The Bath Chronicle :
Former Genesis frontman and digital music pioneer Peter Gabriel has spoken out about some of the negative aspects of the internet on the music industry - naming low quality MP3s and "too much choice" as the main offenders.
It's probably no coincidence that Gabriel is currently involved in two projects - The Filter (an online discovery tool that filters music and movies according to your tastes) and Lossless Sound - a joint venture with speaker makers Bowers & Wilkins to supply a CD-quality, uncompressed album every month online.
"I think everyone thought that it (the internet) was going to democratise the music business, but it's done less of that than we would have hoped. A lot of the artists are losing one of the central sources of their income, i.e. record sales, they need to become smarter in building their own database as a means of accessing their own fans and learning and getting the feedback from their fans", said Peter Gabriel to Reuters.
"An MP3 has become the sort of new standard and it's a giant step backwards. Whereas in television now most of us are getting used to wide screen or high definition, and that's gone forwards in terms of quality, music has certainly gone back".
"I think in a world in which we are drowning in choice and have access to everything, we are going to rely more and more on good filtering".
LONDON (Reuters) - Grammy-winning musician Peter Gabriel believes the Internet has drowned users with too much choice, failed to democratize the pop industry as much as was hoped and eroded the quality of what people listen to. The 58-year-old producer, former Genesis frontman, world music champion and digital technology pioneer is involved in two new ventures he hopes will address his concerns.
The Tech Weekly podcast: a warm bath of thought for your earsThis week in Tech Weekly we talk to Peter Gabriel about his new web recommendation service, The Filter. It's a kind of last.fm for the whole of your cultural life - and he explains how he got involved.
We couldn't pass up Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, so we dissect the latest on the big 3G iPhone announcement. Was it as big as was expected? And is this a sign that Apple is changing its business approach.
Also in this week's show, more news of Microsoft's proxy Yahoo takeover, the BBC's moves to stream its archive live online, the phenomenon of advertising within Playstation 3 games, and whether broadband adverts will really change.
We'll also have your words of wisdom with comments from the blogs and our inbox too. Get in touch using any of the methods below, and don't forget to Skype us and join our new Twitter feed.
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(Apologies. We wanted to find a Guardian picture of Peter Gabriel dressed as a flower, but couldn't. CC on Flickr, anyone?)
What’s the link between a recording studio in Wiltshire and a giant spaceship? “I was thinking about the film Close Encounters,” says Peter Gabriel, “and the way we make a connection with the aliens through melody. That may be a little fanciful. But at the Real World Studios we get musicians from all over the world, who often can’t talk to each other. We give them the technology to make noises, and they start making noises, and suddenly there’s a common language. That’s when things take off.”
Par Magali de Barrin Lords of rock :
On E-consultancy :Peter Gabriel's Filter Hall Of Fame nominees
Since Genesis, Peter Gabriel has been an innovator and pioneer, utilising the then-clumsy and expensive Fairlight computer on his solo albums; he was one of the first to utilise digital recording, established WOMAD, Real World studios and Real World record label, developed CD ROM technology, (creating the acclaimed Xplora, the world's largest selling music CD-ROM), invested in online advertising-supported free music download site (We7.com), was one of the founders of On Demand Distribution (OD2) one of the first online music download services, as well as numerous humanitarian projects.Peter's latest venture is the newly launched The Filter. It's been said that the internet needs a good editor, the amount of information available can often be overwhelming, finding what you know is out there can be difficult, but finding relevant material that you don't even know exists can be time-consuming and frustrating. As an avid user of the internet Peter feels the same way, his new enterprise narrows the choices of music and makes suggestions based on your personal music preferences. The user can filter music based on mood and interest and find music unknown or forgotten by them. "The internet, which I think is an amazing creation, provides access to an ocean of limitless information, but without filtering it's easy to drown," Gabriel, 58, told The Press Association. "But if you have this little friend on your shoulder, that can pick out music to listen to and films to look it, it's something I would use provided I could steer it a little." It is a bold experiment that may make music that is seen as too obscure, or fringe, by current search engines more accessible and user-access friendly, which can only be a good thing, especially for the time poor punter.
NEW YORK - After spending his youth mired in harrowing brutality and poverty as a child soldier in Sudan's ethnic conflict, Emmanuel Jal was rescued by aid workers who pushed to give him a new start at life in a different country. But there were times when he didn't want it.
"When I was in Kenya I hated myself, I even cursed the day I was born. I hated it. I wanted to commit suicide. I went to England, when there was a car coming I would want to stop and the car to hit me," says Jal, a slight, soft-spoken man whose gentle demeanour belies his past. "I was trying to look for death."
Inspiration for a better life would come in an unusual form - the violent, crime-plagued rhymes of rappers in the United States.
"What made me brave is American hip-hop," says Jal in his heavily accented English. "Someone come and say to me, 'They have to rob for them to eat. So I would try and picture, how does America look like because I've never been there. So for me when I look at it and look at my situation - I was a child soldier, we never had food, we raid villages and we take the food and we eat . . . So I said, 'OK, let me testify.' "
Jal's testimony came in the form of his own raps - and now, through his music, he is hoping to heal not only the wounds of his own people but to promote peace while inspiring others.
