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Forget MTV - Apple's iPod ads are the new music-star makers

sfgate.com — Nick Haley, 18, took just 30 minutes to pluck the Brazilian band CSS from obscurity and hurl it into the national spotlight. Marketers at Apple headquarters in Cupertino were so impressed with the song selection and YouTube video, they arranged for Haley to travel from England to Los Angeles, where he helped advertising executives at TBWA/Chiat/Day

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  • weeklywordnews, on 11/25/2007, -11/+104When Microsoft uses a song by CSS in a Zune ad = nothing
    When Apple uses it in a iPod ad = $$$$

    (P.S. here's the original, freaky Zune ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd-fMA0HFUE)
    • spillz, on 11/25/2007, -8/+6Well Apple took a smarter approach by beginning with the chorus, which is annoying but admittedly catchy.
      I cringe whenever the commercial comes on, though, which isn't the case for the Zune commercial which toned the song down.
      • kashem, on 11/25/2007, -3/+12Apple didn't make the ad. It was the original choice of Nick Haley. Apple only helped him polish it up into HD.
    • supermajic, on 11/25/2007, -1/+53Without the parenthesis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd-fMA0HFUE
    • LeonardNimrod, on 11/25/2007, -1/+9That was a Zune Ad? I thought it was just a music video that came pre-installed on the Zune.

      Regardless, If it was a Zune ad then showng their video would do nothing to hurt sales. The song, while not bad, isn't nerly as catchy or relevant to the product as Music Is My Hot Hot Sex and showing a group of unattractive people just isn't smart. If
    • Firehed, on 11/25/2007, -3/+14Was the entire Redmond campus on acid when that video was made?
    • Pic0, on 11/25/2007, -13/+12I found out about CSS because it was on my Zune...
      I didn't even know Apple used their song. Your post is the typical MS sucks Apple rulez!
      • weeklywordnews, on 11/25/2007, -1/+7What I was trying to say was that the iPod commercial was more influential on the sales of the band's album then the Zune ad.
        Nothing more, nothing less....
    • Charlotte_Web, on 11/25/2007, -0/+19I think that that Zune ad illustrates perfectly why Apple is so smart about branding.

      The Zune ads are all over the place, creatively; they don't form a lasting impression as a series. Like someone said, if I didn't know I was watching a Zune ad, I never would have guessed. It looked more like a Discovery Channel ad.

      The iPod ads always have strong visual cues that tie them all together; long before they tell you it's an iPod ad, you've already guessed that it is.
    • ravan46, on 11/25/2007, -0/+2That video is definitely someones fetish.
    • krunk4ever, on 11/26/2007, -0/+2Here's the iPod Touch Ad:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKQUZPqDZb0
  • ambiguus, on 11/25/2007, -0/+201Forget MTV? Since when did anyone go to MTV for music anymore, they stopped playing music 10 years ago.
    • peestandingup, on 11/25/2007, -0/+26"Music TeleVision" my ass. If they wanna play nothing but mindless reality shows & other garbage programming all day thats fine. But how bout a name change already??
    • woofers07, on 11/25/2007, -1/+17No, they still play music (occasionally)... just really really ***** music.
      • WyldeJ, on 11/25/2007, -0/+54This one time, I heard a Guitar on MTV.

        True Story.
    • LeonardNimrod, on 11/25/2007, -3/+7In 1996 MTv was required to change their name from Music Televison to Mundane Television because of their lack of music and poorly devised show lineup. True story!
    • senatorpjt, on 11/25/2007, -5/+2It doesn't stand for Music Television anymore. Sort of like how KFC is the official name of the old Kentucky Fried Chicken, and HSBC is the official name of the old Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation. The only difference is that KFC still sells chicken and HSBC is still a bank.
  • Cymrubeats, on 11/25/2007, -26/+12Cool, you kids are so dependant on TV that it takes an advert to clue you in. Well done.
    • onemanriot, on 11/25/2007, -5/+34I don't really have an indie-rock antenna sticking out of my ass so how else am I going to find obscure bands? Go back to reading pitchfork you hipster.
      • woody56292, on 11/25/2007, -1/+2their music video came on my zune, that is the only way I heard of them. they are pretty good though.
    • LeonardNimrod, on 11/25/2007, -0/+7Some facts...
      The song /group has been popular in the UK for some time.
      The ad was created a young man in the UK.

