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What’s Peter Gabriel Been Up To?

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By: Lior | in: Music |

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Peter Gabriel, although under the radar for some time now, is very much in the spotlight when it comes to his contributions to new music business models.  I discovered Gabriel about twelve years ago when I heard the 1989 Passion soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s widely criticized and rather long winded adaptation of the 1951 novel, The Last Temptation of Christ.

Founding  member of the group Genesis, Gabriel is perhaps most famous for his 1986 US #1 single, “SledgeHammer”, years after leaving the band for a solo career.  Those who have loved and witnessed his work through the decades, will praise his many collaborations with World music artists including the likes of Youssou N’Dour (Senegal), Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Pakistan)and Papa Wemba (The Congo), not to mention a string of Western stars-of-their-time such as Sinead O’Conner, Kate bush, Paula Cole, and Stewart Copeland.

Gabriel’s passion for Western and Non-Western musical fusion inspired the distribution and exposure of many World music artists in the US and Europe through Real World Records, a studio facility and label he established in support of his numerous humanitarian efforts and schemes to educate the West on the variety of musical sources  and cultures beyond our respective borders.

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Today, Gabriel is as active as ever and, for those of us following the convergence of music and the internet, he is an architect of prominent startups and initiatives to watch for.  In 2007, he co-founded We7, an ad-supported, free music download destination and rival to the much publicized SpiralFrog.  In fact, We7 and SpiralFrog are the only two major players in the ad-supported music download arena so far and expectations are high.  Personally, I think We7 looks like the company with the most attractive model at the moment.  This, however, is not a stab in the dark for Gabriel.  His interest and success in the business of music and technology can be traced back a decade.  In 2000, he was the co-founder and board member of OD2 (On Demand Distribution), which became the leading European platform provider for the distribution of online music (acquired in 2004 by Loudeye of Seattle).  In 2005, he acquired Solid State Logic with David Engelke, the world’s leading manufacturer of mixing consoles for music recording, broadcast and post-production. A quick visit to his site will demonstrate a capacity to work on forward-thinking, audiovisual projects such as The National Geographic’s, “Sea Monsters”, and humanitarian efforts such as TheElders.org, an extension to his on-going work with WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance).

Gabriel is still touring, writing and recording feverishly and his work is consistent and beautiful. With a flair for bringing human interest stories and great new music to the public eye, I dare say that we can expect a slick marketing move from this icon akin to Prince/Mail on Sunday, Paul McCartney/Starbucks or, more recently, Radiohead’s independent online release of “In Rainbows”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh80jJNgRrY


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Posted on October 8, 2007

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One Response to “What’s Peter Gabriel Been Up To?”

  1. music » What’s Peter Gabriel Been Up To? on October 8th, 2007 1:14 am

    [...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptWhat’s Peter Gabriel Been Up To? By: Lior | in: Music | gaberiel1.jpg … when it comes to his contributions to new music business models.  I discovered Gabriel about twelve years … , will praise his many collaborations with World music artists including the likes of Youssou N’Dour [...]


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