"I lost my childhood, yes. My country is a war. People are dying now. What could I do with what I have?" asks Jal, who last month released his third international CD, "WARchild," and is the subject of a new documentary of the same name.
"It cause me nothing if I just go and talk about my story, but the impact that will do will be amazing, so let me sacrifice my pride. Because before I used to hide, I didn't even want to be called a Sudanese because of what I see on TV. . . . But I say this country, this is me, this is my responsibility, I have survived, I'm here, let me use it."
Karim Chrobog, the director of the award-winning "War Child" film, says Jal's story shows that "you can really survive horrible, horrible things and come out of them and really make a difference . . . he has put all the bitter things in life aside, his sense of revenge, his sense of the war and how it's affected him personally."
The dreadlocked Jal, who doesn't know his age but believes he is in his twenties, was about seven when the Sudanese civil war, which pitted Muslims against non-Muslims, tore apart his family and led to his life as a child warrior for the Sudanese People's Liberation Army.
His pregnant mother was killed, and his father, a member of the SPLA, allowed his son to be trained as a soldier for the anti-Muslim faction. Bands of children were taught how to use machine guns and put on the front lines as the militia carried out attacks against government loyalists.
One of the more sombre parts of the "War Child" film shows video of Jal as a young boy carrying a weapon, while another features the now-adult Jal talking to school children and solemnly acknowledging that he took part in killings as a child.
Jal and hundreds of other children were forced to fend for themselves. At one point, they were so hungry Jal admits he considered eating the flesh of a dying child comrade. After an attempted escape, he and 150 others were rescued by aid worker Emma McCune and taken to Kenya. McCune adopted Jal, but she died in a car accident a year later. Her friends helped bring Jal to London to start anew.
He managed to finish high school in England, but when he tried to extend his visa to stay for college he was rejected, and sent to Kenya.
"My life crushed, I had no hope. So that's when I started doing music. I was just doing it to encourage myself and have fun," he says.
Jal, who says he is still growing as a rapper, recalls participating in verbal battles in the Sudan before the violence, much like playing the dozens in the United States, though he says he was never any good: "(It's like) maybe telling somebody like, your sister is so skinny that she can shoot through a straw," he says, laughing.
But as he grew older and started writing lyrics, his music struck a chord not only in Kenya, where his song "Gua" (which means peace) became a hit, but internationally. He was invited to perform at 2005's Live Aid concert in London, collaborated with the likes of Peter Gabriel and Moby, and realized that his rhymes were not only therapeutic for himself but others as well.
The lyrics on "WARchild" are not only inspirational and spiritual, but also political. One song talks about Africa being financially raped by the outside world, while "Forced to Sin" talks about his life as a soldier.
And while he was once inspired by American rap, he uses the CD to also criticize some rappers' glorification of violence, sex and crime, most notably on the song "50 Cent," which urges the multiplatinum rapper to stop promoting songs that might encourage black-on-black crime. The chorus: "Now 50 Cent I ain't hating on you, still I think it's my civic duty to warn you, you're being played brother man, you're being played by the man."
"I sometimes ask myself, you say you're a gangster, you deal drugs, you kill people," Jal says of 50 and other rappers of his ilk. "If you're a real killer, it's not fun talking about killing people. It's hard ... participating in killing someone is hard because human life; it doesn't matter who you are, there's no one can say, 'I'm hardcore, I kill people.' Somehow, someday it will burst in you."
"You can't be a gangster until you die," adds Jal. "(50) should do something different, and maybe going back to the community because if we don't do that, if we don't save this generation then it's going to be a genocide, especially on black people."
Jal is trying to help those afflicted by the violence with the Gua Africa foundation, designed to aid war survivors rebuild their lives. With Sudan still in turmoil with the violent Darfur conflict, Jal is trying to solve the problem the best way he can: with his musical contributions.
"For any person who struggle in something, (this is) to show that if you are in this world you are here for a reason, and every person has a purpose," he says. "It took me long time to actually say I believe that I survived for a reason."
On the Net: http://www.emmanueljal.com
from Brandon Sun
While the internet may be a great place for entertainment, not everyone has the tech savvy - or the patience - to search seemingly infinite websites to discover something new.But rocker Peter Gabriel thinks he has found a way to help with his site, appropriately titled The Filter.
"The internet, which I think is an amazing creation, provides access to an ocean of limitless information, but without filtering it's easy to drown," Gabriel, 58, said. "But if you have this little friend on your shoulder, that can pick out music to listen to and films to look it, it's something I would use provided I could steer it a little."
The site, which will provide users with daily recommendations, was founded by Gabriel and Martin Hopkins, a huge jazz fan. Hopkins first came up with the notion of filtering content to discover new or forgotten music according to one's individual mood.
