womanfish
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
As I read through a bunch of the tweets, I was noticing about 1 in 20 or so was saying, hey thanks, not bad, or I like it. 1 in 20 aint bad! 
The "Apple Stunt"
- Thread starter CosmoKramer
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
RobertWiscy
Acrobat
As I read through a bunch of the tweets, I was noticing about 1 in 20 or so was saying, hey thanks, not bad, or I like it. 1 in 20 aint bad!
If 1/20 (5%) of 500 million people listen to it and dig it that's 25 million people. Not bad indeed.
RobertWiscy
Acrobat
To sum up many of these tweets, it's "HEY! YOU! GET OUTTA MY iCLOUD!"
Of course that's also 25M more people who may want to buy a ticket.....
RobertWiscy
Acrobat
True. Maybe I should start attacking the band and the album on Twitter, to make it easier for myself to get tix. HOW DARE THEY GIVE ME A FREE ALBUM AS A GIFT -- WHAT AN OUTRAGEOUS ASSAULT ON MY PERSON, WITHOUT MY CONSENT!
LOL
Moser
Refugee
Still cant believe I am seeing people say it was "forced" onto them, U2 have really gotten into the heads of the mainstream folk with this one, and quite literally giving the finger
Johnny agrees.
OP
OP
CosmoKramer
Rock n' Roll Doggie
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2004
- Messages
- 3,325
U2 took publicity to a whole new level...like a boss!
There is no such thing as bad publicity and U2 is proving that right now with their records skyrocketing up the charts.
Btw.....the fact that the Ramones also are selling more means that people are paying attention to the first single.
#likeaboss
Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
There is no such thing as bad publicity and U2 is proving that right now with their records skyrocketing up the charts.
Btw.....the fact that the Ramones also are selling more means that people are paying attention to the first single.
#likeaboss
Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
womanfish
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Looks like the sales of the back catalog are leveling off and starting to slide a bit. But still hoping its enough to push a good half dozen U2 albums into the Billboard chart next week
SBU2
War Child
I still can't come to terms just how smart this move was from the band.
They've quite simply picked the No.1 most strongest, powerful and global way of promoting a new album. There's no topping this. There's no better way to tell the public, their back. It's sound impossible what they've actually done, and in some ways, naughty, when you consider they've stuck music on peoples phones without their knowledge, which makes it all the more enjoyable
Whether people love or hate the album is almost irrelevant. The fact their talking about U2 was the band's aim. Even the most angriest of U2 haters can surely only applaud what a clever promotional move this was! Complete and utter genius!!
They've quite simply picked the No.1 most strongest, powerful and global way of promoting a new album. There's no topping this. There's no better way to tell the public, their back. It's sound impossible what they've actually done, and in some ways, naughty, when you consider they've stuck music on peoples phones without their knowledge, which makes it all the more enjoyable
Whether people love or hate the album is almost irrelevant. The fact their talking about U2 was the band's aim. Even the most angriest of U2 haters can surely only applaud what a clever promotional move this was! Complete and utter genius!!
I still can't come to terms just how smart this move was from the band.
They've quite simply picked the No.1 most strongest, powerful and global way of promoting a new album. There's no topping this. There's no better way to tell the public, their back. It's sound impossible what they've actually done, and in some ways, naughty, when you consider they've stuck music on peoples phones without their knowledge, which makes it all the more enjoyable
Whether people love or hate the album is almost irrelevant. The fact their talking about U2 was the band's aim. Even the most angriest of U2 haters can surely only applaud what a clever promotional move this was! Complete and utter genius!!
I can actually imagine a young hip college kid waking up and thinking they have a virus on their phone, I shouldn't laugh but
womanfish
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
After all is said and done, the only legacy of this will be how U2 were the first to distribute their album for free instantly to 500 million people. It will be legendary, after everyone shuts up. LOL.
And I remind people again. This has just started. We got the album 3 days ago! The ad just started, physical album in October, more tie-ins with Apple as they go. Songs of Experience (Incredibly high hopes for this one)
They are killin it
And I remind people again. This has just started. We got the album 3 days ago! The ad just started, physical album in October, more tie-ins with Apple as they go. Songs of Experience (Incredibly high hopes for this one)
They are killin it
SBU2
War Child
I've not actually looked into the ins and outs of how it was actually transferred to people's music libraries...Was it as simple as, anybody with an iPhone and network connection, received the album, or did people have to connect their phones to iTunes in order to receive it?
