Chapter 112 bob dylan

The only tongue-ticking moment Jobs can remember was seeing Bob Dylan. Dylan performed near Palo Alto in October 2004, while Jobs was recovering from his first cancer surgery.Dylan was not a gregarious person, not like Bono and Bowie.Dylan could never be called Jobs' friend, and he didn't care if he was or not.However, he had invited Jobs to meet at his hotel before the concert.Jobs recalled: When Dylan performed nearby again, he invited Jobs to sit in his station wagon before the show.He asked Jobs what his favorite song was, and Jobs mentioned "One To Many Mornings," which Dylan sang that night.After the show, Jobs was walking home when a station wagon passed him, braked screechingly, and the door slid open, "Hey, did you hear the song I sang for you? "It was still Dylan's hoarse voice.Then the car drives away.When Jobs told this story, he expressed his admiration for Dylan's voice."He's one of my enduring heroes," he recalls. "My love for him has grown over time and has matured. I can't imagine him being successful at such a young age."

A few months after meeting Dylan at the concert, Jobs had a big plan in mind. The iTunes store will offer a set of Dylan's packaged albums, which includes every song of Dylan, more than 700 songs in total, priced at $199.Jobs would be Dylan's guardian as he marched into the digital age.But Dylan's label was owned by Sony, and Sony's Andy Rucker wasn't interested in the deal unless iTunes made some concessions.Plus, Rucker thinks the $199 price tag is too low and devalues ​​Dylan."Bob was a national treasure, and Jobs was going to put his music on iTunes at a low price and commoditize him," Rucker said, getting to the heart of the argument Rucker and other recording industry executives had with Jobs: Jobs became the price setter, not them.So Lacker turned down Jobs' offer to collaborate.

Jobs said, "Okay, I'll call Dylan directly." But Dylan hadn't handled anything like this before, so he handed it over to his assistant, Jeff Rosen. "That's a really bad idea," Rucker told Rosen, showing him some numbers. "Bob is Steve's idol, and Steve will charge him a higher price." Whether it is from a business or a personal point of view, Lark does not want to let Jobs succeed, and even wants to take the opportunity to join him. .So he reached an agreement with Rosen in private: "If you can delay Jobs for a while, I will give you a check for $1 million tomorrow." Lark later explained that the money was just an advance payment against subsequent royalties : "It's just a financial process for a lot of record companies." Rosen called back 45 minutes later and accepted Rucker's proposal.“Andy worked it out with us and begged us not to work with Jobs, and we agreed. I think Andy gave us an upfront royalty,” he recalls.

However, by 2006, when Lacker stepped down as CEO of Sony BMG, Jobs began a new round of negotiations.He sent Dylan an iPod containing all of Dylan's songs, and he pitched Rosen on Apple's marketing plan. In August, he announced the big deal.Dylan allowed Apple to sell all the songs he had ever recorded in a package for $199, plus an early pre-order of his latest album (Modern Times).Jobs declared: "Bob Dylan is one of the most respected poets and musicians of our time, and he is also my personal idol." The 773-song album also includes 42 rare works, such as : "Wade in the Water," recorded at a Minnesota hotel in 1961; "Handsome Molly" in concert at the Gaslight Cafe in Greenwich Village, 1962 ); "Mr. Tambourine Man" (Mr. Tambourine Man) played and sung live at the Newport Rock Music Festival in 1964, which is also Jobs' favorite version; and "Outlaw Blues" (Outlaw Blues) a cappella in 1965 Version.

As part of the deal, Dylan also filmed a TV commercial for the iPod and promoted his new album.This is a shocking remake of "Tom Sawyer Asks His Pals To Paint The Railings For Him."In the past, it cost a fortune to have a celebrity advertise.But in 2006, the situation changed completely, and many artists wanted to appear in iPod commercials, because such exposure was more likely to become popular.James Vincent anticipated this situation years ago, when Jobs was still figuring out how to connect with some musicians and pay them for commercials.Vincent replied: "Don't worry, things will change soon. Apple is a different brand, even cooler than most artists' brands. We can prepare $10 million for each band we use. Media fees, but focus on talking to them about the opportunities we've created for them, and don't rush to pay."

Lee Crow recalled that Apple and the advertising agency did have some young employees who were reluctant to let Dylan appear in the advertisement."They were all worried that he wasn't as popular as he used to be," Crowe said. Jobs dismissed it, already thrilled to be working with Dylan. Jobs began to pay special attention to every detail of Dylan's commercials.Rosen flew to Cupertino and worked with Jobs to select the songs used in the commercial. Finally, they selected "Someday Baby" (Someday Baby). Then send someone to Nashville for Dylan to shoot himself.But after the official film came back, Jobs was not satisfied again.He said it wasn't special enough and he wanted a new style.So Crowe hired another director, and Rosen convinced Dylan to reshoot.This time, following the silhouette style used in iPod print ads, Dylan is wearing a cowboy hat and sitting on a high stool in soft backlight, playing and singing casually with his guitar in his arms; in another shot, a Hip-hop style women in newsboy hats dancing with iPods.Jobs loved it.

The ad exemplifies the "halo effect" of the iPod's marketing strategy: It won Dylan a younger generation of fans in the same way that the iPod boosted sales of Apple computers.Driven by this ad, Dylan's new album jumped to the first place in the Billboard chart in the first week after its release, surpassing the popular Christina Aguilar at the time. Leila (Christina Aguilera) and the rap group Outkast.Dylan is back on the throne after 30 years since his 1976 album Desire. "Ad Age" (Ad Age) magazine published an article titled "Apple's promotion of Dylan", which wrote: "This cooperation between iTunes and Dylan is not the usual 'signing a deal with a star'. , it's not as simple as a big brand spending a lot of money to hire a celebrity endorsement. They broke the stereotypes. This time, it was the powerful Apple brand that opened up the market for Mr. Dylan's young fans and helped him sell his albums to them since the Ford government. A place that has never been before.”

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