I“Hours…” is far from his best album, not even his best album of the 1990s, but “Hours…” is David Bowie’s most important album of that decade. It wasn’t the music, however, but the way it was released: the first album released by a major artist on a major label to appear as a download before being released physically.
In August 1999, ahead of Hours’ release in September, Rolling Stone magazine, reviewing the album, called it an “internet coup”: a continuation of Bowie’s obsession with releasing music online, which he had begun in 1996 with “Hours” Telling Lies” single launched the career. Embracing internet radio and creating his own internet service provider in 1998 with BowieNet “I’m really excited about the opportunity to move the music industry closer to digital downloads being the norm rather than the exception,” Bowie explained of the then-released Hours.. .》. “We all know that the vast majority of people have not yet had access to broadband, so the success of this experiment is expected to be measured in hundreds rather than thousands of downloads. However, as color television broadcasts and film content on home video tapes are As the first step in motivating its industry to expand consumer access, I hope this small step will lead me and others to make an even bigger leap, ultimately giving consumers more choice and convenience in accessing the music they love. .”
In early 1998, Virgin Records/EMI made Massive Attack’s Mezzanine available for online streaming in its entirety alongside its physical release, albeit with a track-by-track preview over the course of a few weeks. At the time, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) warned that the streaming experiment could increase the likelihood of albums being pirated and burned onto CDs by tech-savvy individuals. That didn’t stop other major labels or their occasional attempts. Def Leppard and the Red Hot Chili Peppers both produced their latest albums, “Euphoria” and “Californication” respectively, and streamed them in their entirety on June 4, 1999, four days before the record hit stores. “Getting airplay is getting airplay, you just have to define the air,” said Chili Peppers’ Bob Merlis of Warner Bros. “We feel good about it because it’s not downloadable.”
But the release of a Bowie album was intended to be a significant step forward. In 1999 he was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman on BBC Newsnight, where he talked about his career, his art and, most excitingly for him, the Internet. The 16-minute interview is still available to watch on the BBC website and has been shared regularly, particularly since Bowie’s death in January 2016, as evidence of his astonishing prescience about the internet’s impact on art, politics and society. “I don’t think we’ve seen the tip of the iceberg yet,” he told a tired and cynical Paxman. “I think the impact the internet has had on society, for better or worse, is unimaginable. I think we’re actually on the cusp of some exciting and scary things.” In his way, Paxman suggested that this is just ” A Tool,” and Bowie sprang into action. “No, it’s not,” he said. “No – it’s an alien life form!”
He went on to say that the Internet would revolutionize the dynamics of consumption: “The interplay between users and providers will be so harmonious that it will shatter the way we think about the medium.”
Paxman probably grimaced off camera, but Bowie was proven right. He wasn’t the first to say these words, but as he had done many times throughout his career, Bowie was synthesizing ideas from the fringes and delivering them to the mainstream. Case in point: As part of the marketing for “Hours…,” Bowie held a contest asking fans to help complete the song “What’s Truth Happening?” “, which was posted online in demo form. Alex Grant, a 20-year-old fan from Ohio, won and the recording of the song was streamed online via a 360-degree camera. Grant received songwriting credits along with Bowie and Reeves Gabrels. Bowie said: “The most gratifying part of the night for me was being able to encourage Alex and his friend Larry to sing a song he Alex had written. It was a cool way to end the session. Way.” Bowie’s website describes it as “the first truly internet song.”
In a clever choice of words, Andrew Pollock, HMV’s vice president of marketing for North America, told Billboard: “Obviously, we’d rather stick with a more traditional approach. But this is the wave of the future, and we all need to start doing something about it. Be prepared.”
Prior to the CD release, digital versions of the album were only available in the US, but UK retailers feared this could damage their business. Brian McLaughlin, chairman of music retailers trade body Bard and managing director of HMV Europe, insists UK record labels must “make their international affiliates aware of the potentially damaging impact that such internet initiatives could have if accessed in the UK” . He added: “However, this exciting development must be managed in a way that benefits all parties.”
While there have been plenty of hints that retailers would boycott brands or artists if they tried something similar in the UK, much of it was posturing. However, in the Netherlands, the Libre record store chain said it would pull all his albums from its shelves.Meanwhile, in the US, Carl Singmaster, founder of the Manifest chain, claimed that releasing albums for download two weeks before their physical disc release “drove customers online and told them stores weren’t cool, and [are] past”.
Bowie, already temperamental, himself looked at the retail world’s fury and thought it could be much more outraged. “Mark my words … we are not going back to record labels and stores,” he said. “In five years, it’s going to change so dramatically that no one will recognize the music industry.”
Glen Ward, president and CEO of Virgin Entertainment Group, said: “As a huge Bowie fan, I hate to say this, but it’s frustrating from a business perspective .” America in 1999. “I understand why he did it – just pushing the boundaries, [taking] Opportunities to raise awareness. But from a business perspective, it’s annoying to say the least. ” Matt Black, of Coldcut and co-founder of the Ninja Tune label, was an early adopter of digital technology and a shaker of the possibilities of the Internet. But even he had a love for tradition. The retailer sympathized and saw it as a huge betrayal. “If I were a record store selling vinyl, a Bowie fan would probably go out of their way to promote the album and I would be very angry. “
But Bowie’s album was released at a time when using the Internet (let alone buying products on the Internet) was no longer an everyday activity. According to research from the Computer Industry Almanac, 147 million people worldwide accessed the Internet at least once a week in 1998. This is more than double the 61 million people who accessed the Internet each week in 1996. But going online was one thing – in 1999, people were still very hesitant to buy content online. This is partly because everything online should be free, but mostly due to the fear of handing over your banking details to website operators.
In the November 13 issue of Billboard magazine, journalist Ed Christman suggested that Bowie’s bold predictions couldn’t be supported on his own weight. He wrote that EMI/Virgin revealed that Hours… sold only 989 downloads during its two-week exclusivity period, compared with 29,000 first-week sales in US physical stores. “The number of people currently willing to pay for music in download format appears to be between 1,000-2,000,” he wrote. “I would even question that number.” He speculated that a large portion of those 989 download sales From curious people in the music industry who were just “check out this newfangled download thingamajig”.
Jay Samit, then senior vice president of new media at EMI Recorded Music, reflected on “Hours”…a quarter of a century has passed. “Bowie was a great visionary and a joy to work with,” he said. “The only regret, and luckily no one found out in time, was that the album was called ‘Hours’…that’s exactly how long it took to download an album at the time!” According to EMI, 23.9% of people who bought Bowie albums downloaded Consumers need technical help, but the record label said it expects the number to be higher. “If your phone rang then [you were downloading], if you used a mix line, you had to start the whole process over again,” Samit said. While the album attracted “a lot of press,” he said, “not many people actually knew how to download the album. “
Still, he sees it as another example of Bowie pointing the way for the future. “It’s about educating other artists; making sure Silicon Valley is willing to fund these digital music companies so they can continue to fund this experiment.” Samit said Bowie was “very effective” in educating the music industry and venture capitalists.
Simon Wright, managing director of Virgin Retail UK, said Bowie “understood his customers. He was catering to their needs. And he was a prescient man. If the record industry had David Bowie’s mentality, it was probably better to get through the whole period.”
From the perspective of 2024, the threats, accusations and panic surrounding the downloadable album in 1999 seem outdated. Yet this album and the way it was released represented a break from the old way of doing things and was a touchstone in the music industry. Do you want to skip today to tomorrow? Or do you want to continue living in yesterday until it suffocates you?