Stock market move for music mogul

Alan McGee: Not looking for another Oasis

LONDON (CNN) -- The music magnate who set chart-topping bad boy band Oasis on their way to glory was moving in yet another direction Tuesday as he floated his new record label on the London Stock Exchange.

Alan McGee shocked the music world last year when he announced that he was leaving Creation Records, the label he co-founded 17 years earlier, to pursue new ventures.

And now he is putting his faith in his new venture, Pop tones, which will use the Internet to distribute music.

“It is a record company basically branching into other mediums… signing up lots of unknown acts,” McGee told CNN.

“And, hopefully, if you sign really maverick artists, you make interesting records and eventually, if you are lucky, you bump into a superstar and you hold onto them for as long as possible.”

The new label and its floatation on the London Stock Exchange will allow McGee to experiment more and provide opportunities for upcoming bands, he said.

And he is confident that the Internet is the way forward in spite of the ongoing debate over its impact on the music industry.

Although McGee is best known for his association with the Gallagher brothers behind Oasis, Creation was also behind successful UK acts such as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Boo Radleys and My Bloody Valentine.

And he said Poptones will work with different artists and a huge variety of music: “It’s going to be a lot freer spirit from what I’ve done in the past because I don’t have any dictatorial corporate ownership hanging over my head.”

But McGee is not looking to discover another Oasis.

“I won’t find another Oasis but I might find another new great band which might happen to sell lots of records -- but I’m not trying to find another Oasis because that’s repeating yourself and that’s boring,” he said.

Napster, DVD cases raise copyright questions in digital age
Recording industry Web site goes down in wake of Napster ruling
Internet music debate moves to Washington

Poptones
London Stock Exchange

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.