Moser
Refugee
I think it was available to download or stream from the iCloud, and not just automatically downloaded on to everybody's iToy.
prbiker15
Blue Crack Addict
Yeah.
phommel
Refugee
From Billboard.com:
"It has been a whirlwind nine months for Guy Oseary since he took the reins of U2’s management after longtime manager Paul McGuinness announced his retirement last fall. That includes a Golden Globe, an Oscar nomination, a big Super Bowl campaign and the premiere of The Tonight Show in support of two songs that ultimately didn't make the final cut on Songs of Innocence, the history-making album that debuted to 500 million iTunes customers on Sept. 9.
With lead single "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)" set to be featured in a massive media campaign from Apple, valued at $100 million by multiple sources, U2 has already scored arguably the biggest launch in music history. And it's one that's already fraught with a little controversy, from angry retailers to Grammy and SoundScan guidelines. Oseary, 41, rang Billboard on Sept. 11 to address the many questions about the launch, and what’s next (another album?) from this landmark deal with Apple.
Songs of Innocence has already been touted as the biggest album launch of all time. How did you get to this point?
U2 worked five years on this album, they poured blood, sweat, tears into project, and we were really confident with it. The goal was: how do we reach as many as possible? U2 first worked with Apple nearly 10 years to the day when they were sharing a stage with Steve Jobs and launching their iPod with many fewer accounts, and here we are 10 years later with Apple gifting this album to 7 percent of the planet.
Many people are already calling the announcement “disruptive” in the same way that Jay Z’s deal with Samsung and Beyonce’s surprise album drop were also disruptive to traditional industry rollouts. While this news was significant for U2, how could other artists potentially benefit?
Well first of all, when music becomes a piece of the conversation at an Apple event, that’s always a good thing. Two is, the power of music and the fact that it can actually be shared with 7 percent of the planet in one push of a button. That’s a pretty big concept. Any sort of innovation may inspire other people to do things that are innovative. We may see someone sitting with another manager, or another band going, "Hey, what can we do that's interesting maybe with our lyrics or our videos or something interactive with the ticketing to our shows?"
That’s all, I don’t know where it’s headed, I just know that I’m always looking for the answers, for new ways to do things. That’s my job, my job is to try to not follow the lead. And there’s a lot of other people that have a lot of peers and bands that are in the community wanting to lead, and they’ll lead in other ways. And that’s what’s exciting to me. It’s not gonna be the same thing. But who knows where it goes? There’s endless possibilities to do things today with music and performance.
Jimmy Iovine is a figure we didn’t see onstage Tuesday, but someone who has been closely linked to U2 for many years from his days at Interscope and now happens to be an Apple employee. What was his role in making this deal happen?
Jimmy is part of whatever this band does, even in their personal lives. It’s a family. We look to Jimmy for guidance and support no matter what we end up doing, whether its this project or talking about the next single, or whether we’re talking about doing other things down the road. Talk about family, trips, things that we wanted to to do in our personal lives -- we’re really connected, we’re really supportive. Jimmy is near and dear to this band, he’s definitely a source of support and guidance. He’s a big part of the U2 family, and to myself personally -- whether I’m working with U2 or someone else, he’s always been a very supportive and dear friend. We consider him family and there’s been a lot of hand-holding together through this process.
On Tuesday, Bono emphasized the fact that the band was paid by Apple for the album, and there's a reported $100 million ad campaign in the works, which may have ruffled some feathers of longtime fans who admire Bono’s humanitarian work. So, is there an altruistic component to this new Apple partnership?
Apple's very private about their philanthropic work, but they've done a lot for (RED.) They've given $70 to $90 million to saving lives, and while I was at the event I counted two times where two (RED) products were actually promoted at the event.
Bono also mentioned on Facebook that there’s a second album already in the can. What else can we expect from U2 and Apple?
We're working on other things as well with Apple that have to do with how music is heard and innovation, with [iTunes VP of content] Robert Kondrk leading that charge. There’s a lot of things still to come that are really interesting. The band really wants people to engage with albums, they want them to support the art form of artwork and lyrics and video content and just get into their music in a much different way than an MP3 file. This is a long relationship.
Some retailers are already up in arms about a five-week exclusive with iTunes. How will you make sure there’s still value to the commercial release when it arrives Oct. 14?
