Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel first came to fame as the lead vocalist of the rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. More recently he has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He is also involved in various humanitarian efforts.
Gabriel has been interested in world music for many years, with the first musical evidence appearing on his third album. This influence has increased over time, and he is the driving force behind the WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) movement. He created the Real World Studios and record label to facilitate the creation and distribution of such music by various artists.
He has a long-standing interest in human rights, and launched Witness, a nonprofit which supplies video cameras to human rights activists to expose abuses. In 2006 his work with Witness and his long standing support of peace and human rights causes was recognized by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates with the Man of Peace award.
He was one of the founders of On Demand Distribution (OD2), one of the first online music download services. Its technology is used by MSN Music UK and others, and has become the dominant music download technology platform for stores in Europe. OD2 was bought by US company Loudeye in June of 2004 and subsequently by Finnish mobile giant Nokia in October 2006 for $60 million.
