Slashdot Mirror
That U2 Apple Stunt Wasn't the Disaster You Might Think It Was
journovampire writes with this interesting bit about the fallout of U2's partnership with Apple. "Remember U2's album giveway with Apple at the end of last summer? And how the world seemed to become very annoyed that its contents had been "pushed" to their devices without permission? Well, the naysayers might have been loud – but that hasn't stopped the stunt having a lasting effect on the band's popularity. That’s according to new research from retail insight experts Kantar in the US, which shows that nearly a quarter (24%) of all US music users on iOS devices in January listened to U2, nearly five months after Songs Of Innocence was released for free onto 500m iPhones across the world. In a survey of iOS users, Kantar found that more than twice the percentage of people listened to U2 in January than listened to the second-placed artist, Taylor Swift (11%)."
Not actually trying to troll, I realize there will be people who claim to have listened to it 'by accident', but I have to wonder how many people actually did listen to it accidentally by hitting 'shuffle all' on their music collection?
Free Pie! The Pie is Also Evil!
500 milli-....what? It's a prefix. You can't be serious that you mistook that for something other than 500 million. Even so, maybe it's just a small typo that you could ignore, much like "prety."
Ok, so fast lesson in behavioral psychology. If someone performs a bad behavior and you reward them, they will perform the same behavior again. Rewarding bad behavior is not how we stop this shit from happening, in fact it does the exact opposite.
I am one of those who listened to U2 thanks to Apple as recent as last week. Why? Well when I click my microphone switch (on the headphones) to hang up a call, if I don't do it just right in comes ITunes and starts playing U2. Or my phone will occasionally "pocket dial" the music app and it will start playing U2. If I could delete or turn off the music app, I would. (Actually if I bury it in a directory on an unused page, I'm sure that would help.). So the statistics really needs to be those who listened to U2 willingly vs those who didn't.
I was clicking on it over and over in different ways in an attempt to erase it. So yes I listened to that song way more than taylor swift or pretty much any other song.
U2, sitting innocuously near the bottom of your Artist list, it always syncs and whenever it comes up on random you're reminded yet again to go sort that shit out, but you always forget. And the cycle continues.
"I love you, and I hope your own children treat you in the same way you have treated me".
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
People with an IQ know that 500M = 500 Million. 500m = 0.500 Everyone else are low IQ losers and what is wrong with the world.
Actually the low IQ losers are the ones who read things in an absolute sense. Those with higher IQs are more interpretive and use context and are more tolerant of minor capitalization typos.
Getting all upset over the mis-capitalization is more a sign of some degree of compulsive disorder than high IQ.
Not asking permission is theft.
I'm a fan of U2 and I can see how some people might consider what they did rude or presumptuous, but theft? - No, just leave the contorted 'theft' analogies to the MAAFIA. No offense intended, but they are much better at it than you are.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
If you give me your phone for 30 seconds, I can download software on it to let me track your location anytime I want to. Other people can download software to turn on the microphone and listen in without having the phone ring.
The only real difference between your cellphone and a spying device used to track you, listen to every word you say, is the software on it.
Just because all they CLAIMED to download was a 'free song' doesn't mean it really was a free song.
Doing the download indicates:
1. The ability to treat pwn your electronics at their convenience.
2. Weak morals, ethics and lack of respect for us such that they see nothing wrong with pwning our devices.
This is a matter of trust - and they proved they are not trustworthy.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Music, like sex, is a young person's affair. Just drop it after 40, nobody wants to hear it, and no one wants to think about it.
Hey kids! Old guy here dropping in just to let you know that contrary to what AC claims, you'll still like sex and music even when you're over fifty. You just won't be staying up late to enjoy them.
Since I'm here I might as well give you a heads up on some of the things that will change. On the sex front, expect your standards for what is "hot enough to do" to fall straight through the floor. I know this sounds awful to you now, but trust me on this, you've got hold of the wrong end of that stick.
On the music front, at a certain age most people stop being interested in listening anything new. However that age isn't 40; it's more like 22. And notice I said "most". If you make it to, say 26 years old and are still listening to new music, you'll still be doing that at 50.
