for free” as long as that advertising was well targeted.

Gabriel applauded Radiohead’s initiative in letting fans choose the price they wanted to pay and thought that the download could co-exist with and indeed complement the physical product: “I went for the full £40 package and I think there’s going to be a lot more of that- where you can get access to the stuff free, check it out and then get extra added material digitally where you pay something, but not very much and if you want a physical product that’s the deluxe package… and all those models can co-exist and keep the music business alive.”

RIGHTS: At the press conference Gabriel expanded on what was clearly his great passion: the ELDERS and WITNESS programs and saw the mobile phone and associated technology as a positive force in the fight for human rights. In reply to the question how was he able to switch from the arena of technology to the African and human rights world Gabriel responded “I think they connect very easily….this young African woman was asked by a journalist what is going to transform Africa and get it out of the mess and she pulled out her mobile phone and she said ‘This!’ The journalist said to her, I don’t believe in one technological fix changing the world and she said ‘You don’t believe in the wheel, you don’t believe in fire, this is going to have more impact than those.’ and I think she’s right”

In essence Gabriel saw the mobile phone as essential in transforming the developing world. It gave, he said, nurses the opportunity to report instantly and therefore they could combat disease more effectively. Furthermore, “Mobile phones could be used as a bank: people leave their country and can send money back to their village in the form of a phone call…this century’s financial system is going to be built on the mobile phone and the unit of communication as the currency.”

Peter Gabriel is a many-layered man, he has helped countless artists to spread their spirit through publishing their music and has allowed us to share in musical experiences which, but for his efforts, we may never have been exposed to.

He continues to fight for the rights of the artist and the rights of the developing world.

Gabriel urged the press to help make their readers aware of his human rights programs and we at Hollywood Today invite you to go to the effort by clicking onto the website www.elders.org

By Veronica RamsdenFriday, February 1st, 2008

Carmina

Nottingham : Local jazz-folkies CARMINA have just signed a new publishing deal with Peter Gabriel's Real World Music Publishing. Listen

Midem 2008 : stars, succès et flop

Le 42e Midem, à Cannes, s'est terminé jeudi 31 janvier après six jours de discussions fébriles autour des nouveaux modèles économiques de la musique. Premier constat : le support physique n'est pas mort. En particulier les labels indépendants - du français Naïve au brésilien Biscoito Fino -, ont construit une image de marque et continuent de tirer leur épingle du jeu, avec des ventes de CD, rarement massives mais constantes (...)

Le dîner de gala du lundi, donné en l'honneur de "la personnalité de l'année", a distingué Peter Gabriel, venu avec sa mère octogénaire, "une passionnée de musique qui, dans le fond, n'a pas craint de voir son fils rater tous ses examens".

Peter Gabriel a si souvent fait preuve, dans le passé, de ses qualités de visionnaire - artistique, technologique, politique -, qu'on l'écoute quand il parle, avec un charme et un humour jamais démentis, de l'avenir de l'industrie. Cofondateur au début des années 2000 d'OD2, société pionnière (depuis rachetée par Nokia) de la vente de musique en ligne, il a investi en 2007 dans le lancement de We7, un site de téléchargement gratuit et financé par la publicité.

Stéphane Davet et Véronique Mortaigne, le Monde

Hassan Hakmoun

Photo by Angel Romero

World Music Central

Hassan Hakmoun was born in Marrakech in 1963. At the age of seven he began to study tagnawit, the Gnawa related arts and lore, under the renowned Hmida Boussou. Starting with a few dances and songs, he gradually moved on to learn drumming, sintir playing ( sintir is a three-stringed long-necked lute), litanies, chants, costume and knowledge of the spirits. Hakmoun began to play for the Derdeba (Gnawa ceremony), which can last from ten in the evening into the next day. It is believed to release spirits that have inhabited a person or place.

At fourteen, Hakmoun left school to pursue a less formal education on the road. He traveled throughout Morocco, Spain and up into France, learning from his experiences and from the Gnawa masters he visited on his journey. Returning to Marrakech, Hakmoun continued to work as a Gnawa, performing as an entertainer on Jamaa el-Fna, the town square and working as a m'allem (master musician) in the Derdeba. Along with other young musicians in Marrakech, he has begun to broaden the repertory of Gnawa entertainment songs by performing Arab and Berber tunes in the Gnawa style.