Users who visit The Filter will initially be asked to fill out basic information and rate different genres of music and film, and also different acts and movies as well. The filter uses that information to figure out what kind of suggestions to make, and the more a fan uses the site, the more accurate the recommendations, according to the site's developers.
Gabriel recently had soul music and Nick Drake on his own Filter page. He also likes Radiohead and Icelandic band Sigur Ros.
"It's the attraction of being still in touch with interesting and new things without having to make the effort to research them all the time," said Gabriel, laughingly pointing out the "inherent laziness in my nature."
"I'm a tired thumb person, I'm a channel clicker. Maybe it's a male thing. I know there's good stuff I'd love to watch out there but I don't want to search all the time," Gabriel added.
He also doesn't have the time, in general.
The singer has a 6-year-old son and another son on the way with his second wife. He also has two adult daughters.
"I'm very fascist about family time nowadays. I don't work weekends. That's very important," Gabriel said. "Being a dad is still the thing that has given me the most pleasure in life."
Gabriel has also been multitasking projects, from a song for the Pixar-Disney animation movie Wall-E to recording at his expansive Real World Studios a few hours from London. He has also been working on a web site to be called TheMemory.com that he dubs "the first social network for the dead," a way to store memories and remember loved ones.
But he still loves touring, although he says he won't do yearlong tours anymore because of family.
"It's balancing life with any other life. Nothing beats the experience of playing live music with great musicians," Gabriel said.
The Filter is not the former Genesis frontman's first foray into technology. He also founded Real World, a group of companies including a multimedia outlet. In 2000, he co-founded online British music distributor On Demand Distribution (OD2), which sold for millions to a Seattle company in 2004.
Back in the day, I was a rabid Peter Gabriel fan. Through his Genesis days and his first five solo albums, he ruled; his concerts were a transcendent experience. His music tailed off after that, as did my interest, though his Oscar-nominated collaboration with Randy (I Write A Song For Every Second Movie) Newman on That’ll Do still gives me chills. Look, I’m a big enough fan to absolve him of the responsibility in the creation of the tribute to the paucity of taste in the world that is Phil Collins.
So I was thrilled to get an excuse to write about him in the form of the launch of The Filter, his online project that uses complex algorithms and your input to recommend music, movies and television programs that’ll appeal to your taste.
(Although, I’m sure an interview would have gone badly:
“Peter Gabriel here.”
“Peter Gabriel? You’re really Peter Gabriel?”
“Yes. Mr. Webb, I understand you wanted to learn a little more ab-”
“OMIGOD!!! IT’S PETER GABRIEL!!!”
“Yes. Now, let me tell you a little bit about Bayesian mathe-”
“EVERYBODY!!! PETER GABRIEL’S ON THE PHONE!!!”)
The Filter, as Mr. Gabriel was tring to tell us before he was so rudely interrupted, uses Bayesian mathematics to sort through the tripe and find the stuff you’ll like. According to the Web site, “the engine uses an evidence model (which includes purchase, consumption and browsing data) to derive the similarity of items.” Given an item of interest, it produces a pick-list of that are relevant.
As you rate the recommendations, the engine has more and more information from which to derive its lists, ultimately, in theory, knowing what you’ll like before you even know it exists. Once you’re signed up, you can fine-tune by rating other genres and artists.
All good in theory (even if the theory is a little beyond me). In practice, though …
The sign-up process is quick and painless (although the simulated parquet background on the home page shocked my monkey): Choose three genres of music. You’re then presented with three artists in each genre to rate; a handy preview function lets you have a listen if you’re not familiar. Do the same for movies (or don’t). And you’re away.
The recommendations, on the whole, were spot-on to a degree. I’m a picky eater when it comes to music (no Phil Collins, please; I’m allergic). Many of the CDs recommended were already in my collection. Most of the preview music I heard suited me fine. And over time, one supposes, as I rated more and more tracks, the recommendation would have been even more finely honed. With the optional downloadable program that tracks what you’ve played in iTunes or Windows Media Player, the results should be even more relevant, unless you like listening to music that you don’t, um, like.
But then what? The Filter has no record company deals, so it can’t sell you music online. The previews are 15- to 20-second clips; by the time you’ve heard enough to rate the song, it’s moved on to the next. The streaming quality was iffy (probably high traffic in the wake of the launch) and the sound quality and volume varied wildly (but then again, you have to use the volume control on any stereo when switching from Bill Evans to The Killers). And I can’t abide the privacy implications of the download — though the company promises they don’t do anything else with the information, that’s no promise that a court order couldn’t break.
If it actually functioned as a streaming radio player that tunes itself to your taste, it would be worth the buzz. But as it stands right now, it’s not terribly useful. While it’s a different (and arguably more accurate) engine to play arbiter of your musical taste from the “other-people-who-like-what-you-like-liked-this) model of, say, Yahoo Radio, at least that plays full songs.
Sorry, Mr. Gabriel. I wanted to like it.
But to be fair, it is in beta, and surely more features are coming. Keep it on the radar.
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Peter Gabriel launches 'The Filter'
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