News: October 2004 Archives

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October 27, 2004

Apple Rolls Out IPod Photo, Rocks with U2

10.27.04 - Reuters

By Duncan Martell

SAN JOSE, Calif. (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. rolled out on Tuesday a new iPod that allows users to view and share photos as it opened nine new iTunes music stores in Europe, spurring its rivalry with Microsoft Corp. and others.

Apple also has hooked up with Irish rock band U2 to announce the iPod U2 Special Edition, a black model with a bright red click-wheel and holds up to 5,000 songs.

The new iPod Photo, which had been widely anticipated, is a multimedia device with a color screen and comes with 40 gigabytes or 60 gigabytes of storage -- two to three times more than the storage available on its most used music player.

The iPod Photo, partnership with U2, which appears in the most recent iPod television commercial, and a Digital Box Set of more than 400 U2 songs, underscore how digital music, and, arguably Apple, are transforming multimedia and music.

"You're seeing bits of the future here in how the leadership power centers of media are shifting," said Mike McGuire, an analyst with research firm GartnerG2.

"These are the companies that are going to be the next media titans. Does that include Apple? Yes. Does that include Microsoft, Starbucks and others? Yes."

In Europe, where Microsoft was first with online music sales, Apple expanded its iTunes store, the world's most popular online music store which has fueled demand for iPods. Online stores opened in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain on Wednesday, allowing consumers in these countries to pay with their local credit card.

The iPod Photo 40-gigabyte version sells for $499 and the 60-gigabyte model for $599. Both immediately available.

"We think photos are the next big thing. Everyone has the content" because of the rapid proliferation of digital cameras among consumers "and there are no copyright issues," Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs (news - web sites) said at a news conference. "We think music plus photos is the next big thing."

"If you look at Apple's customer base they absolutely are focused around two major areas, one is music and one is photos," said Creative Strategies analyst Tim Bajarin. "This was purely a natural evolution."

The timing of Apple's U2 iPod release coincides with the upcoming Nov. 23 release of the Dublin-based band's new album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb."

The U2 iPod will sell for $349 and is expected to be available in mid-November.

"EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING"

The Cupertino, California-based computer maker also said it created the online music industry's first-of-its-kind "Digital Box Set." The set, "The Complete U2," will contain over 400 tracks including all of the band's albums. Fans will be able to buy and download it with just one click on the iTunes Music Store in the United States and Europe beginning in late November for $149.

Since the iPod's introduction in October 2001, Cupertino, California-based Apple has sold more than 6 million iPods, 2 million alone in Apple's most recent quarter.

Apple remains the undisputed leader in digital music players and online music sales with the iPod, iPod mini and the iTunes online music store.

But rivals are converging on the market, with No. 1 software company Microsoft earlier this month officially launched its own music store. Also earlier this month, Dell Inc. announced a slimmed-down player and Virgin Electronics has weighed in with its own tiny player.

Bono told reporters after he and U2 guitarist The Edge performed two songs from the new album that U2 was not paid to appear in the iPod ads, and that the band and Apple would share profits from the U2 iPod.

"It's a horizontal relationship rather than a vertical one," Bono said. "We will make (money) on the products that we put out together. If they don't sell, we won't."

The Edge said he sees the partnership with Apple as the beginning of a wholesale transformation in the distribution of music, to an online world from a physical one of CDs.

"We wanted to find an innovative way to redefine the distribution of music," The Edge told reporters. "We see it as the next step for the music business."

Posted by Jonathan at 03:58 AM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2004

U2 Take Over Top Of The Pops

10.16.04 - NME

U2 surprised fans in LONDON last night (October 15) when they played a short set after making a brief television appearance for TOP OF THE POPS.

The band performed their new single 'Vertigo' and the Roy Orbison classic 'She's A Mystery To Me' live in the pouring rain at BBC's Television Centre before treating the crowd to a series of new tracks and old classics, off air.

Around 400 fans queued outside the gates for several hours before they finally had a chance to see the band play on a stripped down stage in the car park.

At the start of the show Bono, who was dressed in a leather jacket and a cowboy hat, spotted Doctor Who's Tardis by the stage and shouted to the crowd: "Wow it's the Tardis. Exterminate, exterminate, pop music," before he launched into their new single.

When they finished their TV appearance, the group carried on playing and treated fans to the U2 classic 'Desire' and gave an exclusive preview of two new tracks from their forthcoming album 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb'.