Whether onstage, or visiting with friends in a small apartment, as Hakmoun sings and plays himself into a trance, people around him seem not too far from a trance-like state themselves. The pentatonic scale and driving rhythm of the Sintir are instantly appealing and familiar to Western audiences; music of the Gnawa, like much American popular music, is built from elements borrowed from West Africa. Clawhammer banjo enthusiasts will also find commonality in the percussive style of plucking the Sintir.

Hakmoun made his U.S. debut in 1987 at Lincoln Center and has been living in New York City ever since. He performed at Woodstock '94 and on the WOMAD '94 tour. Besides performing traditional Gnawa music he has performed and recorded with jazz musicians such as Don Cherry and Adam Rudolph, pop stars like Peter Gabriel and Paula Cole, and world beat artists like Jamshied Sharifi.

In the year 2000, Hassan moved from New York to Los Angeles. He is romantically involved with pop singer Paula Cole.

Discography:
	Gift of the Gnawa (Rounder, 1991) Trance (Realworld, 1993) Fire Within (Music of the World, 1995) Life Around the World (Alula Records, 1999) The Gift (Triloka 7930185228-2, 2002)

Tony Levin performs solo for HopeTogether benefit

What do you want from Tony Levin first, the good news or the bad news?

The bad news? "Time travel will not be forthcoming," he predicts.

And the good news? "The day is coming when artificial intelligence becomes as intelligent as humans," he says. "The debate is, when will artificial intelligence reach us, in 20 or 30 years, or 150 years?"

Levin, the philosopher-bassist, professor of panspermia, plays Friday at New Covenant. It is a benefit for a high-minded cause: HopeTogether is the Penfield church's program that, since 2003, has sent members of its congregation on trips to Africa and the Katrina-battered Gulf Coast, with a specific mission to aid the poor in those troubled regions.

Levin, who has maintained his strong connection to Rochester since his days as a student at the Eastman School of Music, is planning a relaxed solo show. He figures he'll spend a portion of the evening answering questions about a career that's seen him play with Peter Gabriel, John Lennon, Paul Simon, King Crimson and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and as part of the three sold-out "Friends & Love" reunion shows last spring at the Eastman Theatre.

He'll bring his bass, of course. And the Chapman Stick, whose 10 strings are played by tapping them. And he'll probably bring out the Funk Fingers, the drumstick-like appendages that he wears on one hand, giving his bass a percussive sound. You can hear all of that on his latest album, Stick Man.

He'll also sing, by the way. Levin has always been in the background when he's opened his mouth, until his 2006 album Resonator. "Yeaaah," he says, looking for just the right tone of dismissiveness. "But I knew before I went into it that a lead vocalist has a lot of elements other than hitting the right notes. I just had a lot that I wanted to say that I couldn't say instrumentally."

He keeps a journal and writes poetry. And as one century gave way to the next, those observations needed to spill over into his music. "There was all of the turmoil from the end of the century, and 9/11," Levin says. "And I read a lot about science and religion, and I think there's been a lot of action in both of those fields. So I've been trying to imagine the coming century."

Science and religion have been stepping on each other's toes particularly harshly since George Bush took office, with the debates over creationism, placing the Ten Commandments in public places and stem-cell research.

On the question of artificial intelligence, Levin sees the fast pace at which new technology is introduced — "Look at how quickly people got cell phones" — as a sign that it will be 20 to 30 years, rather than 150 years, when we're surrounded by smart-aleck robots.

"I predict there will be a lot more conflict in 10-15 years, when science takes some huge leaps and, in my opinion, starts evolving humanity into a more advanced species," he says. "I don't think there's any holding it back. How will we react to man the creator, as opposed to God the creator?" To that end, he's written a song called "Throw The God a Bone."

"Dogs look at us as god. We provide for them, and they adore us," Levin says. "If, and when, we create life, will we want them" — meaning the robots or biological life that springs forth from our science — "to look at us in the same way?"

Similarly, "Places to Go" blends science with theology. Its first verse opens with, "The theory of panspermia, the theory that life came from other planets," Levin says. This was inspired by a NASA mission to Mars, the search for water there, and accompanying microbiological life forms. "The first verse goes, 'Hello Mars, it's good to be back,'" Levin says. "Having some inherent memory of having been there before." Before the song is done, he's also visited Boston, then his grandmother in heaven. "Gee, it's good to be home," he sings at each stop.

