The kings of Cupertino formally announced their new Apple Watch today, as well as the new Macbook Pro and a partnership between the software/hardware company and HBO Now this afternoon, a press conference that broke Twitter for a good 20 minutes.
We're not sure if you'll be seeing any television commercial for the new Macbook but almost without a doubt there will be a wave of advertising when the company rolls out its new watch line for the hoards of Apple adorers. And a new commercial campaign means some band, previously established or otherwise, is about to have a good year. Prior to the boom of Beats Audio, no company could better boost music sales than Apple (and now it owns Beats so...yeah). Here are five musicians and bands that have best benefitted from Apple's use of its songs in advertising.
05) U2
Obviously U2 did not require from Apple and Steve Jobs to survive when it first partnered with the company, performing its single "Vertigo" on an iPod commercial during 2004. The song would have sold just fine on account of it being from U2, one of the world's largest acts already. That said, the song was one of the first to truly demonstrate the power of digital downloads. Billboard didn't track downloads at the time as part of the Hot 100, but would later adjust its metrics to do so, acknowledging that had digital singles for "Vertigo" been counted, the band almost assuredly would have topped the singles chart. Essentially, the band got a huge digital boost from its association with Apple. Later the band would sacrifice thousands in sales by simply giving away Songs of Innocence on iTunes, and plenty of free publicity to go along with it. Although U2 got a modest boost from its iTunes connection, the digital music marketplace won even more. The iPod began, as most such devices do, as a cool thing for the youth. U2 helped to bring older generations into the field, suggesting mp3 technology was cool for adults as well.
04) CSS
No company has had as intricate a relationship with Apple as U2, so don't be surprised when the next four entries feature much less text. Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS) or "I Got Tired of Being Sexy" was never as appealing to wide audiences as it was after being featured in a commercial campaign for the first iPod Touch during 2007. Not only was the song "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex" steamier than the typical advertising theme song, the many ways in which vocalist Luísa "Lovefoxxx" Matsushita described what "music is" correlated with the many functions of the new piece of hardware. The song hadn't even been a single when the band's self-titled debut dropped during 2005, but it climbed to no. 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 during 2007. The album that would follow, Donkey, would be the band's only to crack the Billboard 200, placing at no. 189. If there was ever any question that Apple has more tastemaking power, it's worth noting that the Microsoft Zune had used the song in a campaign earlier that year.
03) Chappo
Not every band is launched to international success just because it's featured in an Apple commercial. Some bands can't event get that one album just barely across the threshold of the Billboard 200. Then again, some bands only exist because Apple justified their existence. Such was the case of Chappo. This case also demonstrates how deep the Apple advertising reps can dig when they want the new thing: The band had no label, no manager, no legal representation, nothing, and somehow Apple still found its way to "Come Home," a song it would acquire permission to use during its iPod Touch 4G commercials. The song began bringing in attention and downloads from around the world, a fact the group used to finally gain the financial backing required to put out an album. Chappo hasn't become the next big alternative band yet but it is currently touring with Big Data, so it's doing well enough to survive. The flip side to this coin of course is that when corporations realize they hold such sway, they may pressure bands to offer their products for free...an offer that many acts might not be able to refuse (fortunately Ex Cops could easily turn down McDonalds, and Katy Perry the NFL).
02) Feist
Feist was a well-established performer before Apple picked up "1234" as the theme song for its iPod Nano (highlighting its vide capabilities) during 2007...if you were that familiar with alternative rock and Baroque pop act Broken Social Scene as to pick out member Leslie Feist from the other 19. If not, it's fair to say that your mother, sister and even your open-minded teenage brother downloaded the song after hearing it on that commercial. The success of the single would push it up to no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest place she's yet to attain (in fact, she hasn't cracked the Hot 100 since). If you buy that Apple helped amplify the popularity of the truly great song (and we do), then you also have to buy that Apple is responsible to some degree for her ultimately being nominated for the Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. It's essentially her career song: No matter how many times you play recordings of her covering Mastodon, everyone will know her as the "1234" girl.
01) Jet
It seems that few bands have flared up and out as spectacularly and quickly as Jet, at least during this millennium. The Australian band went for the throat of mainstream listeners with singles such as "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" and "Cold Hard Bitch" and then...we pretty much don't remember what happened after that. We know that the band released a second album, Shine On, but we don't remember any tracks from it. Which is odd, considering that it had the highest sales week of any Jet album, despite being released more than three years after the debut record Get Born. Although the track had some decent Mainstream Rock chart success with the single before it got gobbled up by Apple, it eventually made it onto the Hot 100 and accelerated sales of Get Born into platinum status after it appeared in one of the famous black-silhouette ads, and that success poured over into the band's next release as well (at least in terms of sales). After the song found a home with other products and other soundtracks, the band kind of shrank out of sight, having lost the benevolent grace of Apple.
