When asked to write about David Bowie, I initially couldn’t think of what to write. I wasn’t a fan. I liked his pop days with Nile Rodgers the best, and his duets. Oh, and his “Labyrinth” movie, but let’s put that aside. But, I was too young for his Ziggy Stardust days, and his experimental sound later, was simply not my thing.
Later, I’d heard he hated his pop era, and that left me with a bit of weird impression about him. There’s always something bitter sweet about an artist saying they didn’t like what they were doing when they were the most popular.
When I started to think about him as blog topic, the only thing that really came to mind, was his innovativeness when it came to the Internet. In the middle of the 90s, I started a web design company. At the beginning, I was specialized in websites for artists. It was a tough challenge convincing artists, management and labels, in 1996, about the benefits of the Internet.
I saw countless possibilities, for promotion, fan engagement, online fan clubs, direct sales, affiliate sales.... You could even start your own radio station to stream your own music only or start an internet company. You could be reselling these services or literally doing it yourself. All these things are now common knowledge, but then it was hard to get people to see the light.
However, I’d heard about David Bowie embracing this new media platform and all the new technology too. So much so that he started BowieNet; an ISP (internet provider) and was even quoted to say: “If I was 19 again, I’d bypass music and go right to the internet”.
BowieNet was launched in 1998, offering people access to the Internet, with a BowieNet e-mail address, and it would give you access to subscription only content on his official website. This were exclusive photos, videos, interviews, blogs, tracks, and broadcasts.
And if you thought that this would only be interesting to Bowie’s own fans, you were wrong. Bowie did then, what a lot of companies are still doing now. He got deals with other music related companies to offer more exclusive content.
BowieNet was intended to be one of the first platforms for music fans of all kind. It sold its content to fans, and knowledge and services to artists and music companies. You really couldn't go wrong with this business idea and a super star involved like David Bowie. With it he became one of the first artists to take his online ventures to something profitable and his vision went far beyond other people in the business, at that time.
BowieNet was part of a company called UltraStar, which Bowie partnered and invested in. In 2006 UltraStar was sold to Live Nation. They kept all the BowieNet services online and running (up to certain point) until 2012. It's a shame I couldn't find how many subscriptions BowieNet actually had, but initially it was only launched in the US and later worldwide, so it's safe to assume the numbers were good. So, behind the ever changing artist was also a dotcom entrepreneur.
