Peter Gabriel - The force behind The Filter
11/05/2010 /
The artist behind multi-platinum 80s band Genesis, Peter Gabriel is behind a relatively new music and film recommendation service called The Filter.
The service, which is six years old, started out in Bath, England and has grown big enough to attract clients such as Sony Music, NBC and Nokia.
Filter currently has 15 employees and it expects revenues of nearly $4 million this year, but Filter's CEO, David Maher Roberts, a former jazz drummer is labeled the resident "visionary" of the operations by Gabriel.
Gabriel′s history in the start up tech market stems right back to 1990 when he invested in a company called Syco Systems, where he created a digital audio workstation called the Tablet.
In 1999 he had improved on his track record with technology when he helped start OD2, a download music service that coincided with the iTunes suffocation of the music market. Although Gabriel and his fellow backers did sell the company to the Seattle based Loud eye, Gabriel did make a hefty $11 million out it.
Filter is hoping to be the next step up from Google's domination in the market as Stephen Andrade, senior vice-president for digital development for NBC.com explained, "The Filter did better than a lot of its competitors," he says. "That's why we are moving forward with them."
Gabriel had been kicking around the idea for quite some time but it wasn't until 2004, when he met Hopkins who was a musically inclined physicist that things started to take shape.
"Hopkins wrote software to manage his music and used artificial intelligence that learned his tastes and then suggested playlists. That technology became the basis for The Filter"
The company have not made even yet, riding some bumps along the way, venture capital has kicked in close to $10 million USD. ?Gabriel says he is certain "The Filter could one day serve as an all-purpose "decision guru" that goes beyond music."
Although Gabriel is a minority investor in The Filter, no sale for the company is on the cards, yet they have had offers for several anonymous buyers.
Recommendations aside, Filter could have a very strong future if it manages to weave its way into the already very over-crowded tech market.
Sources:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_16/b4174046688330.htm
Ari Stein