“You’re always first online”
Today marks the 15th anniversary of David Bowie recording the first ever cyber song which was broadcast live on DavidBowie.com
The event took place right about now on Monday. May 24th, 1999, from 7 – 10 p.m. EST. The shot of Bowie here is from that very session.
Here’s an edited excerpt from the press release at the time.
David Bowie Records First Cyber Song ‘What’s Really Happening’ Live on the Web
In a prolific career spanning over 30 years, DAVID BOWIE has always been on the cutting edge of technology and artistic endeavours. As the first artist to launch his own Internet Service Provider (ISP), Ultarstar’s BowieNet (www.davidbowie.com) it is no surprise that Bowie has now turned to the Internet to let the whole world in on the creative process of writing, rehearsing, recording and mixing a song.
“What’s Really Happening,” the first cyber song, is the result of collaborative efforts between Bowie and co-writer Alex Grant, who was one of 80,000 people who submitted lyrics online to the Bug Music-sponsored BowieNet cyber song contest.
On Monday. May 24th, 1999, from 7 – 10 p.m. EST, the world can watch a webcast of the recording session live on the Web, at BowieNet, Tunes.com/RollingStone.com (http://www.rollingstone.com) and the Lucent Technologies FullView website (http://www.fullview.com), as Bowie lays down the song tracks and makes history once again. This event will mark the first-ever public webcast using the 360-degree FullView camera.
The track was eventually released on the ‘hours…’ album and you can listen to it here.