Column: off the record...,vol. 9-419
@U2,
July 18, 2010
By: Ian Ryan
After a U2-song-filled World Cup, I've only got one thing to say: ¡España ganadores! ¡Furia roja y corazón de oro! ¡Qué magnífico!
I know I'm a fan and all that, but I do like the marriage between my favorite band and my favorite sport that's been going on for the past couple of World Cups.
Anyone else ever wonder why U2 hasn't embraced online and handheld technology more fully? This is the band that had digital music rights written into their contract in the early '90s, a decade before iTunes got started. The acoustic version of "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" was the first song to go to No. 1 on the iTunes sales charts ever. They were the first band to ever make available their (nearly) complete catalog for digital download. Without a doubt, the combination of "Vertigo" and the iPod helped make How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb the massive success that it was. I remember reading interviews about how excited the Edge was that people were downloading All That You Can't Leave Behind for free before the album was released.
So what happened? Obviously U2's willingness to pair with Apple early on had something to do with it. The two really seemed to be a match made in heaven. Bono's investment company Elevation Partners' purchase of Palm soured his relationship with Steve Jobs, apparently. This was seemingly further pushed apart by U2's turning to BlackBerry to run their No Line on the Horizon/U2360 Tour app. However, Palm's new smart phones tanked, so much so that Elevation Partners sold Palm to HP. From what I heard (I never had a chance to use it myself), the BlackBerry app wasn't all that, either.
Even with these missteps, though, U2 seems to have fallen further behind in the digital age than they should be. You'd think there'd be a U2 iPhone app (not that I'm not loving the atu2 app). You'd think that LiveNation would have finally made its website more user-friendly. U2 have been talking about making every concert available for purchase soon after the actual live shows since at least the Elevation tour, if not earlier, but we still see nothing. Pearl Jam, on the other hand, has been doing it for at least seven or eight years. The Edge has said in at least one interview that he feels the CD format is dead. While I still prefer to buy CDs of albums I really like, I largely agree with him regarding singles and more casual purchases. If that's how he feels, though, why does U2.com still send out CD bonuses rather than digital bonuses? Why don't U2 make fully interactive digital albums, rather than the normal audio files and a PDF? I would LOVE to see what their design crew could do with a Zooropa or Pop interactive digital booklet. I can think of some sweet promotional apps that could be released for both desktop/laptop and mobile use. And I'm sure they could mend their relationship with Apple fairly easily. I mean, these days Apple is saying good things about Microsoft and, to the best of my knowledge, hell hasn't frozen over yet. Considering all this, I just can't figure out why U2 isn't making it happen.
Maybe a new Apple exclusive. What would a Songs of Ascent iPad look like...?
I want to end on good news, so cheers for rescheduled tour dates! I'm not going to be able to see them for another 11 months, but I should be graduating right around then so it'll be a sweet graduation present to myself. And they'd better not drop "Ultraviolet" from the set list! See y'all in Seattle (unless I figure out how to get to another show before then).
© @U2/Ryan, 2010.
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