U2 iPod: Any Color You Want, As Long As It's Black 489
dave writes "Forbes is carrying the story that U2 and Apple will be releasing a custom black iPod that comes preloaded with the band's new album as well as portions of the band's 25-year back catalog. The custom iPod will be made available the same week as the new album, which is slated for release in the U.S. November 23rd. The article also talks about the larger deal which included the advertisement for iPod/iTunes and exclusive rights for iTunes to sell the album online for the first few weeks of release." skyshock21 adds a link to this article in Revolution Magazine.
if only.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:if only.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:if only.. (Score:3, Insightful)
This seems quite appropriate. (Score:1, Insightful)
So, the obvious trend would be for the player manufacturers to work directly with the bands and eliminate the conventional content industry.
But may the gods help us if Apple likes U2.
Re:if only.. (Score:1, Insightful)
How Much of the Catalog? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, it's cool that the iPod is black (although, I can't seem to find any pictures of said iPod. I'd love to see what it looks like), but I think the real question is how much of the band's catalog is preloaded onto it? If you are a U2 fan, and the device contains, say, even 50% of the catalog, that's pretty significant value added. Of course, if you're a U2 fan, you probably own those albums anyway, so maybe not.
Still, I guess it's a nice marketing gimmick by Apple. Exclusive rights to seel the music (online, and for a little while at least), some ads out of a pretty popular group, and a million trillion news outlets covering the story and producing even more press. Kudos, Apple.
Hopefully they turn off the Auto-Sync function... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Beatles Lawsuit? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, Apple Computers has continued to do what they agreed not to do, time after time, and continues to give money to Apple Corps, LTD because of it. All I can figure is that it's considered a "cost of doing business" and is factored in already. I can't personally see why U2 of all groups would be what they'd do this with - why not work _with_ The Beatles and release an iPod with the Beatles catalog on it? Now _that_, I would buy, and pay a premium for even (since I own the whole thing in several formats already). Hell, the Beatles collectors would probably buy a ton of these, leave 'em unopened, and so on. What better than a sale with no support costs post-sale? Seems like a natural to me...
Not really "custom" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Do exclusive marketing things work? (Score:5, Insightful)
Preload gets erased on first use? Huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
(Note: all of the above assumes you are using iTunes and not one of the many third party tools available, as this is an official apple thing, and they assume the same)
So how exactly will preloading music work? The first time you plug it into your machine you get to pick between your new U2 songs or the rest of your music? Maybe there will be a new iTunes in which marketing has dictated that U2 preload songs be hardcoded to avoid being erased? I mean, the iPod ALSO limits people from copying songs back to their machine.. so it's not like you can back the tunes up before associating the thing.
Maybe all of this is outlined in TFA and I should have read it. Or maybe apple has decided to remove the stupid association/copying limitations on the iPod now that they have their whole DRM stuff going on. But that seems doubtful.
Very slick marketing... (Score:5, Insightful)
- Those who don't like the whiteness
- Those who are fad-driven, since this will be the "latest cool thing"
- Those pondering an iPod purchase, but who were undecided might see extra value in the preloaded songs, and be pushed to buy
- U2 fan{boy|girl}s: they will buy because the black iPod screams "I'm a U2 fan".
I expect that this promotion will be rather effective, and we'll see Apple running similar promos in the future. Also, the poster who predicted changeable iPod covers (a la cellphone faceplates) is, IMO, right on the money.Vertigo has topped the iTunes download charts.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Is this the new metric on song popularity? It would seem to very accurate because you can track who would be willing to pay for a song rather than on an album by album basis..
Re:iPod and music piracy... (Score:3, Insightful)
C) Apple realizes that a lot of people have large / enormous / OMGthatsalot cd collections that they'd like to carry around with them.
Between my wife and I, we've purchased enough cds over the years to use up about 8 gig of space on an iPod (based on my standard compression choice). Our collection is really small compared to a lot of people I know (i.e. we've got maybe 100 cds between us).