And same goes for being a miserable person. I know the stereotype is that older people are miserable, but trust me, most miserable older people were miserable young people. They just let it out more, because as you get older you have fewer inhibitions (see the point about sex above).
Anyhow, thought I'd let you know that getting older isn't bad at all, and it sure as hell beats the alternative.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
that U2 live in the past. Joshua Tree, Boy, and even Zooropa were great albums, because they spoke to a specific time and place. I'm not a huge fan of their music, but I can certainly appreciate what they brought to pop music at the time. For that reason I'll listen to them every now and again.
But this latest Apple album is just an attempt to re-do Joshua Tree. I mean, if the Edge started playing the Keytar and succeeded in making it cool, or Bono stopped writing songs with abstract lyrics, that could be new and interesting. But if people want to listen to Joshua tree, everyone can listen to Joshua tree.
The best classics are classics because they encompass a specific time and place. U2 had their time and place, did it really well, and now they either need to do something completely new (at the risk of their legacy), or go enjoy their royalty cheques for the rest of their lives, doing reunion shows whenever Bono needs a new private jet.
Hey, since when is 50 old? I hear 70 is the new 50, and soon it's be 80.
Also, classic rock never gets old - your kids will be listening to the same songs (at least until they find out you grew up with those songs).
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
c. U2 is a "dad band", in that it really only appeals to people who are in the 40+ age bracket. This also happens to be what iDevices are increasingly seen as "dad-tech", something your dad tells you is the "best choice for everything" which you know is obviously wrong but fuck it, you'll take the free phone anyway since he's paying for it.
As one of those folks in the 40+ age bracket...
1) Back when us old farts were teenagers, U2 was considered somewhat revolutionary (and in a way they were). The music itself? Compared to the mass of dreck we had thrust upon our ears via radio in the 1980s? It wasn't half bad, but there was better out there (you just had to really go look for the good shit, in an age where the HTTP protocol didn't exist and the Internet was unknown to 99.99999% of the planet. This meant buying a shitload of blank cassettes, a wide circle of friends, and having a boom box with cassette-to-cassette recording capability.)
2) I once felt the same way towards my old man's 60's/70's Psychedelic/ProgRock collection (played on reel-to-reel no less!) that you feel towards a 1980's has-been band. However, my ears, like the rest of me, grew up - I inherited his collection, and after a cursory listen-through, am ripping the hell out of some of those reels to the audio-in on my home desktop machine (Thank Heavens for Audacity on Linux...) Good news, though! Old stuff, new stuff, in-between stuff... it doesn't matter to me any more; I find good stuff in every era, to the point where I have 78 RPM 'vinyl' with stuff I've ripped to FLAC. Mind you, I'm typing this as some rather kickass German industrial rock is pumping into my headset. Before that, The Temptations' Power was playing. Jazz musicians call it the act of having 'Big Ears', where you find and love good music from practically every genre. Someday, you'll get that too.
3) One fine day, *your* kids will point at your current favorite tech and laugh their asses off, as surely as I once laughed my ass off at inheriting my parents' old Amstrad 2286 (complete with maths co-processor!) and its dot-matrix printer... in 1997. Deny it all you want, I don't mind... I know different. ;)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Most people when they're young are rather tribal about their musical tastes as they see it as significantly defining them, no only as who they are but as who they're not.
However once we grow up and become full rounded adults then music simply becomes another form of media entertainment and we no longer limit ourselves to metal/rap/r&b/whatever but listen to anything we like.
And thats a good thing.
If you can make it to the retirement home, women outnumber men by quite a bit. It might take 70 years, but you will finally get some.
Long term viability for a band that formed almost 40 years ago? I think they're going to be okay.
It depends - is it the sound of Beiber choking to death on a ham sandwich? (RIP Mama Cass, yes, I know the ham sandwich is an urban legend, but the media never let the facts get in the way of a good story :-)
If Mama Cass has just split that sandwich with Karen Carpenter, they both could be alive today.
SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT
The effect may be correlated with having a sense of humor.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Is no one else upset that your iphone is reporting back to apple and their affiliates what music you are listening to?
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.