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U2 and Apple Collaborate On 'Non-Piratable, Interactive Format For Music'

Posted by Soulskill on from the good-luck-with-that dept.

Squiff writes U2 and Apple are apparently collaborating on a new, "interactive format for music," due to launch in "about 18 months." (A direct interview is available at Time, but paywalled.) Bono said the new tech "can't be pirated" and will re-imagine the role of album artwork. Marco Arment has some suitably skeptical commentary: "Full albums are as interesting to most people today as magazines. Single songs and single articles killed their respective larger containers. ... This alleged new format will cost a fortune to produce: people have to take the photos, design the interactions, build the animations, and make the deals with Apple. Bono’s talking point about helping smaller bands is ridiculous ... There's nothing Apple or Bono can do to make people care enough about glorified liner notes. People care about music and convenience, period. As for “music that can’t be pirated”, I ask again, what decade is this? That ship has not only sailed long ago, but has circled the world hundreds of times, sunk, been dragged up, turned into a tourist attraction, went out of business, and been gutted and retrofitted as a more profitable oil tanker."

10 of 358 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Expert. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bono is an expert on media formats in the same way that Dr Dre is an expert on frequency response.

  2. Re:Expert. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, the thing is, in order for something to be pirated, at least one person has to buy it. So he may actually be on to something here....

  3. Re:Expert. by trewornan · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nothing, but then what Bono is most famous for these days is being a massive dick head. Can't be pirated, really? Shove a cutlass up his ass and he'll sing.

  4. Re:Great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Apple, U2 and Metallica. The trio of the apocalypse.

  5. Bono Singing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Bono's singing sounds exactly like Ned Beatty's squealing in Deliverance.

  6. Cross between a music album and a video game by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Funny
    It appears that U2 and Apple are proposing an interactive album format that combines the music of a record album with the interactivity of a video game.

    .
    Or to phrase it differently, it appears that U2 and Apple are proposing to make music more prominent in video games.

  7. Re:Expert. by BarneyGuarder · · Score: 3, Funny

    I believe that Dr. Dre's PhD is in Electircal Engineering.

  8. Re:Non-piratable by organgtool · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's music that can't be heard and Apple figured U2 would be the perfect band to use this new technology.

  9. Re:Expert. by Beat+The+Odds · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't know for sure, but since this albums took 5 years to produce...maybe 4 years was CS education.

  10. Future headline by Snufu · · Score: 3, Funny

    Apple engineers unable to plug Bono's analog hole.