There’s four brand-new songs, and Gary Kelly [Interscope’s head of retail sales] can tell you there’s a bunch of acoustic versions of songs from the album, too. So it’s probably gonna be anywhere between nine or 11 songs that were not on the standard. Retail is important, too, we’re not trying to alienate anyone. We're just trying to reach our potential, and it happens to be with a company that is very forward-thinking. U2 is part of the Apple story, and Apple has played a big part in U2's life.
It’s been a decade since U2 has had a true mainstream hit, so there’s a whole generation of music listeners who may just be discovering the band’s music. How do you convert them into fans without oversaturating them?
As you can see from today’s iTunes charts, clearly people are digging back into the catalog to learn more about the band, with 16 albums on the iTunes charts. That’s a statement, that people are going, “Oh, let me learn more about this band.” I’ve seen a lot of tweets from kids who are 14, 15, 16, 18 who are going, “Wow, this is really good.” They didn’t know what to expect. That’s a great feeling, that maybe someone in their collection only has hip-hop, and yet maybe someone only has country artists, or someone in India doesn’t have any Anglo artists, and they discover U2 today. The one thing all these people have in common is U2 now. The one thing everyone on iTunes has in common today is U2 and a U2 album. It’s an amazing opportunity, even at this stage in U2’s career, to make new friends.
You just gave away an album to 500 million people worldwide. How do you turn those free customers into album buyers a month from now?
This is all new territory, but we have four brand-new songs and the deluxe is a killer package. And it’s early days. You can't look at the standard as one piece of this puzzle, you have to look at whether we reached as many as possible. Are people buying the catalog all of a sudden? And the answer is yes.
By releasing a free album this week, you’ve missed some of the requirements for the Billboard as well as Grammy deadlines. So what’s the overall statement you wanted to make?
Look, we just went with organic, genuine feelings of “Let’s share this album with as many people as possible” and then we know that there’s a lot of unknowns. And we accept the ups, we accept the downs, it’ll be what it’ll be, but we’re really happy with this week and historical launch."
"It has been a whirlwind nine months for Guy Oseary since he took the reins of U2’s management after longtime manager Paul McGuinness announced his retirement last fall. That includes a Golden Globe, an Oscar nomination, a big Super Bowl campaign and the premiere of The Tonight Show in support of two songs that ultimately didn't make the final cut on Songs of Innocence, the history-making album that debuted to 500 million iTunes customers on Sept. 9.
With lead single "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)" set to be featured in a massive media campaign from Apple, valued at $100 million by multiple sources, U2 has already scored arguably the biggest launch in music history. And it's one that's already fraught with a little controversy, from angry retailers to Grammy and SoundScan guidelines. Oseary, 41, rang Billboard on Sept. 11 to address the many questions about the launch, and what’s next (another album?) from this landmark deal with Apple.
Songs of Innocence has already been touted as the biggest album launch of all time. How did you get to this point?
U2 worked five years on this album, they poured blood, sweat, tears into project, and we were really confident with it. The goal was: how do we reach as many as possible? U2 first worked with Apple nearly 10 years to the day when they were sharing a stage with Steve Jobs and launching their iPod with many fewer accounts, and here we are 10 years later with Apple gifting this album to 7 percent of the planet.
Many people are already calling the announcement “disruptive” in the same way that Jay Z’s deal with Samsung and Beyonce’s surprise album drop were also disruptive to traditional industry rollouts. While this news was significant for U2, how could other artists potentially benefit?
Well first of all, when music becomes a piece of the conversation at an Apple event, that’s always a good thing. Two is, the power of music and the fact that it can actually be shared with 7 percent of the planet in one push of a button. That’s a pretty big concept. Any sort of innovation may inspire other people to do things that are innovative. We may see someone sitting with another manager, or another band going, "Hey, what can we do that's interesting maybe with our lyrics or our videos or something interactive with the ticketing to our shows?"
That’s all, I don’t know where it’s headed, I just know that I’m always looking for the answers, for new ways to do things. That’s my job, my job is to try to not follow the lead. And there’s a lot of other people that have a lot of peers and bands that are in the community wanting to lead, and they’ll lead in other ways. And that’s what’s exciting to me. It’s not gonna be the same thing. But who knows where it goes? There’s endless possibilities to do things today with music and performance.
