More New Album talk from the Space Moon

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Hollow Island said:
Same here. The prospect of launching their album via a Super Bowl commercial is pretty lame. Sorry, not commercial... synergistic brand relationship. Seriously, U2 need a fucking sponsor? They're Ufucking2! They're not some indie band that needs a commercial so they can pay the bills, nor do they need help getting exposure.

I'll say it again: they're U2. I'll say it in a way they might understand: they are a brand, and corporate sponsorship sullies their brand.

They want to be relevant, they want to be cool, and their planning on launching their album with a commercial. Not very cool, boys.
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:up:
 
It's hard for me to believe there would be any leak around a potential Super Bowl commercial. The obvious precedent is Jay-Z's recent "Magna Carta Holy Grail" commercial during the NBA Finals, but the whole interest there was in the surprise of it: nobody knew a new Jay-Z album was coming, and suddenly he's all over national TV with a cool, calm, very long commercial intro to the album.

On the other hand, it's the super bowl, so maybe surprise doesn't matter. And I can easily imagine the Jay-Z thing catching in the minds of the band, especially Bono's.

If this is the plan, and if they're not that concerned with surprise, I can only imagine it means they're very confident in its commercial appeal, and want to give the album an appropriately huge rollout. Otherwise I think the NLOTH thing would occur to them: don't flog the public over the head with something that doesn't have a single obvious hit on it.
 
WOW! Kinda bummed to see McGuinne$$ go, kinda the end of a hugely successful partnership. But maybe with the departure of Paul the band might be less inclined in obsessing about a "hit" and they wouldn't be shopping for commercial partnerships which would include something as tacky as launching the album during the S u p e r B o w l..... oh wait .... what?..... nevermind :|
 
LemonMirrorSky said:
No you're not. If you ask Sicy really nicely, she will change it for you. :wink: She did it for some of us back in the day.

Thanks for finally explaining your username. I've always wondered about it.
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:up:

Ok thanks! I will send her a message.
 
Gilead12 said:
If this is the plan, and if they're not that concerned with surprise, I can only imagine it means they're very confident in its commercial appeal, and want to give the album an appropriately huge rollout. Otherwise I think the NLOTH thing would occur to them: don't flog the public over the head with something that doesn't have a single obvious hit on it.
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100% agree, they wouldn't risk announcing the new album via the Superbowl without any commercial hit potential. This will be their revenge on NLOTH's reception from the fans and critics. I think we'll be in for a treat fellows...
 
digitize said:
The cynic in me worries that a Super Bowl commercial will be the start of a massive NLOTH-style publicity campaign that will backfire.
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I really hope they don't repeat that. That kind of media barrage (five nights on Letterman, eh?!) combined with a terrible choice for the first single, contributed to one of the worst U2 promo campaigns. Announcing the new album to the world via a SB commercial strikes me as a little tacky. Like something Michael Jackson would have done in the dying embers of his career. A sign of desperation, perhaps. If U2 have stellar songs this time, the rest will take care of itself.
 
Gilead12 said:
don't flog the public over the head with something that doesn't have a single obvious hit on it.
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What consitiutes an obvious hit

A) in 2013 or 2014
B) for a rock band
C) for a rock band that will be 34 years on from their debut
D) for a rock band that already has a bunch of songs in rotation at commercial rock radio stations
E) for a rock band with members in their early fifties
F) for a rock band that is extremely uncool and entirely disregarded by cool people who set the trends

Hits come from corporate cash telling people to like the song or because music fans - not people who go to one show a year and buy a CD or two by the Grammy nominees, but actual music fans - support the artist. U2 have lost the latter, and corporate backing can only take music so far.
 
Maybe McGuinness will still sort of supervise all of it.

On the other hand, I'm more impressed by the fact this Guy will be the new day-to-day manager; doing a research about him (because I'm totally ignorant about this world), I see he's involved in other big ventures apart from managing Madonna; that leads me to think he's a strong name and will likely impose new well-defined strategies about marketing etc. Which you could object every manager on this earth would do, still I'm not totally convinced by it. I'd have preferred if McGuinness had a heir next to U2 camp since a long time, you know.

But we'll ultimately see. Probably it won't change anything.
 
Reg McGowan said:
100% agree, they wouldn't risk announcing the new album via the Superbowl without any commercial hit potential. This will be their revenge on NLOTH's reception from the fans and critics. I think we'll be in for a treat fellows...
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Hit != treat.
 
Hollow Island said:
The prospect of launching their album via a Super Bowl commercial is pretty lame. Sorry, not commercial... synergistic brand relationship. Seriously, U2 need a fucking sponsor? They're Ufucking2! They're not some indie band that needs a commercial so they can pay the bills, nor do they need help getting exposure.

I'll say it again: they're U2. I'll say it in a way they might understand: they are a brand, and corporate sponsorship sullies their brand.

They want to be relevant, they want to be cool, and their planning on launching their album with a commercial. Not very cool, boys.

I wonder which product their new album is designed to enhance the experience of.
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let's be honest here, it's not 1993 anymore. we're truly idiots if we think that U2 - or any other artist - will do anything but go big.

it's how the industry must operate - whether we like it or not. "OH BUT DAVID BOWIE..." - yeah, Bowie sold maybe a half-million copies of The Next Day, and had no plans to tour.