      What part of that would make you think that every American should know about a Brasilian group? We all discover new artists at different times. Often, we are introduced to new music without actively seeking it out as to do so would take way to much time. For instance, in my city I could see new artist s perform every night of the week and still only see a small fraction of what my city has to offer, much less what the rest of the country or world has to offer.
  • carbog, on 11/25/2007, -5/+29It is a pretty catchy song
    • Salgat, on 11/26/2007, -1/+2I personally hate the song and the ad. I also was dugg down for criticizing the ad in another digg submission.
  • mikesbaker, on 11/25/2007, -23/+6Right and no one bought this because it was an iPhone without the phone. I have said this once and I will say this so many more times. Apple is the same thing your can get anywhere else for 2/3 of the price with 10/1 the marketing. I guess their ad where a douche bag talks about how he needed a phone for messaging, a phone for talking on the phone, a PDA, and a phone for shoving up his ass wasn't working out for apple that well so they went back to hawking their goods with one hit wonders and paying "news sources" to give them lots of press.
    http://www.packetshaped.com/comics/060619.jpg
    • se1zure, on 11/25/2007, -1/+4that really is the stupidest and most irrelivent comic I have seen in my life. Not only are there games fo rmac, ut if you insist on playing a windows only game, you can switch to your windows partition on your mac.
  • whymanwhy, on 11/25/2007, -5/+64MUSIC IS MY BOYFRIEND
  • Ianki, on 11/25/2007, -3/+9Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7agPOt1XZz8

    But seriously, apparently The ipod ad two years ago did so much for the Ceasers that they had to re-release the featured song on their next album.
    • super_duper, on 11/25/2007, -1/+1*****. I should not have watched that video while I was hungover...*barf*
  • whatthefu, on 11/25/2007, -27/+11I ***** HATE that "music is my boyfriend song." I don't care what anyone says. It's awful.
  • rjosal, on 11/25/2007, -3/+32AJAX - the next Apple ad featured band.
    • Bamborzled, on 11/25/2007, -0/+4Personally, I find HTML's sound more complements that of CSS.
  • rupertmorris, on 11/25/2007, -2/+7It's nice to see unknown/lesser known acts getting the spotlight, and reaping recognition and sales.

    Yet another example of why major labels are dying a slow death. FTA: 73% of young whippersnappers polled prefer iPods and burned CDs to radio.
  • CrankyHippo, on 11/25/2007, -3/+14Give or take a couple of songs most of the ipod songs are good. When was the last time you saw anything good on MTV?
    • LeonardNimrod, on 11/25/2007, -1/+3MTV hasn't played music for a decade.
  • choopie911, on 11/25/2007, -14/+1Damn girl bands, ugh.
  • thepaine, on 11/25/2007, -22/+15I guess this proves that iPod users are robotic sheep who do and buy anything Apple commercials tell them to.
    • DeviantDragon, on 11/25/2007, -4/+2...except the iPod touch.
    • ispshadow, on 11/25/2007, -0/+6Well, I don't own a single Apple product and I thought the song was pretty good.

      Guess how that doesn't matter? It's Digg and everybody has an opinion..including your incorrect one.
      • Firehed, on 11/25/2007, -0/+2What do you expect? All rationality has long since dropped off the face of the earth.

        I don't care much for the song, but think it works well for the commercial - and I have no interest in getting an iPod touch (even if I didn't have an iPhone I wouldn't want one much - I don't think multi-touch is very appropriate for a device with one primary function, unlike a many-in-one that is the iPhone).

        But it hardly matters. I don't watch TV, so if it weren't for this kind of stuff showing up on Digg, I'd have never known about it.
    • se1zure, on 11/25/2007, -1/+3the commercial didn't tell anyone to buy the song, everyone bought it (or stole it) because it was a good song no one had ever heard of.
      But while we are jumping to erratic conclusions. I guess your comment proves that you never throughly examine a situation, and come to a reasonable conclusion about anything, but rather make yourself look like an ignorant ass.
  • chaos7, on 11/25/2007, -14/+10one hit wonder
    • Androne, on 11/25/2007, -2/+3I downloaded their album there are some other good songs
    • TheKarmaPolice, on 11/25/2007, -0/+2actually it's kind of their second hit if you've followed them for longer than since you found this article on digg. "let's make love and listen to death from above" was a pretty big hit in the indie community.
  • Threlly1, on 11/25/2007, -1/+30Pahh !
    They've been hot in the U.K. since early last year, since the first video popped up on 120minutes.
    • LeonardNimrod, on 11/25/2007, -1/+11Which is probably why a UK kid thought to you them in his advert. You can't expect the rest of the world to follow everything England is doing.

      • aliguana, on 11/25/2007, -3/+4why not? People expect the rest of the world to follow everything America is doing
    • Synn, on 11/25/2007, -0/+2120 Minutes is still on TV? I thought MTV got rid of it.
    • Nudar, on 11/25/2007, -0/+22 hours of 60 minutes? The show is boring enough at its current length of time.
  • HollowMarkeD, on 11/25/2007, -7/+1I don't think iTunes will do it for long, DRM will be out soon and we'll be paying musicians more by going to see them live; that'll probably be their main source of income.
  • charlie55, on 11/25/2007, -12/+1lets make love and listen to death from above is a video that was pre-installed on my zune. zune taught me about css before apple. i stole the rest of the album.
  • DownIsTheNewUp, on 11/25/2007, -1/+12It really is the perfect song to use for promoting the iPod Touch. But I saw CSS at Coachella this year in an overpacked tent, and again a couple months later at a sold-out 1500 capacity theater. And this was months before the iPod commecial. So next time they come to LA, they'll probably be playing in the Wiltern (2200 capacity) or the Palladium (4000 capacity). Feist just headlined a gig at the 6000 capacity Universal Amphitheater, when a year prior she was playing 1200 capacity clubs.

