Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996

I had a handful of downloaded music files that I acquired in 1998–9, but I rarely listened to them because other than burning a CD from them, there wasn’t a good way to listen to them on my main music system and my computer speakers were relatively crappy—I had a CD boombox in my home office that I used to listen to music when I was at my computer rather than popping a CD into the computer to play music. I suspect most people today have little idea how crappy the options were for listening to digital music files pre-iPod which really did a lot to revolutionize things.

I was at my 35-year college reunion this past weekend and the thing I found most eerie was the fact that the campus was so quiet. Back in my day, there would be a significant stereo system in every dorm room (or almost every dorm room) and music would be played at levels that could be heard outside the dorms (the dorm I lived in was notorious as being a loud music dorm and the residents of one suite had purchased the old enormous speakers that had been used for campus parties and positioned them outside their room to be able to provide music to the dorm as a whole. In a way this sort of thing acted like a kind of low-range radio for sharing music with others—I think that’s a big part of how many of my classmates got into Marillion (I was responsible for introducing folks to Toyah Wilcox as well as messing with their minds when I’d play Peter Gabriel in German or Sting in Spanish).

I finally asked him what the deal with Prince and his music was. The Warner Brothers kerfuffle, and all the drama around him wanting to own all his music. I'll never forget Jimmy telling me in late 1998 or 99 how Prince was about to change the music industry. He said that Prince wanted to put out music when HE felt like. If he creates one or two songs he loves, he doesn't want to feel like he has to put together another 8-9 songs in an album, he wants to release those two and let the fans get them, instead of waiting for an ENTIRE ALBUM of music he would have to create. Jimmy looked at me with a seriousness when he said, "Listen to me man, the future of music is singles. You'll see. Prince is going to push the entire music industry to start selling nothing but singles. This internet stuff? Its built for singles, not albums."

What happened three years later? Apple created iTunes. How did iTunes sell its music? Singles.

Prince was so far ahead of his time, but he needed technology to catch up to his philosophy.