The U2 album is going to get a major push. Why? Not because U2 need it to, but because Mercury/Universal/Live Nation/the Industry need it to be massive. It'll get a major push because it's "Ufucking2" and because they're one of the last hopes of a dinosaur industry. live with it.. it's what you signed up for when you bought the Joshua Tree and climbed aboard this world-straddling train.

might it be a bad thing? sure. extremely relevant food for thought:

Lady Gaga's artRave: The Beginning of the End of the Extravagant Album Launch? | The Pitch | Pitchfork

elaborate album rollouts are nothing new... And labels and bands have been staging stunts since time immemorial. But 2013 has seen such a high concentration of gimmicks, treasure hunts, and "mysteries" that it's hard to imagine how this can all be sustainable—especially considering the fact that revenue streams for musicians are drying up exponentially with each passing day...

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about Arcade Fire’s labyrinthine Reflektor campaign, the band's manager Scott Rodger said, "We're in an information overload, but just to be recognized you have to be more creative and do things in a way that people will talk about socially—online but also in the physical world. How do you become one of those things that people talk about?"
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but here's the thing - it might be ok in the end! really!

rather than the predictable whining, high-on-horse lecturing about about How U2 Should Do Things the Way I Want Them To, we need to seriously shut the F up and just wait.

because it's a simple as this: if the album is great, none of this will matter.

Not the new management, not the Super Bowl, not the 15 nights on Leno, not the tax BS, not the One campaign, not the inflatable Bono heads in the Macy's parade. none will matter if we can put our headphones on, press play, and lose ourselves for 40+ minutes. What will 3 months of uber promotion matter in retrospect?

The pressure on U2 right now is to deliver great music. that's what really matters; all the rest is wrapping paper. accept it.. recognize it for what it is, but accept it because it's "Ufucking2" - a fucking huge band, who have a fucking huge fan base, in a position no other band is fucking close to, with fucking reams of money tied up in their fate.

wooooooooo!
 
Van Cleef said:
Maybe they have an Elevation-like song (ughh..) to promote on this superbowl add.
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I don't think that it is possible for an Elevation-like song to successfully promote a U2 album anymore. Such a song would probably put them in the "cheesy and desperate old men" category in the public's eyes, the category with which they so closely flirted in 2009.
 
You cannot really blame U2 for wanting to promote their album. It's not like they are going to say: Well, we have a new album out, but since we don't want to have relevancy and a commercially successful album any more we won't do any large-scale promotion. Come on, ridiculous! It's U2 we're talking about here, one of the world's biggest bands and a massive corporation, so yes, I think there will be some heavy promotion for the new album.

Hopefully the new guy, who's only in his early 40s, will bring some fresh air into the U2 camp and make them re-think their communication practice with fans as well as their approach to social media and digital music formats.
 
last unicorn said:
Hopefully the new guy, who's only in his early 40s, will bring some fresh air into the U2 camp and make them re-think their communication practice with fans as well as their approach to social media and digital music formats.
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I think it's LiveNation that controls this aspect of the band, so unfortunately I don't see this really changing.
 
BoMac said:
Okay, people, for Headache's sanity (and whatever is left of mine) let's not forget that it's Super Bowl (two words), not Superbowl.
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oop! fixed, thanks.. :wink:

now, off to watch highlights from the Worldseries and place bets on this year's Stanleycup!
 
PS. You can count me in as a cynic as well. I am dreading this SuperBowl ad. It will most likely be pretty embarrassing. Hopefully it at least teases the lead single or something.
 
mikal said:
PS. You can count me in as a cynic as well. I am dreading this SuperBowl ad. It will most likely be pretty embarrassing. Hopefully it at least teases the lead single or something.
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For sure we will hear some snippets of the first single during the commercial, even more. It's a given. :up:
 
I like the idea, as long as it's well done. If they can manage to keep the album title and album cover a secret until then, and then unveil in the ad, that would be pretty exciting. Maybe have the single playing in the background.
 
I'd bet my shirt (an old beat up 20 year old worn out Calvin Klein) that they took advice from their pal Jay-Z with the promotion : "Listen up brothas...this is how ya gotta do it in 2013 to give it to tha masses...2 words ; SUPER BOWL" :wink:

He was the one who made them hold off their release last year..Stop listening to Jay-Z ! :doh:
 
Irvine511 said:
If there is one person who they should listen to when it comes to promotion, it is Jay-Z.
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I know ! I was being sarcastic. Jay-Z is the man. He is a mega successful entrepreneur and knows how to market his stuff. :wink:

I was refering to the fact that they held off the release after a conversation with Jay-Z. I'll try to find Bono's quote regarding this and post it.
 
Jay-Z had an NBA Finals ad announcing his new album, so they wouldn't just be listening to Jay-Z, they'd basically be copying him.
 
PhilsFan said:
Jay-Z had an NBA Finals ad announcing his new album, so they wouldn't just be listening to Jay-Z, they'd basically be copying him.
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Most likely. Even if Jay-Z has a younger and different audience than U2, it worked well for him.

On the day of its physical release in the United States, the album was certified Platinum by the RIAA for shipments of 1,000,000 copies, due to the unprecedented digital download deal with Samsung. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 528,000 copies in its first week.

That is enormous given the fact that a world tour had yet to begin which boosts album sales by a good margin.
 
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