David Bowie - The Future of the Internet (BBC Newsnight Interview Excerpt) [UK Television] 1999

An excerpt from David Bowie’s interview with Jeremy Paxman, originally broadcast on BBC Newsnight on the 3rd of December 1999.

“Though Bowie’s greatest success was in music, he was admired as a trailblazer in fashion, film, gender politics and, as it turns out, technology. Here are just a few of his early forays into digital media.

In 1996, he released his single "Telling Lies" online and got 300,000 downloads at a time when most of the world barely understood what the Internet was.

In 1997, Bowie did a "cybercast" of his Earthling concert in Boston, though it was well before most people had a fast enough Internet connection to really experience it.

Then, in 1998 he launched his own Internet service provider, BowieNet, which offered global high-speed Internet service (Well, high speed for its time).

More than that, it was an early fan community. According to a 1998 press release, the service included a personal email address (yourname@davidbowie.com), access to exclusive music from Rolling Stone and, of course, exclusive content from Bowie and his friends, including live chats with the artist (BowieNet quietly shut down in 2006).

In 1999, Bowie made a foray into the video game world. He worked on the soundtrack for Omikron: The Nomad Soul with French game developer Quantic Dream and made an appearance in the game itself.

Bowie’s endeavors proved ahead of their time. Though launching new Internet services may not have become commonplace for artists, the rest has: Musicians write music for video games, live-stream concerts, share music digitally and engage with fans online.

Bowie understood before most of his compatriots in the music business that the Internet would change everything. He seemed to know in his gut that the Internet was fundamentally shifting the relationship between artist and audience. And while so many musicians and music business insiders reacted to the changes with fear, Bowie was filled with curiosity, inspired by technology.”