Jimmy Iovine is a figure we didn’t see onstage Tuesday, but someone who has been closely linked to U2 for many years from his days at Interscope and now happens to be an Apple employee. What was his role in making this deal happen?
Jimmy is part of whatever this band does, even in their personal lives. It’s a family. We look to Jimmy for guidance and support no matter what we end up doing, whether its this project or talking about the next single, or whether we’re talking about doing other things down the road. Talk about family, trips, things that we wanted to to do in our personal lives -- we’re really connected, we’re really supportive. Jimmy is near and dear to this band, he’s definitely a source of support and guidance. He’s a big part of the U2 family, and to myself personally -- whether I’m working with U2 or someone else, he’s always been a very supportive and dear friend. We consider him family and there’s been a lot of hand-holding together through this process.
On Tuesday, Bono emphasized the fact that the band was paid by Apple for the album, and there's a reported $100 million ad campaign in the works, which may have ruffled some feathers of longtime fans who admire Bono’s humanitarian work. So, is there an altruistic component to this new Apple partnership?
Apple's very private about their philanthropic work, but they've done a lot for (RED.) They've given $70 to $90 million to saving lives, and while I was at the event I counted two times where two (RED) products were actually promoted at the event.
Bono also mentioned on Facebook that there’s a second album already in the can. What else can we expect from U2 and Apple?
We're working on other things as well with Apple that have to do with how music is heard and innovation, with [iTunes VP of content] Robert Kondrk leading that charge. There’s a lot of things still to come that are really interesting. The band really wants people to engage with albums, they want them to support the art form of artwork and lyrics and video content and just get into their music in a much different way than an MP3 file. This is a long relationship.
Some retailers are already up in arms about a five-week exclusive with iTunes. How will you make sure there’s still value to the commercial release when it arrives Oct. 14?
There’s four brand-new songs, and Gary Kelly [Interscope’s head of retail sales] can tell you there’s a bunch of acoustic versions of songs from the album, too. So it’s probably gonna be anywhere between nine or 11 songs that were not on the standard. Retail is important, too, we’re not trying to alienate anyone. We're just trying to reach our potential, and it happens to be with a company that is very forward-thinking. U2 is part of the Apple story, and Apple has played a big part in U2's life.
It’s been a decade since U2 has had a true mainstream hit, so there’s a whole generation of music listeners who may just be discovering the band’s music. How do you convert them into fans without oversaturating them?
As you can see from today’s iTunes charts, clearly people are digging back into the catalog to learn more about the band, with 16 albums on the iTunes charts. That’s a statement, that people are going, “Oh, let me learn more about this band.” I’ve seen a lot of tweets from kids who are 14, 15, 16, 18 who are going, “Wow, this is really good.” They didn’t know what to expect. That’s a great feeling, that maybe someone in their collection only has hip-hop, and yet maybe someone only has country artists, or someone in India doesn’t have any Anglo artists, and they discover U2 today. The one thing all these people have in common is U2 now. The one thing everyone on iTunes has in common today is U2 and a U2 album. It’s an amazing opportunity, even at this stage in U2’s career, to make new friends.
You just gave away an album to 500 million people worldwide. How do you turn those free customers into album buyers a month from now?
This is all new territory, but we have four brand-new songs and the deluxe is a killer package. And it’s early days. You can't look at the standard as one piece of this puzzle, you have to look at whether we reached as many as possible. Are people buying the catalog all of a sudden? And the answer is yes.
By releasing a free album this week, you’ve missed some of the requirements for the Billboard as well as Grammy deadlines. So what’s the overall statement you wanted to make?
Look, we just went with organic, genuine feelings of “Let’s share this album with as many people as possible” and then we know that there’s a lot of unknowns. And we accept the ups, we accept the downs, it’ll be what it’ll be, but we’re really happy with this week and historical launch."
doctorwho
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
I never compared iTunes charts to Billboard charts.
As a result, I have no idea if #1 in iTunes means #1 on Billboard or not.
I did see that when "Invisible" reached #7 on iTunes, that brought it to the 80's on the Hot 100. But that chart is also based on airplay too. But the albums charts have no airplay aspect -just sales. My guess is that the top selling albums on iTunes will probably chart. I would certainly predict JT to re-enter the Top 100, if not Top 50. Let's find out!
Moser
Refugee
I never compared iTunes charts to Billboard charts.
