March 26, 2008 9:09 AM PDT

Peter Gabriel to help launch music discovery service in U.S.

Posted by Greg Sandoval

Correction: Representatives of the The Filter say the April 9 launch date in their correspondence to CNET News.com was inaccurate. The site is due to launch later in the April.

UPDATE 1:45 P.M.: Peter Gabriel, the Grammy-winning recording artist and technology innovator, is scheduled to help launch The Filter, a music-discovery service in April.

Peter Gabriel will help launch The Filter

(Credit: Petergabriel.com)

The Filter, Gabriel and the company's CEO, David Roberts, will meet with members of the press in San Francisco on April 9th as part of the run up to the launch later that month. The company says that the site will launch with features that go beyond music discovery.

The Filter is designed to filter irrelevant material and deliver content that reflects an individual's tastes. The company started in the UK as a music discovery service, but a representative said what is being launched next month is a very different platform, which she labeled an "online discovery experience."

The service will recommended songs, videos, literature, and news based on a user's existing digital library. Gabriel will unveil more details about the new iteration of The Filter closer to the launch next month.

Executives at The Filter also say their algorithm can make recommendations that cut across different entertainment platforms. Say, for example, you like film director Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, The Filter can suggest certain music based on that.

Gabriel and Eden Ventures invested $5 million in The Filter in August. According to an August story in the British publication The Independent, The Filter, developed by U.K.-based company Exabre, can identify about 5 million songs.

A former member of Genesis, Gabriel is perhaps best known for his classic album So. He has also been an innovator in digital media, developing multimedia CD-ROM-based games, including Xplora.