Christian Science Monitor

Rockin' the Music Biz

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WEAVING A MUSICAL WEB: Guitarist Reeves Gabrels with David Bowie's group has turned to the Web for release from the artistic limitations imposed by the big record labels. He now promotes and sells his music directly on his own home pages.

"The fastest you can get a record out with a major label is about three months," observes Reeves Gabrels, David Bowie's guitarist and co-writer for the past decade. Mr. Gabrels released his second solo album, "Ulysses," through his Web site (www.reevesgabrels.com) in MP3 format (a downloadable audio file of music), because of the quick turnaround.

"It's like in the old '50s movie when someone goes to Sun studios, cuts a record, they bring the record down to the sock hop, to the dance hall, and people are playing it when the vinyl is still warm," he says, sitting in the Monitor's newsroom.

Gabrels says that MP3 allows him the freedom to add a track to an album at a later stage.

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Whereas fans used to stake out hotels, stage doors, and tour buses to talk to their rock heroes, nowadays they can chat with them without leaving home.

In addition to responding to e-mails, Bowie hosts scheduled chats with fans - sometimes with special guest stars - and he regularly drops in on fan-chat Web forums using a pseudonym.

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Beyond deepening their fan base, musicians are expanding their listenership through Web radio channels and through Inter-networking. Gabrels is one artist who is "tagged" to Bowie's Web site. A "click" on Gabrels's name from any of the Web pages of people he has recorded with - like The Rolling Stones or The Cure - leads to his personal Web site.

An online concert is something Gabrels looks forward to doing, too. He may even "bootleg" his own work.

Interview with Reeves:
Marketing an MP3-only record
'Internetworking'