"Intellectually, I have lots of concerns," Levin says. "What I try to do artistically is not explain those things, but filter them in through my artistic sense. Not simply to sing about religion or science."

He's much more direct with one of his major passions, photography. Levin recently published Crimson Chronicles Vol. 1, available on his Web site. It catches King Crimson rehearsing and on tour through the '80s. Levin displays an eye for backstage moments, such as drummer Bill Bruford standing on his head while Robert Fripp noodles away on his guitar. But this ain't backstage with Motley Crue. Not a groupie is to be seen. Levin has stories to tell, but he'll never make the cut on VH1: Behind the Music.

"The bands I have traveled with never have been that kind of band," Levin says. "If you want to give it a category, they are progressive rock groups, which draw nothing like groupies. The fellows who get excited about that music have beards and play air guitar."

Jeff Spevak Staff music critic

Gabriel Recovering After Skiing Accident

AP Photo / Lionel Cironneau

Peter Gabriel is recovering after breaking his left leg while skiing in Switzerland. The former Genesis star is now "learning to hobble" around his home in Wiltshire, England, after starting the year in the hospital.

Speaking on his official Web site, the singer says, "We went away for a family holiday and I was skiing. ... I was with a group of friends who tend to go at some speed ... so I thought I'd get my skis out. I hit a rock and I could feel a loud snap as I broke my leg, and then I skied down to the piste, which was a bit stupid."

Showing off his cast from his home studio, Gabriel reveals, "I've been spending a lot of time in hospital ... but I think it's all been put back together." The rocker admits he's "frustrated" by his lack of movement, adding it has been 35 years since he broke his other leg after diving from a stage in Aylesbury, England. But it's not all pain and frustration for the hitmaker -- Gabriel was named Personality of the Year by music industry market MIDEM for his music and human rights work on Monday.

Shock the Monkey!

The 57-year-old injured rocker resurfaced at an airport in France last week, looking more and more like his former Genesis band mate, Phil Collins.

Peter broke his leg over the holidays in a skiing accident in Switzerland. In the late '80s and early '90s, Peter dated Rosanna Arquette.

The future is Peter Gabriel's to download

At an international music conference, the musician and Web entrepreneur says new technologies must be embraced.

January 30, 2008

CANNES, France -- Peter Gabriel was saluted in grand fashion here Monday as the 2008 "personality of the year" during the annual MIDEM international music conference, an award previously handed out to such music-biz luminaries as Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, Clive Davis, Quincy Jones and Montreux Jazz Festival founder Claude Nobs. But the musician and technological innovator skipped the opportunity to revel in the past that this kind of honor affords.

Accepting a glass trophy from MIDEM President Paul Zilk before a group of about 300 industry movers and shakers that also included his mother and sister, Gabriel remarked that "It's time to put the corpse of what we know as the record industry in the ground and let some other beautiful things start to grow out of it."

Few appeared to take offense, as the forward-thinking musician echoed comments he'd made earlier in the day and that others have been raising during the five-day gathering of nearly 9,500 participants from 91 countries.

In both settings Gabriel, 57 and hobbling on crutches with a broken foot from a recent skiing accident, urged musicians and industry executives to embrace rather than fight the technological changes and shifting culture patterns that have put the music business into a nose dive in recent years.

One specific response of his own is the recently launched We7 Internet service that generates free legal music downloads by pairing music with brief advertisements that create the revenue to pay artists. Gabriel has sunk $6 million of his own money into We7, which he said has logged about 1 1/2 million downloads since it went online last year.

The advertising-driven download model is one that many companies represented at MIDEM are experimenting with in different ways, and Gabriel acknowledged the potential pitfalls of so directly mixing art and commerce.

"It's climbing in bed with the devil," he said shortly before the award dinner at the Carlton Hotel. But the day of keeping the two segregated may well be over."I'm a big fan of Neil Young," Gabriel said, "but the artist who has complete control of his music and keeps his music completely apart from advertising is probably a thing of the last century."

The way Gabriel sees it, most young listeners are accustomed to hearing music in advertising environments. So by combining the ad-sponsored downloads for free with commercial pitches tailored to each We7 user's individual interests, ads can "become less annoying and more informational. It's about not selling dog food to cat owners."

