Twice the U2 they convinced Apple to do something that went against his principles.
The first was a success. The second was a failure.
From both stories, told by Bono Vox in his recent autobiography, Surrender published by Mondadori, you can learn something valuable.
The first story:
“In 2004, a month before the release of our single Vertigo, together with the Edge, our manager Paul McGuinness and Jimmy Iovine we met Steve Jobs. We had an intuition that we believed could benefit both Apple and our group.
Until then, U2 had always been against giving one of their songs for a commercial. But this time they absolutely wanted to be part of the advertising campaign that Apple had created for its iPodwhere the silhouettes of people dance against brightly colored backgrounds.
“We don’t want money – Bono tells Jobs – we just want to be part of the publicity”.
In reality, the manager McGuinnes tries: “A symbolic package of Apple shares would still be appreciated…”.
But when Jobs hints that he has no intention of giving it to her, Bono suggests something else in return: “How about ‘our’ iPod? An iPod that you can order red and black?” he tells the co-founder of Apple.
Steve Jobs stiffens: “Apple is all about white hardware – he says – but I can give it a try and I’m sure you won’t like it”.
“When, later, he showed us the design – says Bono – we fell in love with it. We were lucky to ride the Apple wave during that time. That incredible commercial brought the band closer to a younger audience while at the same time thousands of people bought the U2 iPod just because it wasn’t white. Apple was on its way to infinity and beyond. We had been lucky to get a ride. You couldn’t buy a ticket.”
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The second story:
Ten years later, in 2014, Bono and the new manager of U2, Guy Oseary, meet the CEO of Apple, Tim Cookand two other top managers of the company: Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller.
Bono had another idea, but Cook is not convinced.
“Do you really want to give away your music?”.
Cook is incredulous: “Apple is trying to do the opposite, we want to be sure that musicians get paid.”
“No – replies Bono – we don’t give it away for free. Apple will pay for it and then distribute it for free, as a gift to people. Like when Netflix buys a movie and distributes it to subscribers”.
“But that’s not what we are,” Cook replies [Apple Music sarebbe nata l’anno successivo].
Despite Tim Cook’s further doubts – “But would it be only for those who love U2?” – Bono manages to convince Apple. The new album of the group will end up in all Fifth generation iPod sold by the Cupertino company.
Apple’s gift to fans: the new U2 album is free on iTunes
“After all, what was the worst thing that could have happened? – Bono wrote eight years later – It would have been like junk mail. Like leaving our bottle of milk on the doorstep of every house in the neighborhood. It wasn’t quite like that, however. On September 9, 2014, we not only put our bottle of milk in front of the door, but in every fridge in every house in the city. In some cases we poured it on people’s cornflakes. And some people like to pour their milk. And others are lactose intolerant.”
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The operation is a failure. Wired Usa calls it “worse than spam.” According to Salon magazine, “gift album made U2 the most hated band in America”. Apple is said to have lost one hundred million dollars over the idea of the rock band. But Tim Cook at the time is flawless.
“You convinced us to do an experiment – he tells Bono – and we rode it. It might not have worked, but we tried. Because the music business in its current form doesn’t work for everyone.”
“If there’s a need for more clues as to why Steve Jobs chose Tim Cook to take over the leadership of Apple, this is one of them – adds Bono in his book -. Cook, instinctively probably conservative, was ready to try something different to solve a problem. And when it all went wrong, he took full responsibility. He couldn’t fire me but he could still easily point the finger at me. We had learned a lesson, and we should have been careful about our steps for some time. It hadn’t been just a banana peel. It had been an anti-personnel landmine.”
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