Los Angeles, CA – July 18, 2000 – Rock legend and Internet pioneer David Bowie has once again made an unprecedented move in the online world. Bowie will make twenty of his classic titles available for commercial download when EMI Recorded Music launches its digital download campaign on July 18th.
Among the Bowie classics that will be available in this campaign are: Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Earthling, Heroes, Hours?, Hunky Dory, Let’s Dance, Lodger, Low, The Man Who Sold The World, Never Let Me Down, Outside, Pin-Ups, Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Scary Monsters, Space Oddity, Station to Station, Tonight, Young Americans, and Tin Machine.
The largest single release of digital music on the Web by a music company, EMI’s download program includes 100 full-length albums from 80 artists, representing over 90 hours of music from a variety of music categories. The recordings include music from such internationally renowned artists as D’Angelo, dc Talk, Janet, Everclear, Pink Floyd, The Smashing Pumpkins, Selena, Ben Harper, Cracker, Gang Starr, Bonnie Raitt, Scarface, Tina Turner, Frank Sinatra, Snoop Dogg, and Spice Girls. Additional artists and songs from EMI’s extensive catalog are expected to be added to in the coming months.
Nancy Berry, vice chairman, Virgin Music Group Worldwide, “We are extremely excited that David has made his most critically acclaimed recordings available for this download program. This is a tremendous opportunity for us and for music fans everywhere. Given David’s new media savvy, this move is a testament to EMI’s innovative efforts in the digital space.”
Music fans should look for these downloads at their favorite retailers starting July 18, 2000. EMI’s digital service providers-Amplified (www.amplified.com), Supertracks (www.supertracks.com), and Liquid Audio (www.liquidaudio.com)–will work with major retailers to sell EMI’s digital products in both the Microsoft Windows Media and Liquid Audio 5.0 formats. Initially, this content will only be available in North America.
About David Bowie
DAVID BOWIE, the 2000 recipient of the “Online Pioneer Award” from Yahoo! Internet Life magazine, has set one precedent after another on the Internet. He became the first musical artist ever (in 1998) to launch an Internet Service Provider, BowieNet, the rock legend’s innovative and award-winning official online community, music portal and information resource (at www.davidbowie.com). His 1999 critically acclaimed “?hours” album was made available by Virgin Records for download ahead of its retail release-a first for an artist of his caliber. Back in 1996, he orchestrated another precedent for an artist of his stature. He released a 3 mixes of a previously unreleased track, “Telling Lies” (which would eventually appear on his 1997 album Earthling), exclusively on the Internet, with over 350,000 downloads in the first four days alone.
About EMI Recorded Music-
EMI Recorded Music, the third largest music company in the world, is an international music company with presence in nearly 70 countries. EMI Recorded Music includes important local and international artists, including some of the biggest names in the recorded music industry. EMI has artists in every leading music category, including pop, rock, jazz, classical, Latin, Christian, country, rap/urban and dance. The world famous labels include Capitol, Angel, Blue Note, EMI, Priority and Virgin. Its current roster includes approximately 1,500 artists and it releases over 1,000 albums each year.