The idea expands on what Gabriel helped develop with TheFilter.com, a website that generates music playlists based on users' record collections. Asked whether he was worried about other similar services now coming online, Gabriel said, "I love competition -- bring it on."

And he pointed to Radiohead's recent release of its "In Rainbows" album first as a pay-what-you-will digital download and then a physical CD as the wave of the future. "I think we'll be seeing a lot more of that, where artists don't just release one thing in one form," said Gabriel, who bought the deluxe version of "In Rainbows" costing around $80. "Fans will probably be able to get a free download version, then have the choice of buying a physical copy, or paying a bit more for a deluxe version with lots of extras. Finally I think we'll be seeing more artists releasing the limited-edition, handmade, signed edition. I think all those models can coexist."

As for Gabriel's long-incubating "Big Blue Ball" project, featuring artists from around the world who recorded in his Real World studio in England over three years in the '90s, his numerous philanthropic activities have limited his time to finish it. He quipped that it would be released "this century -- weather permitting," but added that it should see the light of day in 2008.

It was his involvement with the Elders, a coalition of 13 world leaders including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter, that prevented the singer from joining his original band, Genesis, on its reunion tour last year.

"There's no animosity" with his former bandmates, Gabriel said, and left open the possibility of revisiting the reunion idea. Not long before Led Zeppelin's reunion in London in November, Gabriel said he got a call from singer Robert Plant, wanting to know one thing: "He asked which of us was going to sell out first."

By Randy Lewis Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

U2 manager takes Internet providers to task

Mon Jan 28, 2008

CANNES, France (Hollywood Reporter) - Paul McGuinness, longtime manager of rock band U2, has called on Internet service providers to immediately introduce disconnection policies to end illegal music downloads and urged governments to make sure they do. In a passionate keynote speech delivered Monday during the International Managers Summit at the MIDEM music conference, McGuinness said it was time for artists to stand up against what he called the "shoddy, careless and downright dishonest way they have been treated in the digital age."

He spread the blame between record labels that "through lack of foresight and planning allowed a range of industries to arise that let people steal music"; Silicon Valley companies that create marvelous devices but "don't think of themselves as makers of burglary kits"; and governments who "created a thieves' charter" by agreeing that ISPs should not be responsible for what passes along their pipes. "There's a lot of money in the music business, but it has stopped coming to the artists," McGuinness said, though he agreed that U2 long ago determined that it "would be pathetic to be great artists but not be great at business."

Decrying ISPs that hold up their hands in innocence when music is downloaded via their systems, he offered a comparison. "If you were a magazine advertising stolen cars, handling the money for stolen cars and seeing to the delivery of stolen cars, the police would soon be at your door," he said. "That's no different to an ISP, but they say they can't do anything about it. If you steal a laptop from a store or don't pay for your broadband service, you'll soon be cut off and nicked."

To great applause from the audience of music managers, McGuinness insisted that disconnection enforcement would work. "I call on ISPs to do two things. First, protect the music, and second, to make a genuine effort to share the enormous revenues. They should share their ingenuity as well as the money. We must shame them. Their snouts have been at our trough for too long."

Later, musician Peter Gabriel added his support, agreeing that a lot of money is being made out of music by ISPs. He expressed concern, though, about blanket deals. "The trouble with any blanket agreement is that the money doesn't tend to trickle down to the artists," he said at a news conference. "We've all been told in the past about these kinds of deals, and we never see it in our (bank) accounts. It needs to be not just verbiage. It needs to express itself in money too." In Cannes for a banquet honoring him as MIDEM's 2008 Personality of the Year, Gabriel wore a cast on his left leg as the result of a skiing mishap. "I hit a rock," he said. "And I used to think of myself as a rock artist."

By Ray Bennett Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

CDs down but not yet out, say music pundits

CANNES, France (AFP) — CDs may well be seen as 'yesterday's' technology by young digitally-savvy music lovers, but there's life left in the shiny discs for some years to come, leading industry executives said Sunday. Plummeting CD sales worldwide have been blamed for many of the current woes of the global music business as new digital music products and services continue to grow and seduce consumers. But that is only part of the CD story.

