“‘I hate U2,’ said my 17-year-old son during a commercial between innings while we were watching the baseball playoffs last week. That’s bad news for Apple Computer, which has signed up the aging rockers for a big promotion of its popular iPod music player. Apple already is running an iPod commercial that features U2 front man Bono singing the Irish band’s latest single, ‘Vertigo.’ And Apple plans a promotion involving iPod and its music-download service, iTunes, around the band’s upcoming album, ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.’ A word of advice to Apple: Hip is the most relative of relative terms, and U2 may be well past it,” John Soat writes for InformationWeek.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: U2’s association with Apple, the iPod, and the iTunes Music Store won’t hurt and can only help Apple.
Remember that Apple also used The Black Eyed Peas. I’m not a fan, but it didn’t prevent me from buying my own iPod and loading it up with my own music – some from U2, some from The London Philharmonic, some from Garage Band.
Who gives a shit if that writer’s kid didn’t like U2. Millions of listeners do, so the ads may appeal to them. Maybe one day they’ll make a blood red iPod for that kid’s favorite and he can spend his money.
I doubt that having U2 on the ads have convinced the kid to buy the Dell DJ.
Remember, bands like Puff Daddy, Vanilla Ice, Styx and Van Halen used to be cool. They ain’t no’ mo’. One day, you’ll hear Linkin Park in your local grocery store and laugh. I heard Ozzy being played in Albertson’s last night – true story!
For all those thinking this is a bad move for Apple, Why would making a deal with a group ever hurt Apple?
I have never heard anyone say, “Oh, one of the million tracks on iTunes is one that I don’t like. I’m going to stop using iTunes.”
Likewise, no one is going to say, “U2 happens to like iTunes, well screw Apple and Steve Jobs and everything they’ve ever created.”
Making these types of deals is about attracting new fans, not appeasing people that already own an iPod.
So all of you that think that your personal music tastes should be the determining factor of Apple’s future marketing scheme should just stop whining about U2 and wait for the next iPod commercial (which you probably won’t like either because it will use colors that you don’t think are as the cool as your personal favorite color).
I’m hit or miss with U2’s songs, but they are a staple in the music industry- there’s no disputing that fact. If you’ve never heard of U2, then you’ve been living under a rock. People have opinions about U2, both good and bad, becasue they know who they are. You can’t say the same thing about a lot of these “popular artists” that are out now. Like java said, “who’s Puffy?” A vast majority of todays top 40 fodder will be forgotten a few years- they don’t have the staying power.
I think “Vertigo” was a good choice for the iPod commercial- it has the same sound and “feel” as a lot of the other iPod commercials. This big difference is that U2 is a well established band, where all the other commercials featured bands that were relatively unknown prior to the commercials.
I used to be “Michael Jackson” Cool.
Hey, at least his 17 year old son was watching BASEbALL! Not exactly the young folks sport of chocie.
The only thing I know about U2 is that I was trying to get to a rehearsal once and they were blocking the alley with their van to take their bloody pictures in front of some graffiti, which pissed me off because I was already late. Fifteen years later, I’m still made because these guys made me late and think they own the whole damn road.
Consequently, although I already own four iPods (one mini, two 2G, and one new one that I haven’t tried yet), I’m not going to buy another. No way. At least not the Flash one that I can just pin to a t-shirt. Or the one with iPhoto slide show. Or the XM Satellite Radio model….
But definitely not the black one!
Still MAD I mean, not MADE. MADE wouldn’t really make any sense there, would it?
Beat it…
LOL !!….
A number of MJ jokes come to mind….!!
Insert your favorite here _________
If/as U2 aren’t cool (anymore) then maybe they’re involved to regain some cool. Whatever Apple is getting headlines for this, as are U2.
This story has had a week in the ‘underground’ press and will have it’s day or two mainstream press this week.
A word of advice to John, parents don’t understand kids. Maybe you, John, like U2, and sonny was really responding to that.
This is a perfect example of what many people think is good when it comes to music. Many people don’t really know if music is good or not and like it because it’s popular in their peer group. You can bet your ass that if this kid’s friends were suddenly crazy over U2 than so would he. The fact is a large percentage of the population needs to be told what to listen too. Hmmm…kind of like the way folks choose what computer to use.
Whether you like U2 or not, chances are you’ve heard of them or heard their music…this is a band known ’round the world’. Worldwide sales of their music is more than huge…I think this is a smart move on both parts.
The whole point to the U2 promotion is that the iPod continues to have legs. Apple is putting iTunes/iPod everywhere! If this goes well, and it likely will since Pepsi isn’t involved, we’ll see lots more band/iPod deals.
We’ll see groups appealing to young girls, young boys, twenty somethings, and those of us that don’t fall into any of those categories.
Go Cardinals!
Tell this guy’s kid that U2 is a REAL BAND, that does something radical- they play music on guitars, bass and drums, They actually can read and write music and can sing live.
Over in the hip-hop RDF, “sampling” (read stealing), “rap” (read running one’s mouth over a drum machine) and “looping” (read-copying and repeating material you cannot play yourself) are passed off as “art”.