Re:Beatles Lawsuit? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:iPod and music piracy... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's still legal here in the US.
When *I* rip songs, they average about 8 MB each. That's about 7500 songs, or (calculated by compression ratio) about 7.5 full discs per gig. Call it 10 discs to account for stuff that's not 72 minutes. Hmm, 600 CDs. I don't have that many, no - but I've got more than 200. And having more than 400 is not that hard to imagine.
Maybe Apple aren't out to contribute to music piracy. Maybe they really want to help people to listen to THEIR music the way THEY want to.
Myself, I'm betting on A) or C). Don't forget that the iPod can be used as storage, too...
OT: Earplugs (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm still rather young to speak like an old goat about this, but earplugs are the only way I listen to shows anymore. I got tired of the ear ringing directly after, and having everybody shout at you when talking to you for the next 2 days. I love music so much, that I want to protect my hearing and be able to enjoy it for the rest of my life.
Re:Bono's a moron (Score:3, Insightful)
Just say "It sucks" and move on. Better yet, don't post anything at all -- because most don't care.
But of course, then I wouldn't get to vent to people like yourself.
Re:Another marketing tactic (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a good idea.. I recently got an HD Tivo, and it had 250GB of empty space that could have been used for sample content.
It could allow for a better user experience, otherwise you have to wait several days for the Tivo to build up a list of programs captured. It could also kickstart the Tivo learning process by providing many programs for the user to rate. If they threw in a couple of more valuable items, like pay-per-view movies, or HBO movies, it would be even more effective.
They could probably even get companies to pay them for the privilege.. I'm sure the networks would love the opportunity to pre-load the pilot episode of their programs on Tivos to make it easy for people to greatly increase the chance that viewers give it a chance.
Even a couple sample HDTV programs would be nice to show off the 1080i video and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio capabilities of the unit..
Re:Do exclusive marketing things work? (Score:3, Insightful)
You see, what this does is give Apple and U2 an excuse to get a LOT of free press. Thats one of the primary reasons you see so many of these. It gets them in the headlines, which in turn might boost sales or build brand loyalty.
The real measure would be to calculate the cost of how much free advertising they're going to get from this, which I imagine would be a pretty substantial figure.
Isn't the problem with this rumour that.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Surely it's more likely that they would bundle the iPod with an iTunes Music Store Voucher for the 'free' tracks so the user can download them themselves. This would keep all the DRM intact.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly! (Score:3, Insightful)
If you have a $3,000 CD collection (say half used, half new, $8 for used, $16 for new, $24 for two CDs, then $3k is 250 CDs, if there is 50 minutes of music per CD and you rip at 1mb/minute, that's 12500mb or 12.5gb of music) a $400 iPod is CHEAP insurance vs getting CDs scratched, lost, or stolen.
If you have a $6,000 CD collection, then you have 25gb of music. If you rip at higher than 128kbps, but say 224kbps, then a $6k CD collection will take approximately 50gb!
So iPods really do make sense if you've been buying 2 CDs a month for the past 10 years (that's 24 a year, 240 total).
Re:Another marketing tactic (Score:3, Insightful)
So what does an electric guitar sound like without an amplifier or electronics? I'd bet you'd have to hold it up to your ears to hear it over the drums.
Yes, digital might not be able to capture the perfect analog wave form but the conversion from analog to digital (wherever it may occur in the mixing or production process) is not the weak link or anywhere near the most degrading portion in the whole process of getting it to your ears in your house on your equipment.
10 years ago and before I'd say the home users equipment or the fact that the orginal analog recording of the musical piece was the limiting factor in the chain. Sorry but you can not make the Jimmy Hendrix studio recordings that are left any better then what they currently are without bring him back from the dead. In more recent times I'd say the mixing process where "louder and higher levels" seem to be the trend although they causing clipping or need extensive dynamic compression to "fit" or again, the home stereo is the limiting factor. None of theses can be blamed on the the analog to digital conversion process.
I'd like to know how to make perfect analog copy that you reference
Re:This will be handy (Score:2, Insightful)