"I believe there will be sales of physical (CD and vinyl) products for many years to come," Jean-Bernard Levy, who heads up Universal Music's parent company, entertainment giant Vivendi SA, told a music conference at the MIDEM music mart, the world's biggest music industry event taking place in this Riviera seaside resort. Many consumers are still buying CDs in supermarkets, retail stores or from online stores such as Amazon, Levy said.

His view was echoed by another leading music executive, Thomas Hesse, who heads global digital business at another record major, Sony BMG. "Physical is a business you shouldn't talk down," he said. Thirty percent of Americans don't have Internet access, for example, and still buy music, Hesse noted. And of the 18 million copies of superstar Justin Timberlake's new album that sold recently, three million were CDs, he said.

CD sales, however, have been declining steadily over the past three to four years as digital music explodes onto a host of devices and online music download stores. According to the IFPI, the industry body that represents the international recording industry, physical sales, which are virtually entirely made up of CDs, dropped from 21.5 billion in 2004 to 17.5 billion in 2006 and slumped further to an estimated 15 billion in 2007. Digital sales have soared by comparison.

Record company revenues from online digital music sales climbed 40 percent to 2.9 billion dollars (1.9 billion euros) in 2007. But the jump still failed to make up for the drop in physical sales, which companies blame largely on rampant online music piracy. CD sales also seem to increase when artists include added value, such as extra tracks or information about the band along with the CD, industry experts said.

The concept of delux packaging has attracted at least one entertainer -- Genesis rocker and digital innovator Peter Gabriel, who told the influential US music magazine Billboard he has been looking into the concept for some time. The festive period also gave a shot in the arm to CD sales, according to industry analysts, which had a good Christmas in Britain.

AFP

Music industry trying new ways to profit from downloads

It's been a tumultuous start to the year for the digitally down-at-heel global music industry. First Robbie Williams went on strike from his label, protesting at the "EMI bean counters"' plans to restructure the ailing company. Then the figures came in from international music body, the IFPI, revealing CD sales fell about 10 per cent last year, a decrease only partially offset by the 40 per cent increase in digital music sales.

In Britain, the industry attacked internet providers who they accuse of allowing the public to download pirated music willy-nilly. It's pushing for EU law to make internet service providers responsible for monitoring traffic on their network and to cut off members downloading music illegally. Amidst the acrimony, there are some companies trying to come up with innovative ways to stave off the collapse of the music industry, although it's far too early to tell if they'll be successful.

A significant deal went down last week when web radio station Lastfm.com, bought last year by American broadcaster CBS for US$280 million (NZ$361.7m), signed a deal with major music labels to allow Lastfm to stream their songs on the web, free to access worldwide. It's a big move for Universal, EMI, Sony BMG and Warners, who favour paid-for digital downloads along the iTunes.com model over emerging business models - such as advertising-supported downloads and on-demand streaming services.

There's also the risk software will become widely available that will allow people to record high-quality versions of the tracks being streamed from Lastfm, making music piracy even easier than it is now. But the labels have built some conditions of use into the service to avoid making it too sweet for free-riding listeners. When the labels' 3.5 million tunes become available "in the coming months", you will only be able to listen to each song three times.

Lastfm says it will make a premium service available for people who want to pay for repeat playback of songs. The premium service and advertising on the Lastfm website will provide revenue and is immediately available to listeners in Britain, the US and Germany.

Taking a different tack is rock icon Peter Gabriel with We7.com, his music download venture which has just received a US$6m injection of venture capital. We7.com lets you download music tracks for free - but there's a catch. Each song has an advert at the start. You have to listen to the ad for the first eight times you listen to the song. I gave it a go, downloaded a zipped-up version of Ocean Colour Scene's single Make the Deal and ran it in Windows Media Player.

A five-second advert played before the song, a not very memorable melodic rock number. I like the model, but Gabriel and his fellow financiers have a bigger battle making We7.com work than getting people to listen to these short ads. None of the big labels are on board. So you can't even download Gabriel classics such as Solsbury Hill from the website he helped found.

But the key to the long-term future of Lastfm and We7.com may lie in a generation of emerging musicians. They comprise a good deal of the listings on We7.com. They share in advertising revenue, while Lastfm has a system so unknown artists can upload their songs to the website and receive a tiny royalty each time the song is played. Small steps, then, towards tackling issues facing an industry that grew fat on the CD.

By Peter Griffin