The only thing more ridiculous than hip-hop being treated seriously (millionaire “artists” expressing angst about life on “the street/hood/etc”) is a bunch of middle-class suburban white kids buying it. Hip-Hop is a virus in the universe of music and the creative arts. Rap “artists” are the ULTIMATE POSERS- music “ministers without portfolio.
Who gives a Sh*t what his 17-year old thinks- he probably thought Aaron Carter was cool 2 or 3 years ago.
U2 was new, different, and cool in 1978 when their first album came out… Since the Joshua Tree, they became “Classic” as in “Classic Rock” (like it or not) along the lines of The Beatles, The Stones, CCR, Led Zeppelin, The Police, etc… In other words, they have lots and lots of money spending fans from then and now.
And, as a reminder, Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, and Milli Vanilli used to be cool.
I’m glad Apple didn’t choose an act that was “cool”. If they did, then in a few years, it would only be a historical embarassment.
Or I could be wrong, Maybe Apple should have teamed up with Ashlee Simpson so they can appeal to only 17 year olds who don’t have the money to buy an iPod,… but at least Apple would be “cool”.
Just as BMW doesn’t market to the college crowd, iPod shouldn’t be marketed to kids with no money. There is a huge difference between a kid trying to hit up his folks for a $45 Tony Hawk’s Underground Skater game CD and the kid hitting up his folks for an iPod.
I really think that Apple’s marketing department (after selling 1.5+ million songs) is much wiser and better informed in the ways of the music industry than Mr. Soat taking his “cool” cues from his kid.
Being an IT editor, he should know much better than to underestimate Apple (AAPL).
Let’s pretend.
The year is 1987.
News release:
Apple has just signed a deal with Aerosmith to promote their iPods.
Forum:
“What Aerosmith sucks and are has beens, Apple should have teamed up with a band that’s cool like, Wand Chung!!!”
Sure, I’m biased – I think U2 is a great band. I have every album released. All four of my children prefer to listen to U2 to almost any other group. I’m sure that is partly my influence, but they also know what they like.
If the 17yo in the article doesn’t like U2, that’s fine. He doesn’t have to. But, according to record sales to date, U2 is one of the best bands…ever. Apple made a great choice.
The iPod hip-hop ad didn’t keep me from buying one, and U2 won’t keep others from picking up an iPod, either.
I have six children, and all of them are pretty into new music, but time and again, I find them running off with my U2 CD’s, Tape’s, and LP’s so they can listen to them in their rooms. The oldest of my kids is 14 the youngest is 4.
Some of you might say it is because that is what they hear me listening to. That is not the case, I rarely ever listen to music in the house, and if I do it is with headphones on.
BTW, Rattle and Hum was not a bunch of covers.
Let’s think about this…what artist out there today can cross generations the best, maxing the audience appeal, and also have the interest to help promote a movement like legally downloading music? Not that many, and of those few, U2 is near the top or at the top of the list for all things considered.
A year or two ago I saw them on the road…wasn’t it the second most successful tour ever at that time? And I do remember seeing quite a mix of people in the crowd, young and old.
Is Apple aiming to capture the “everyone-over-30-is-old” teen-somethings, or their 30-50-year-old parents who pay their allowance (and grew up with bands like U2)?
Sure, you could have an iPod ad with Nate Dogg and Jessica Simpson, but somehow I don’t think you be hitting the right demographic.
U2 and Apple iPod are a non-event. It will last one newspaper cycle and be quickly forgotten.
Who would have been a better choice?
Hmmmm…I would have thought taking three groups/personalities from different music segments (pop,rock,hip-hop or western or ???) would have been a wiser idea. They way Apple would have covered all bases and appealed to a larger crowd.
The trouble with most groups today is that they are one hit wonders; old or gone by the time their big hit single plays out.
Marketing is a strange field to master. Some items cannot be affected positively, some cannot be affected negatively. Here’s my point:
If I don’t like U2, it won’t affect whether or not I buy the BEST audio player on the market. Period.
Adversely, seeing Tiger Woods drive a Buick will not encourage anyone with a brain to buy a Buick SUV. Come on, everybody knows that Tiger gets the hell out of that Buick as soon as the commercial is over. I’d eat my shoe if I saw Tiger driving that P.O.S. in real life!
So, the point is this: If you don’t like U2, shut up. They are still an awesome band. Yeah, they were much more hip in the 80’s, but they are still legends. I’m only 24, but as a musician myself, I respect what they did. (More past than present, but hey, they’re still pretty awesome.)
Apple doesn’t need any help selling to teenagers, but these mid-30’s Microshaft-brainwashed lemmings, they just might see the light if U2 is showing it to them.
Tom B.. most successful.. eh.. pretty much..
besides Paul McCartney playing old Beatles songs (and the odd Wings song to give everyone a chance to go take a dump every 45 mins..)
I’m still waiting for my Beatles branded iPod (kill the settlement and really bridge a generation with that one).
Aerosmith
The Stones
U2
The Grateful Dead
ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz