This story started burning up the Internet yesterday.\u00c2\u00a0 And has now even made it to hitsdailydouble.com.\u00c2\u00a0 At first I laughed it off, but thinking about it last night, I wondered, how would the launch of U2’s album have played out differently if the band had aligned with Apple?<\/p>\n
Letterman doesn’t reach 5 million people a night.\u00c2\u00a0 And it tends to be the same few million people every evening.\u00c2\u00a0 "Good Morning America" reaches more, but I wouldn’t call that broadcasting.\u00c2\u00a0 To think there’s cross-pollination of these two audiences is to believe that Miley Cyrus is going to start dating Mickey Rourke.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s hard to reach everybody these days.\u00c2\u00a0 And incredibly difficult on a sustained basis.\u00c2\u00a0 Who can get your message across?\u00c2\u00a0 Apple.<\/p>\n
You see Bono’s got so much money that he’s got to diversify.\u00c2\u00a0 He aligned himself with Elevation Partners, and its Marshmallow Boy, full of shit hypester Roger McNamee.\u00c2\u00a0 To watch Mr. McNamee foam at the mouth about the Palm Pre is akin to watching a long-haired Donald Trump proclaim himself to be the world’s greatest businessman.\u00c2\u00a0 But worse.\u00c2\u00a0 McNamee is the geek who couldn’t get a date in high school trying to eke out his revenge because he’s in tech and he’s rich.\u00c2\u00a0 As for the long hair…\u00c2\u00a0 You know middle-aged people with long locks weren’t testing the limits in high school, they were short-haired geeks poring over their calculus tomes. Furthermore, in today’s world, it’s not about money, but soul.\u00c2\u00a0 And Roger McNamee’s got no soul.<\/p>\n
And yes, Mr. McNamee and Bono are backing the Palm Pre.\u00c2\u00a0 Something techies say is wonderful but has yet to launch on its designated carrier, the fading Sprint. Furthermore, Apple has warned that Palm, on life support, should be ready for a lawsuit if there’s any copying of the iPhone.<\/p>\n
Then again, you can copy the iPhone, but can you duplicate it?\u00c2\u00a0 Not only its interface, but the App Store?\u00c2\u00a0 Highly doubtful.\u00c2\u00a0 In tech, being first is crucial.<\/p>\n
But now that Bono is aligned with Palm, can his band U2 do Apple commercials? Come on, you know the 2009 version of the launch of 2004’s "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" featured a special U2 iPhone\/iPod Touch app.\u00c2\u00a0 Which came with a free single and delivered all kinds of crazy content.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, imagine the hype of a special-edition U2 iPhone.\u00c2\u00a0 In red.\u00c2\u00a0 They would have been snapped up like chocolate chip cookies in kindergarten.<\/p>\n
But all this was left on the table.\u00c2\u00a0 Because U2 followed the money.<\/p>\n
Bono has not only invested in the Pre through Elevation Partners, now the band has made a deal with RIM to promote its tour.\u00c2\u00a0 How many people even know what RIM is?\u00c2\u00a0 For the uninitiated, the Canadian company makes the BlackBerry.\u00c2\u00a0 I love my BlackBerry.\u00c2\u00a0 Even I don’t have an iPhone.\u00c2\u00a0 But the devices are built like shit, there’s no physical store and there’s still no App Store.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, RIM has got no buzz. It’s like making a deal with Buick as opposed to BMW.\u00c2\u00a0 Very few people WANT to drive a Buick.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, it’ll get you there, but not in style, not like arriving in a BMW.<\/p>\n
You don’t have to listen to me, you’ve just got to read the surveys.\u00c2\u00a0 Apple is the coolest brand out there.\u00c2\u00a0 Even cooler than U2 (and you know every band considers itself a brand these days).\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of Fortune 500 corporations paying acts a fortune to hitch up with them, acts die to be aligned with the Cupertino company, they want some of that glow, they want some of that buzz.\u00c2\u00a0 Apple ads are ubiquitous.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only on TV, where the song plays in the background, but on billboards.\u00c2\u00a0 A band of the stature of U2 can extract concessions starting acts can’t.\u00c2\u00a0 U2 was even IN an iPod TV ad.\u00c2\u00a0 If Feist can build a whole career, can have a hit single and tour the world based solely on having her music play in the background of an iPod commercial, imagine the benefit to U2!<\/p>\n
But alas, that benefit has not come to pass.\u00c2\u00a0 Going independent, chasing the big money, U2 has left all these opportunities on the cutting room floor.\u00c2\u00a0 They had an opportunity for metaphorical price and positioning, for being the album people see first when they come into the store, that’s what iPod ads do, on steroids, but they passed it up for short term cash.<\/p>\n
Paul McGuinness has been trotting around the world saying it would be tragic if U2 was good at music but bad at business, but the band was certainly bad here.\u00c2\u00a0 Career first, cash second.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to play the long term game.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe that aforementioned iTunes app came with a live broadcast of the first five gigs of the new tour.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it came with a live show that was broadcast nowhere!\u00c2\u00a0 With a big spread on the iTunes Store, the number one music retailer.<\/p>\n
If U2 wants to be the biggest band in the world, and you know that’s their desire, you don’t hook up with Claude Kirschner, but Ringling Brothers!\u00c2\u00a0 You go to where the action is.\u00c2\u00a0 Steve Jobs and Bono is a summit meeting.\u00c2\u00a0 Equivalent to Obama meeting Putin.\u00c2\u00a0 Bono and BlackBerry is barely newsworthy.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you don’t think the Storm is a failure, either you don’t read or you don’t have one.<\/p>\n
At some point in the future, Apple will not be the big kahuna.\u00c2\u00a0 Presently it is.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t try to teach the computer company a lesson.\u00c2\u00a0 Align with it, take advantage of its identity, let it polish your image.\u00c2\u00a0 No one can reach the target demo, music fans, like Apple. Apple brings everyone together in a world of narrow silos.\u00c2\u00a0 Use the company to your advantage.<\/p>\n
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