The story of how David Bowie launched his own internet service way back in 1998
David Bowie, acclaimed musician and artist, died on Monday morning in New York City. He was 69 years old.
Bowie was a pioneer in music, fashion, anthropology, and much more - he even owned and operated his own internet service provider, which started way back in 1998. Yes, really!
It was called "BowieNet," appropriately enough, and the front page looked like...well, it looked like a web page in 1998:
The Guardian's Keith Stuart has a thorough rundown of BowieNet, complete with quotes from 1998 David Bowie where he says amazing stuff like, "If I was 19 again, I'd bypass music and go right to the internet." Hear hear!
The dial-up internet service, BowieNet, cost around $15/month and provided the usual stuff that companies like Time Warner Cable and Comcast now monopolize: access to the open internet.
The difference with BowieNet, however, was what fans got access to: "rare photos (Bowie in just a pair of tight white underpants playing the saxophone), a discography, online interviews, news about tours and records as well as a regularly updated personal journal full of Dave's thoughts and reminiscences."
Truly, this is the bonus stuff of the internet in 1998, long before artists like Kanye West used the internet for secret transmissions of new songs.
Hilariously, a year before BowieNet launched, Goodale and Bowie got involved with online banking.
BowieBanc had around 1,500 banking customers, according to this Forbes article from 2000, and it ran primarily as a front end for an existing online bank. But Bowie and his partner Goodale saw it as part of the growing presence of online communities. They were even interested in other avenues of online finance - carrying the Bowie branding and style, of course.
"We wouldn't rule out 'Bowie's Trading Desk,' if someone came to us with a good proposal," Goodale told Forbes.
It's now 20 years later, and David Bowie's official website is still a lesson to web designers and artists alike in smart, interactive branding. The page has what's called "infinite scroll," giving it a feeling of endlessness, where images of Bowie throughout the years and quotes are collected into an ever-growing, neverending mosaic.