They performed new track 'All Because of You' before Bono addressed the crowd and said: "This next song is about how we used to come to cities like London and New York when we were younger and naive and how over time our innocence has disappeared and how experience has kind of kicked in especially when you're smoking 40 cigarettes."

He added: "We played this amazing show after September 11 and we remember all these blinding lights after playing 'Where The Streets Have No Name'. People were crying and it was an amazing thing to see."

The band then ended the show with new song 'City Of Blinding Lights' and Bono said: "We'll see you next summer. It'll still be raining," before he left the stage.

U2 fan Rob Cole, 33, from Shepherd's Bush said he was surprised the band carried on playing after their TV appearance.

He said: "It was amazing. I really didn't expect that. You don't get to see the biggest band in the world play at the bottom of your street for free very often. It is good to see they are just as good as they always have been and I'm looking forward to seeing them tour next year."

U2 played:

'Vertigo'
'All Because Of You'
'Desire'
'She's A Mystery'
'City Of Blinding Lights'

Posted by Jonathan at 03:56 AM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2004

U2 Video Goes Down A Storm; Filming Is Hit By Lightning

10.15.04 - The Mirror

by: Paul Martin

U2's 1 million pounds comeback video was almost destroyed by freak weather conditions, I can reveal.

The stars nearly cancelled their Vertigo video shoot when a sandstorm hit the set and wrecked EUR200,000 worth of camera equipment.

And just as they got back on to the set a bolt of lightening struck just 100 yards from where Bono was standing.

The band staged the shoot on a remote part of the Delta de L'Ebre, on the Spanish coast.

They had originally planned to film the shoot in Nevada where the atomic bomb was tested but opted for the change of location at the last minute.

As the band were preparing for the second day of filming, a relentless windstorm struck, throwing sand into every eye and camera.

Bono revealed: "We had every kind of freak weather condition you can imagine- the rain, the snow and the sandstorm." Video director Martin Fougerol was on the verge of calling the shoot off and saving the rest of the equipment when the storm suddenly diverted. The Edge added: "It was pretty crazy stuff. We thought we were going to have to return to Dublin without a video. It got pretty tough out there. Bono and I were sharing a tent and we couldn't come out for at least six hours."

In the spectacular new video, frontman Bono and the band perform as a helicopter flies around above the band, diving in and pulling up while they perform on a huge beach surface of the remote river basin. Crew members had to dig a huge moat around the outer perimeter of the shoot, offering protection from the sandstorm so filming could be completed.

Bono said the hassle was well worth it. He explained: 'We've made all kinds of videos over the years with uneven results.

"High-concept, story, abstract... but we've never done a video that has a graphic arts background and this is what it is.

"There seems to be so much clutter everywhere. Turn on music television and there's big cluttered sets, people walking round with clutter around their necks, great cluttered award shows, so this is our attempt to empty the frame."

Posted by Jonathan at 03:55 AM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2004

U2: Dancing With The Devil: Hex, Drugs & Achtung Baby

10.14.04 - Uncut Magazine

Next month, U2 release the eagerly-awaited new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. However good it is, however, it'll go some to Achtung Baby - an audacious act of supergroup mid-career reinvention that raised the bar for dozens of 90's megabands to try and copy - or fall by the wayside.

A decade on from its original release, we look back at U2's radical transformation from earnest musos to manic cyber-rockers in an eye-opening investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tortured making of Achtung Baby, which story involves the collapse of The Edge's marriage, Adam Clayton's self-destructive drinking, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the band allegedly getting involved in drugs and their dark side, a satanic aspect to their character hitherto well concealed.

As a bonus for U2 fans, there's also an exclusive track by track preview of the new album, which goes on sale in November, as well as a chance to win a VIP trip to Berlin, where much of Achtung Baby was famously recorded.

Elsewhere in this month's issue, we celebrate Martin Scorsese's classic mob epic GoodFellas, and a year on from his death we look back at Johnny Cash's legendary concerts at Folsom and San Quentin prisons. We also spend some entertaining time with the outrageous Tony Scott, director of high concept blockbusters like Top Gun, True Romance, Enemy Of The State and Days Of Thunder, who regales us with tales of Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis and Robert De Niro, meet Bo Hopkins, one of Sam Peckinpah's famous stock company and uncover the truth behind the mysterious death of American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, who died of apparently self-inflicted knife wounds to the chest in October 2003.

To complete this month's package, our free CD, Mob Life, collects 16 great tracks from classic Scorsese movies, and includes music from Roxy Music, van Morrison, Johnny Thunders, Frank Sinatra, Little Richard, Tony Bennett and BB King.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:51 AM | Comments (2)

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