iPod ads over the years

Someone on Postal Blowfish (the Guided By Voices mailing list that inexplicably continues to be vibrant years after that band's demise) was swooning over Feist's 1-2-3-4 iPod commercial, which got me thinking about iPod commercials over time and the swirl of interest that this particular ad's been generating.

It's amazing what a little, ahem, "exposure" will do. That song's been out for a while and was a single that essentially went nowhere. On the strength of appearing in that commercial, however, I noticed yesterday that it was the #1 selling song on the iTunes store, and I overheard it being announced as "that hot new song" on the radio in a taxi. It's gotta be climbing the charts with a bullet (as they say).

It's made me wonder if Apple has managed to turn the dynamics of music licensing for commercials on its head. Typically, I believe, an artist gets paid for the rights to use their song in a commercial. Being featured in an iPod ad, however, has got to be so positive that I imagine that artists would be dying to give away this use of their songs. I'll try to slip this into conversation with some of my Apple friends (although asking questions like this sometimes ends friendly conversations faster than proverbially "talking about Fight Club").

Other iPod ads that have had an impact on me for one reason or another:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K8cIIRJ4j4
Eminem's "Lose Yourself". When this ad came out, this song was old news, played out, etc. Somehow, this ad and the animation style gave the song new life. I love how it ends with the mic hitting the floor:

http://massanti.com/2007/09/27/the-first-ever-ipod-commercial-by-apple/
Don't know if The Properllerheads got a big lift off of this, but it's notable for being first ipod ad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nljs4kzpebU
U2's "Vertigo". I believe that the song premiered through this video? Having lost interest in U2 over the years after being excited about them a long time back, I was blown away by this. I remember hitting rewind on my Tivo about 10 times to watch. Maybe the song tries a little too hard to imitate U2's "old sound", but if anyone has that right, they do, and it works. Great video. Great song. Great ad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz9tybSebsA
Guitar smashing officially jumps the shark (as has that tired metaphor) in this ad featuring Wolfmother. I remember asking friends about them because this ad caught me ear. Unfortunately, they turned out to be not much deeper than that riff, but one riff is all you need for a good iPod ad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6nTgfS6EiY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZgpEInMgV8
And finally, by popular demand, here is "1 2 3 4" paired with an appropriate companion.

Comments

[Peter Steinberg]

What's REALLY weird is that the online ads I've seen the last few days (ok, embedded in the online stream of Gossip Girls) for the Verizon "chocolate" phone have a DIFFERENT Feist song featured.

Did Feist sell her soul to the devil?

[KeepDurhamDifferent!]

I kinda like that Feist song, it's on the NCSU radio station all the time it seems.

I am reminded of the boost The Thermals got from closing out a recent episode of "Weeds":
http://www.appliedinformation.com/~rollins/mp3/01-the_thermals-here's_your_future.mp3

Not to mention Snoop Dogg's endorsement in the same episode:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eUMv4Qwb5lU

[KeepDurhamDifferent!]

Found the clip:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CcepZi8XFuY

[LibertyVini]

LOLOL, I'm still tickled by that commercial, I saw our girl Leslie on Colbert Report the other night.

[LibertyVini]

LOLOL, I'm still tickled by that commercial, I saw our girl Leslie on Colbert Report the other night.