    There is something unsettling about how commercials do a better job of exposing the unwashed masses to some music that is actually GOOD, when radio and MTV refuse to do so.
    • Firehed, on 11/25/2007, -0/+2Why is it unsettling? Most people are absolutely obsessed with watching TV continually these days. Be thankful that the TV in your household is at least blasting the nonsense of a channel that would air iPod ads, rather than the continual ***** spewing forward from TLC where I live (I'll decorate my house and wear whatever clothes I want, thank you very ***** much).

      I really must move... it's way too painful living with the embodiment of everything I hate about my country.
  • AgmLauncher, on 11/25/2007, -15/+1That explains why that song sucks so much and why I turn the TV off each time I see the ad.

    "My music is where I'd like you to touch"

    I hate lyrics that make no sense in an attempt to sound as if they're being clever......
    • LeonardNimrod, on 11/25/2007, -1/+4Are you ***** us or are you really to dense to understand these simple lyrics. The name of the Music IS My Hot Hot Sex. It's too obvious to even require an explanation.

      You have singlehandedly brought Digg to a new low.
    • se1zure, on 11/25/2007, -0/+2if you turn off the TV every time you see an ad you don't like then you have some issues.
  • george@CASE, on 11/25/2007, -0/+3does anyone know where to get a high-res copy of this ad?
  • kenvsryu, on 11/25/2007, -0/+6The only time you'll see music on MTV is when an iPod commercial is on. Tyra Banks needs to lose weight and shut up.
  • pulsifier, on 11/25/2007, -8/+0the song sucks. the chicks are hideous. maybe this will finally put a bullet in this mod-gay-rock epidemic. theres plenty of good metal from brazil anyway.
  • hansolo, on 11/25/2007, -0/+2TABLE is a fading band that is only heard on Diamond Rio's.
  • Stonekeeper, on 11/25/2007, -0/+4"I was like, 'This song is too perfect,' "
    Nobody from leeds speaks like that.
  • LoveYouSomeEric, on 11/25/2007, -1/+3I love CSS, it's nice to see them finally getting some attention! As an aside, was anyone else at Lollapalooza this summer and disappointed by their last-minute cancellation?
  • Frostman3D, on 11/25/2007, -1/+5I dugg it just because it said "Forget MTV"
  • saddad, on 11/25/2007, -1/+1Inspired by The Faint?
  • solid12345, on 11/25/2007, -7/+4So now I know the name of the band behind that annoying-as-***** song,.
  • Synn, on 11/25/2007, -0/+8"If you sell out up-front, your career is shortened," Lefsetz said. "What kind of screwed-up world do we live in where the iPod is cooler than the music it plays?"

    We live in a world where MTV no longer plays music videos and is no longer a vessel for new artists.

    Plus there's a big difference between having music in a commercial for a music related product like the iPod...and having Britney Spears dancing around and "singing" for Pepsi.
  • NibiruX, on 11/25/2007, -2/+0Ya MTV needs to change its name, I remember as a kid how awesome MTV was seeing Poison, Guns, Metalica and no reality Real World, Hills *****. :(
  • modifiedbears, on 11/25/2007, -6/+1The irony is I saw CSS on MTV2 over a year ago.
  • wedges, on 11/25/2007, -1/+6i listened to them before they were an ipod band.
  • FearFactory, on 11/25/2007, -0/+2I forgot about MTV back when they first canceled Headbanger's Ball
  • arbouler, on 11/25/2007, -4/+2css has only one good song. other than that, theyre just downright terrible.
  • Skidmark66, on 11/25/2007, -0/+4things are SO much better for bands at the moment, you don't have to suck record company *****, or MTV *****, or corporate radio ***** to get your music exposed anymore, the ideals of punk, do it yourself and ***** the industry have come true in gold, it's just so ***** cool. rock on brothers and sisters. ps, only decent thing MTV did in the last 15 years is jackass :)
  • techmonk, on 11/25/2007, -0/+1So....can anyone translate the spanish/portugese part of the song in english? I'd like to know what I'm humming.
  • MrBlack08, on 11/25/2007, -0/+1List of all the prior ipod ad songs:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_advertising#Musi ...
    --a lot of good bands on there, I started to listen to the fratellis because of the ads.
  • acbeck58, on 11/25/2007, -0/+1CSS has been a hit band everywhere else for a while now. The only reason mainstream America didn't know about them is because they're stuck in an MTV/Top 40 world. There is way better music out there than the same five artists you hear on your local radio stations.
  • krunk4ever, on 11/26/2007, -0/+1Here's the iPod Touch Ad:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKQUZPqDZb0
  • fishsandals, on 11/26/2007, -0/+2i love that the zune comes pre-loaded with css content.. but it takes an apple ad to "save them from obscurity"....
  • Sheff, on 11/26/2007, -0/+0I'm still waiting for that fake Zune case to come out so I can hide my Touch inside it.
  • Fragility, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1CSS is my band! My band! I found them first!!
  •  

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