U2 thought they could get Apple stock for doing a commercial, but Steve Jobs had other plans. Not only did he get them to work for free, but he also had them push a special-edition U2 iPod that made Apple millions. Smart move or just another case of big business winning?
Jo said:
They got paid in exposure… classic
Back in the late 80s, U2 had this deep, socially conscious image. They mixed activism with their music and seemed all about the message.
Then in the 90s, they flipped completely. They leaned into big-money deals, like the 2004 Apple partnership and the 2009 BlackBerry sponsorship. That’s when I started seeing them as a business more than a band.
The worst was the 2014 iTunes album drop. Apple just dumped their album onto millions of devices without asking. It was a huge backlash, and honestly, I think that’s when they really lost people.
If they had stayed true to their music instead of chasing these deals, they might have had a legendary status like The Rolling Stones. But now? I don’t miss them at all.
@Pax
Sabrina don’t just stare at it… eat it
@Pax
I can’t stand U2. Their music hurts my ears.
They could have been legendary like The Rolling Stones if they hadn’t sold out. Now, I don’t miss them at all.
No, they couldn’t have been. The Rolling Stones just made better music, simple as that.
@Luca
Yeah, but at the end of the day, it’s all about what people connect with.
@Pax
Bad example. The Rolling Stones have done plenty of corporate deals too. You might not like U2, and that’s fine, but you can’t deny their impact. They still sell out stadiums. Their Sphere show recently was huge. Calling them sellouts just seems lazy.
@Keir
No need to put ‘sellout’ in quotes… it’s exactly what happened.
@Keir
The Stones have been licensing their music for ages. How much of U2’s catalog gets that kind of demand? Maybe two songs at best… and one of them is weird.
Jo said:
They got paid in exposure… classic
Worst kind of ‘exposure’… everyone hated it, and Apple still made bank.
Jo said:
They got paid in exposure… classic
Worst kind of ‘exposure’… everyone hated it, and Apple still made bank.
You’re mixing things up. The U2 iPod and the Vertigo commercial were actually well received. It was later, when Apple forced the U2 album onto iTunes accounts, that people got mad. That’s what really damaged their reputation.
Apple later pushed a much less popular U2 album to everyone’s iTunes, without asking.
That was 2012. The iTunes Genius music suggestion tool used to be amazing, but after that, it was a mess. Even after manually removing the album, the system never ‘forgot’ it. It messed up recommendations permanently.
And then people had the nerve to say we were complaining about a free album. They had no idea how annoying it was.
Jo said:
They got paid in exposure… classic
Worst kind of ‘exposure’… everyone hated it, and Apple still made bank.
I had never even heard of them before that South Park episode about Bono. Not joking. That U2 album drop was the first time I actually listened to one of their songs.
Weirdly, I ended up liking ‘The Troubles’ and now I listen to it sometimes. So hey, they got at least one new fan out of it.