ow The Online Jukebox Wants To Change The Way You Think

ow The Online Jukebox Wants To Change The Way You Think Steve Purdham recreates iconic images Now Purdham has swapped his doubledecks for the internet. The son of a grocer and a shop assistant, Purdham was the first of six sons not to go to work down the Durham mines. e rattled through a variety of software firms in the 80s and 90s before founding an internet security firm at the height of the dotcom boom (which he later sold for $415m). The one-time disc jockey has a reputation for straight-talking – he describes music industry executives as "some sharks, some nice people" – but will not be chippy. The singer-turned-investor first met Purdham over a cup of tea in the kitchen of his recording studio in Box, Wiltshire. All of these things that Star Trek had are starting to come true. But Purdham says it was not until 2010 that he saw the potential for a viable business model in digital music – three years after he had convinced Gabriel (pictured below in 1973 when he was in Genesis) to back his vision for an online jukebox. What I do now is let people listen to music in a way that can affect their lives. Those who warn about privacy are similar to those who thought the TV was the "evil eye in the corner". We're the future of radio," he says. e compares those warning about the pitfalls of change to critics of pirate radio in the 1960s. "People focus on the negative therefore the negative happens," he says, predicting that traditional radio will go the way of bricks-and-mortar music retailers if it fails to adapt to a change in listeners' habits. "A good deal of people look at the mechanism [for sharing online] and get worried … I'm not sure what is right or wrong, but the power of the internet is that it records what goes on. Eventually they settled on We7, a domain name that cost them €340 from a man in China. "e might have just put in the money and buggered off to record an album," says Purdham. "But he didn't. "A lot of people got caught up about the privacy situation with the stuff that Facebook is doing," he says. Now we know we will make it work, it is about scale," he says. "Nobody has yet made a small business [of this type] that will generate cash. Eventually somebody did climb Everest. Eventually somebody did run the four-minute mile. Eventually somebody will commence making money out of digital music. guardian. You will be ready to print guns. "You design a glass jar or a sculpture, and anybody will be able to print that in their own home. You can already print body parts on a 3D printer. What's the difference?. Technology challenges people and that's what I love about it. More significantly, for each hour of music played on We7 last year, the company generated more advertising revenue than it cost to stream the songs. "That's the holy grail that we've been trying to get to. Gabriel remains involved in We7 and, although he does not call as often as Purdham might like, he will sometimes turn up unannounced at board meetings and has no shortage of enthusiasm for the project. I could be in McDonald's getting my tea in Macclesfield at night and I'll get a phone call from him with an idea. "People talk about piracy – they haven't even begun to scratch what piracy is going to be like in the future," he says, perched on the rust-coloured sofa in his north London office. ow The Online Jukebox Wants To Change The Way You Think Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 28/02/2012