I don't need a new phone , yet. But Orange are giving away an excellent value Christmas box with any Pay As You Go phone over thirty pounds (plus ten pound top up). The blurb goes like this:
"We’ll give you a free pair of Angle & Curve headphones worth £60
when you buy any pay as you go phone priced at £30 or more. It’s all
part of our Christmas gift box"
This is the power of advertising , I keep finding good reasons to go out and buy a phone I dont need. I also dont need headphones, If I did I could by a perfectly good set of Sennheiser Headphones for £20 , rather that fork out the £40 my free gift requires.
As yet I haven't given in to temptation but I have been close . This is the essence of a brilliant advertising campaign, get people to want to buy , even though they dont want to or need to .
This is a very short post to check out widget creation , and see if I can sell the odd iPhone. I do find it amazing how Apple products are spreading every where , every music player has an iPod dock and according to "Q" magazine without Steve Jobs we would have no music!!
Though this is at a time where Orange have just produced an excellent Muppets based Goldspot advert to promote Orange Wednesdays film nights!!
I know I shouldnt have done it but I did. It was "Q" it had U2 on the cover , but it had "Achtung Baby" covered by the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode and Patti Smith , it was worth the risk right?
Well the album is generally exceelent if not exactly what expected , so that was a win.
However I then flicked through the nagazine ad came across this article titled "5 Ways Steve Jobs Changed Music" , Err let me stop you there , Steve Jobs / Apple have nothing to do with music , unless you count things like Garageband . Jobs was an OK guy and a master of marketing. He never produced or supported music unless it's ultimate aim was to make money for Apple.
1: He Made Music Truly Mobile: Did he well we've had portable radios since the late fifties , the walkman allowed you to take any music anywhere , mini disc and CD and micro HD drives increased that , then Apple jumped on the bandwaogon with a better looking product that still uses a non standard format for everything it touches!!
2: He Invented The Shuffle: Pardon CDs did random play , even with the 10 disc jukebox in your card . The iPod Shuffle was a masterstroke of marketing . It's hold 250 tracks that it can play in any order and you havent a clue what you are listening to and Apple marketed this as a desirable attribbute . Pure genius.
3: He Revived The Singles Market: Well only when downloads started being counted , adn I reckon Amazon and a lot of others did the same thing at the same time . Again a good marketing move.
4: He Changed The Retail Landscape: Er Amazon did that way before Jobs was properly up and running. Allowing peole to cherry pick albums , well I've been doing that from ripped CDs for years. Again nothing new and was pleased when Pink Floyd won the case to sell albums as albums!!
5: He Made Your Favourite Bands Go Digital: No he didnt , and Q still manage a cheap stab at AC/DC . Bands go digital because there is a market , End of discussion.
So basically a rubbish article about an OK guy , a marketing genius who got lucky and was in the right place and the right time.
t's been an interesting month . I've spent the month looking for a free , web based , social calendar and playlist generator and sharer supported by ads. My first points of call used to work but dont now , the concept is simple and works but so many people want to control what you listen to , watch and see. Don't these organisation realise that majorly skews reality !! Although it does ensure that X-Factor take the number one single spot at Christmas and the winners autobiography gets pride of place in Waterstones displays.
Last night I missed a Los Coyotemen gig and the Central , because their gigs are rare as hen's teeth , but I was not feeling physically that well , c'est la vie!!
I've not anything about writing a book , still haven't had an idea , but have enjoyed the slew of new releases than have come out being majorly impressed with the new Half Man Half Biscuit and Magazine releases as well as discovering Beverley Knight - Come as You Are is a scorcher.
Oh aye Apple launched the iPhone 4S and Steve Jobs died on the same day , that's a heck of a way to promote your new product!! You can get it on T-Mobile and Orange on the links below , go on you know you want one!!
Anyway it's 5:42 which is really 6:42 , I'm washed and will just dig out a few embellishments to this before zipping to bed... or not.
U2 have just released the Achtung Baby Uner Box Set. I bought the Joshua Tree one which weighed in at a reasonable £25. Remember if albums had kept pace with Job Seekers Allowance (based on 1975 figures) you would be paying £60 for a new CD. But the new U2 box clocks in at £270 , click though on the link above to see what you get.
This comes on the back of the Pink Floyd Immersion editions which weigh in at a now seemingly reasonable £100 and the Who's deluxe Quadrophenia at £70 is almost pitifully priced!!
We also have the complete box set collections nby the Smiths , Beatles and Floyd to substaially lighten your wallet , but essentially none of this is new product , just new packaging. It looks good but where will you put it? Is one enough , and what is next? Who's going to break the £500 and £1000 barrier for a reissue of a classic album? The Rolling Stomes?
I'm still tempted by Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon Immersion Edition though!!
In general I’ve always loved RnB and I’ve always hated RnB.
This might sound a little odd, but remember that RnB originally was used for
Rhythm and Blues and is now used for Rhythm and Beat. Ask your average RnB fan
under thirty what RnB stands for and you’ll get the answer “I don’t know” or
“RnB” or maybe “You know, Rihanna!”, unless of course they’re a Rhythm ‘n’ Blues
fan!!
Any way here’s my brief guide to the two genres, Rhythm ‘n’
Blues will win every time for me, but you always have to have a winner.
Rhythm ‘n’ Blues
Essentially evolved from the slow blow blues but adding the
rhythmic electric guitar and bass and drums, paving the way for Rock ‘n’ Roll
and eventually all forms of rock. The finest examples of this are Muddy Waters,
Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, early Rolling Stones, Pretty Things and Yardbirds.
Rhythm ‘n’ Beat
I think that thisevolved from soul music, but to me is mostly,
bland rubbish from Bobby Brown to the wobbly lipped Belinda Carlisle impression
that is Whitney Houston, real elevator music. However I’d completely missed the
excellent Beverley Knight, and must say most of Beyoncé’s output is well worth hearing,
and Rihanna is also worth a listen.
Just another thing occurred to me about the Kindle and eReaders
in general. It’s similar to the digitisation of music. One of the problems
about producing a book, like producing a record , is that there has to be a
minimum initial run produced to make it worthwhile for the printer.
However in this digital age the book or album can sit on a
server without a physical copy having to be produced. While this makes the item
more open to piracy, prudent pricing and marketing could mean we see a lot more
authors published , with a possible physical print run following a successful
digitaldebut. We’ve already seen this
in the Amazon Kindle charts.
I think digital books are already a resounding success, and
will complement rather than replace their printed counterparts and companions.
My Advent Vega is a more than adequate eReader, so I won’t be getting a Kindle,
but I think they are here to stay.
