VIDEO
CNN WorldBeat's Brooke Alexander talks with David Bowie Windows Media 28K 80K

October 15, 1999
Web posted at: 6:24 p.m. EST (2224 GMT)

From Brooke Alexander
CNN WorldBeat Correspondent

(CNN) -- Anybody who's followed the trail of British punk, new wave, Goth rock or electronica will tell you that David Bowie has earned his reputation as one of the most influential rock artists in history.

Now, the man who once performed as Ziggy Stardust is exploring new frontiers. Since establishing his own Web site and, last year, creating the Internet service provider bowie.net, he's taken his own work online, releasing his latest album, "hours...", online before it went to the usual retail outlets.

"At the moment," Bowie says, he recognizes that the Internet "seems to have no parameters whatsoever. It's chaos out there -- which I thrive on.

"But I do see opportunities, and I'm quite up for putting my finger on those opportunities and running with them. And I'm quite prepared to jump into just about everything in life, in the deep end."

And yet, in the long run, he's as uncertain as anybody about the Web's ultimate power in the music business.

"It's still going to come down to the marketing dollar," he admits. "Whatever else happens, however many millions of songwriters and musicians go online, because of the way that we live over here in the West, it's actually going to come down to how many dollars are spent on making that site or that artist, bringing up their awareness, bringing up their profiles. It's all going to be about shouting."