ADecentMelody said:
"Down the road, Bono and Jobs both envision new opportunities to sell songs and build fan communities, like offering concert recordings at the iTunes store. 'We're getting ready to do it,' says Jobs. 'Wouldn't it be great if the morning after the concert, you can buy it on iTunes, and anyone in the world can listen to it the next day?'"
"Down the road" ---- means no timetable.
"both envision" ---- yes, that's just it a vision. Just like Bono's envisioning ATYCLB as four musicians in a room (not!) or his declaration of POP a year before it was released as a wild rock'n'roll album that would be U2's answer to grunge rehash.
"opportunities to sell songs and build fan communities" ---- just as I have said many times, U2 are perhaps the most opportunistic band in rock history and they are shrewd businessmen. But will they take advantage of this opportunity? Perhaps not, when you take into account their track record of broken promises.
"We're getting ready to do it" ---- obviously, the "we" referred to by Jobs consist of the Apple people. U2 isn't part of the we. And "getting ready" doesn't mean they will actually do it. Since Zoo TV, U2 have recorded all their shows so that it will be "ready" for release anytime in the future. Nothing has ever been released save for one vid from each tour. A horrible batting average considering how many concerts there are in one tour.
"wouldn't it be great if the morning after the concert, you can buy it on iTunes, and anyone in the world can listen to it the next day?" --- Yes Steve, it would be great. But will U2 actually do it? As far as I can tell, they still have a long backlog in their to-do list. They promised an online version of Propaganda after they axed their popular fan mag, and they still haven't come up with that yet. When their site was launched, the promised to release some Elevation shows online through their site. When the Elevation DVD was released, it included a preview of the upcoming Zoo TV Sydney and Popmart Mexico vids - none of which have been released to date. So I highly doubt U2 will deliver on their implication that concerts from the upcoming tour will definitely be released on iTunes. As a matter of fact, they still have a long backlong of previous unfulfilled promises to fulfill.
The article is quite misleading as it can lead fans to thinking that releasing their upcoming tour on iTunes is a done deal when it's really not. But that is nothing but advertising and marketing to sell more iPods. Slight exagerrations in the conduct of business is a universally accepted practice that is neither immoral nor unethical. So U2 actually come clean. They are clever marketers and businessmen.
Cheers,
J