As a result, I have no idea if #1 in iTunes means #1 on Billboard or not.
It doesn't, but it's a good indicator.
prbiker15
Blue Crack Addict
prbiker15
Blue Crack Addict
Super Yo
New Yorker
doctorwho
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
There's been quite a bit of online discussion about U2 and Apple "forcing" the album on people without their permission (not true, if you have your privacy settings on). Some say it's a lesson for the future - artists should let the consumer "find" them naturally.
Clearly some are not getting it. Natural discovery simply doesn't work well any more. Radio doesn't work - especially for an older artist. MTV is dead. Best Buy stores used to have headphones that allowed people to sample CD's, but with the advent of downloads and streaming, that's gone too. In other words, without some sort of commercial aspect, many artists simply aren't getting heard. Period.
Pitchfork may be right that this move does seem a bit desperate. But I feel it's desperation for ALL artists, not just U2.
I recall in 1999/2000 time frame when both Sting and Moby released albums that were ignored. Both then had one of their songs used in separate car commercials. Those songs received such positive attention from their respective commercials that both the songs and corresponding albums boomed in sales. Radio had failed them. MTV failed them. Traditional retail failed them. This was 14 years ago and it's only become worse. Unless an artist does something different to really get the masses to hear their music, they won't get heard. If big artists like Sting and U2 can't succeed it means that new artists will face an even bigger hurdle.
U2 found a new way to present their music. The format may not be loved and future versions of this format may be more subdued, but U2 (and Apple) achieved something big - they got people talking. And as already demonstrated in this thread, there are people who never heard of U2 (oddly enough) and are now listening to them for the first time. People are downloading U2. And Apple is reaping in sales money and attention just in time for their new iPhone. Win/win!
Feel free to complain, but are there really alternatives? I expect more of these types of actions in the future unless we go back to 1982 where radio would play all sorts of artists and MTV played videos. Because barring a few selected artists, new music isn't getting heard. And that is a shame.
Clearly some are not getting it. Natural discovery simply doesn't work well any more. Radio doesn't work - especially for an older artist. MTV is dead. Best Buy stores used to have headphones that allowed people to sample CD's, but with the advent of downloads and streaming, that's gone too. In other words, without some sort of commercial aspect, many artists simply aren't getting heard. Period.
Pitchfork may be right that this move does seem a bit desperate. But I feel it's desperation for ALL artists, not just U2.
I recall in 1999/2000 time frame when both Sting and Moby released albums that were ignored. Both then had one of their songs used in separate car commercials. Those songs received such positive attention from their respective commercials that both the songs and corresponding albums boomed in sales. Radio had failed them. MTV failed them. Traditional retail failed them. This was 14 years ago and it's only become worse. Unless an artist does something different to really get the masses to hear their music, they won't get heard. If big artists like Sting and U2 can't succeed it means that new artists will face an even bigger hurdle.
U2 found a new way to present their music. The format may not be loved and future versions of this format may be more subdued, but U2 (and Apple) achieved something big - they got people talking. And as already demonstrated in this thread, there are people who never heard of U2 (oddly enough) and are now listening to them for the first time. People are downloading U2. And Apple is reaping in sales money and attention just in time for their new iPhone. Win/win!
Feel free to complain, but are there really alternatives? I expect more of these types of actions in the future unless we go back to 1982 where radio would play all sorts of artists and MTV played videos. Because barring a few selected artists, new music isn't getting heard. And that is a shame.
Super Yo
New Yorker
Super Yo
New Yorker
Superb, as always.
prbiker15
Blue Crack Addict
And there we were, thinking that U2 wouldn't be able to change the game after all these years.
purpleoscar
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
What was it that Springsteen called U2? "Wily Irish".
Sent from my iPod touch using U2 Interference
Sent from my iPod touch using U2 Interference
Afliktor
The Fly
I can actually imagine a young hip college kid waking up and thinking they have a virus on their phone, I shouldn't laugh but
i work for AppleCare (Apple's tech support dept) and though I haven't gotten any myself apparently people are getting calls about "Why is U2 in my iTunes and how do I delete it?" someone even thought she had gotten hacked and cancelled her credit card
also apparently there's a bug that makes it so you can't hide the album from your purchases. So if you have iTunes in the Cloud turned on, you might not actually be able to delete the album. Which I find hilarious. but engineering's working on it 
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