"Oh my God, like, can I have your autograph?"
Thomas Dolby Robertson glanced up from a conversation that had him passionately touting a cutting-edge sound engine developed by his San Mateo, Calif. company, Beatnik, Inc. "Sure," he grinned, swapping a mouse for a pen. Later, he would take to the stage at Upside's recent Digital Living Room conference, while his 1982 hit song "She Blinded Me With Science" blared in the background. All the poor guy wanted to do was sell some software, but the past beckoned. Afterward, Dr. Drew Pinsky of MTV's "Loveline" was about to discuss his new Web site when he blurted, "I can't believe I'm following Thomas Dolby!" It's probably times like this that Robertson is grateful he wasn't in A Flock of Seagulls.
Old rockers never die--they just go to cyberspace.
"You sure know how to sweet-talk a guy," quips Robertson, upon learning the premise of this column. But Robertson is one of several pop stars--including David Bowie, Todd Rundgren, Peter Gabriel, Dave Stewart and The Artist (Formerly Known As Prince)--who have developed Internet companies with the same sense of experimentation that made them musical visionaries. Although technical aptitude often hides in musicians, both fields draw parallels in their business sides as well.
"Being a solo artist was an entrepreneurial act," says Robertson. "I had a name, a brand, a look and a feel. I needed to become a standard. That's the point that we're trying to get to with Beatnik right now. I feel like I have a sixth sense about it, having been through it before with hit records."
Beatnik is now a multimillion-dollar company with 53 employees, licensing deals with Sun Microsystems and Microsoft, and plans to go public later this year. Robertson grew it out of his former company, Headspace, two years ago, after getting jobs scoring interactive media and finding no interactive audio technology. Robertson's sound engine enables users to create sounds or remix songs by clicking the mouse or running the cursor over on-screen images.
"You don't do virtual reality for the screen resolution but because you get to make decisions yourself," he says. "Otherwise, you may as well be in a movie theater. There needs to be an audio equivalent for that. We've created this engine which is on seven or eight different platforms already with an open API. So if you decided that you wanted to create a musical instrument or a new high-end technology, you would build it on top of our engine, then do your own graphic design and interface."
Another early adopter is Peter Gabriel, whose 8-year-old Real World Multimedia in the rural English town of Box, about 100 miles west of London, created what may have been the first interactive musical CD-ROM in 1993. It has since been working on DVD titles and an online retail operation.
Todd Rundgren's Waking Dreams is developing PatroNet, a business that designs subscription services for artists, which can include video streaming, chat rooms, e-commerce and communication with fans. The sites will be underwritten by the artists' fans, with PatroNet taking a commission of 15 percent to 25 percent of gross earnings from each artist's subscription service.
"Todd started studying computer programming on his own 30 years ago," says his business associate Kelli Richards. "He is actually versed in multiple computer languages and built the infrastructure that enables PatroNet to function."
Beyond innovation, the rockers' Net infiltration has brought a sense of theatrics to geekdom. Prince--or The Artist, as I was quickly corrected by his representatives--supports his online music distribution company, Love 4 One Another, with the occasional promotional performance. Last September, David Bowie launched BowieNet, the first artist-created Internet service provider, which also offers e-mail and access to music and entertainment content. By the way, BowieNet also uses Beatnik's sound engine. Naturally, Bowie kicked off the launch with a rock concert cybercast from Madison Square Garden. (Can you imagine Bill Gates promoting Widgets '99 with a concert featuring a band called Spacehog?)
Then again, Paul Allen could. The Microsoft co-founder has partnered with Dave Stewart, one-half of the Eurythmics, on The Hospital, a multimillion-dollar project to convert a dilapidated London hospital into a high-tech music-recording, film-production, education and art facility, with Internet branches slated to open in 2001. Some of its efforts include interactive educational classes and online jam sessions.
While technology and pop music seem on the surface to have little in common, both are rebellious mediums that push the creative envelope. It will be interesting to see the kind of hybrid art form that results.
"I'm looking forward to getting back into music," says Robertson. "I don't know if it will be an album or something completely different, like a musical Web site. It'll certainly be personal statement."
Susan Karlin is an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles. She has written for the New York Times , Playboy and Entertainment Weekly.
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