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To: Bill Ulrich who wrote (46654)8/23/2005 3:14:47 PM
From: Don Green  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 213172
 
On the other hand, Bowie is out playing with groups like Nine-Inch Nails, Chemical Brothers, and loving it..

That is because Bowie isn't creative enough to continue to make his own music and sell tickets to sell out shows based on his Music. Dylan and Clapton can and remain objective.



To: Bill Ulrich who wrote (46654)8/23/2005 3:15:34 PM
From: Win-Lose-Draw  Respond to of 213172
 
Bowie's last CD was, IMO, one of the very best he's done in 20 years. Without a doubt he's benefitting from hanging out with the likes of the (allegedly irrelevant) Moby. Kudos to the man for staying fresh, not an easy thing to do!



To: Bill Ulrich who wrote (46654)8/23/2005 3:22:45 PM
From: William F. Wager, Jr.  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 213172
 
>>Bowie is out playing with groups like Nine-Inch Nails, Chemical Brothers, and loving it<< Maybe it is time to start looking at the "Bowie Bonds" as an investment again...:))

[snip]

"The boom in digital downloads is music to the ears of bankers and others hoping to start shifting "Bowie bonds" again.

These bonds give investors a piece of future earnings by a musician or other notable artist. The original bond sold in 1997 raised $55 million for musician David Bowie, whose album sales created the revenue stream for the securities. Other bonds followed, securitizing the tuneful takings of James Brown, Ashford & Simpson and the Isley Brothers.

Then the recording industry skidded into an extended downturn, and the Bowie bond structure lost much of its glam. Last year, Mr. Bowie's bonds fell to Earth when Moody's Investors Service lowered its rating on them to just one notch above "junk," citing lower-than-expected revenue "due to weakness in sales for recorded music." Few Bowie bonds have been sold since 2001, and music-backed bonds today represent less than 1% of the so-called asset-backed securities market.

Now, with iTunes and other online platforms showing promise in selling songs again, bankers and others are hoping for an encore performance for the bonds.

The legal, paid-for downloading of tunes "definitely helps," says James Altucher, managing partner at Formula Capital LLC, a hedge fund in New York. Mr. Altucher says he would be interested in buying new Bowie bonds. He thinks other hedge-fund managers also would be keen to hold bonds that capitalize on intellectual property and aren't necessarily tied to the fortunes of broader bond and stock markets.

"Technology is bad for us in terms of illegal file-sharing, but it's positive in terms of 500 cable-TV channels, iTunes and online ads," says David Pullman, head of Pullman Group LLC, who created and launched the Bowie bond in 1997. "Technology is disruptive for a short time, but the volume of sales is going to be so much greater."

Mr. Pullman's firm has had a sometimes-contentious relationship with other banks over the creation of new Bowie bonds, but Pullman Group is now in talks with heirs of Bob Marley to create bonds based on the deceased reggae artist's song catalog. The firm also has copyrights from several dozen artists and songwriters for songs from the 1940s to the 1980s with an eye toward more bonds.

Large investors are also doing deals that seek to unlock the value of an established musician's oeuvre. In May, Fortress Investment Group LLC, a New York investment fund that manages some $15 billion for institutions and wealthy individuals, bought $270 million in loans from Bank of America Corp. A big chunk of those loans are backed by pop star Michael Jackson's 50% interest in the Beatles' catalogue.

Of course, digital technology and the Internet continue to pose huge risks to the music industry and have hurt royalty streams, which for decades were based on multisong recordings (Frank Sinatra helped usher in the "long-play" format in the 1950s with his theme albums). The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimates about 870 million music files are offered illegally online, costing the music industry more than $2 billion a year in lost revenue."

Bankers Hope
For a Reprise
Of 'Bowie Bonds'

By KAREN RICHARDSON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 23, 2005; Page C1