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"I said dreamer, you're nothing but a dreamer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!"
Well, yes. With the Apple VisionPro.
If you watched today's presentation you weren't quite sure whether it was one giant step for mankind or a Saturday Night Live skit. I mean the people smiling wearing ski goggles...
Then again, it's like "Minority Report" come alive, but better. Funny when engineers can come up with a better future than the creators, who have a completely clean slate.
In any event, you'll hear a lot about the VisionPro in the coming months. Will you buy one?
Doubtful.
Then again...
We have very few signifiers of cool anymore. And if you've got an Apple VisionPro...for a while there, you're going to be unique, with a status item on your head. Or will you just look like a geek?
There is no denying the VisionPro is cool. And using your hands as a mouse, clicking your fingers instead of tapping or clicking. To be able to see your entire computer, with a huge canvas/screen, in space. Amazing.
And movies... Gonna be better than any theatre. And the floor will be a lot cleaner.
But will we be further isolated? Never to encounter each other in real life?
Well, the conundrum is as a result of the internet I know and interact with many more people than I did before. And you might deny this, but you do too. Do I reach out and touch them? No, but with Zoom and other software it's a good facsimile.
Speaking of facsimile, that's where the VisionPro will shine, with pornography. That's a breakthrough app, makes people buy the hardware just to experience the software. You used to have to go to the theatre to experience what became known as XXX, now you've got a cornucopia of clips right in front of your very eyes, on demand, and you never have to pay a dime.
So expect some amazing sex apps for the VisionPro. Which will drive adoption. But what we're really in search of is the killer app, and it's not there yet. But it just might come.
The Apple Watch didn't blow up until it was used for health.
What broke the personal computer wide the first time was word processing, and then the spreadsheet. Lotus 1-2-3 was the Tesla of its day, and Mitch Kapor was Elon Musk, albeit much more down to earth.
And then came the internet. People who pooh-poohed computers from day one suddenly went out and bought one, they needed to play online. The mission was driven by AOL, another company that's faded in the rearview mirror. Unlike Apple, which gets more and more powerful. Now it's a bank? With a better interest rate than all the name brand banks?
But what it really comes down to is R&D. To dominate in the future, to even play in the future, you've got to spend prodigiously, which many CEOs and boards refuse to do, busy buying back stock to try and prop up the share price, so the execs can get huge bonuses.
But if you put that money into R&D, and you've got vision...
This is what was lost in the music business, vision. You don't want to hold people in the past, you want to get ahead of them, and lead them into the future.
But speaking of the past...
At some point today, Apple itself will post the ad for the VisionPro. And you'll be stunned to find out the accompanying music is nearly fifty years old, but fits perfectly. It's "Dreamer," from the truly legendary Supertramp album "Crime of the Century."
What a sync! The question is, does "Dreamer" become the new "Running Up That Hill" or "Bohemian Rhapsody," both of which were jetted into the stratosphere with syncs, the former "Stranger Things," the latter "Wayne's World." "Running Up That Hill" was completely dormant, never a hit to begin with. And as big as Queen is today, without that sync, they'd be a fraction as large. Believe me, everybody was not listening to and talking about Queen prior to "Wayne's World." You might hear "We Are the Champions" at a sporting event, but you didn't read umpteen analyses of it, it wasn't the most streamed song from the twentieth century...
So now it's Supertramp's turn.
Well, probably not. But there's been a bounce for every track that's been involved in Apple advertising. But most of them were new. As far as using a classic...
In case you don't know, "Crime of the Century" is not only one of the best albums of the twentieth century, it's one of the best sounding. Listen to it in hi-res, even better in the original Mobile Fidelity half-speed mastered version from the seventies. That's the record I used to test stereo equipment, and I'm not the only one.
But unlike today, "Crime of the Century" was not a pure dash for cash, it was about our educational system, our society, how you're forced to conform, to your detriment. Be yourself, let your freak flag fly! That was the message of the sixties, put forth by our musical artists. Today it's just narcissism on parade. Me, me, me! 24/7. Money trumps art. We seem to talk about ticket prices more than the music. I mean what's the value of a classic concert? Priceless! If prices are high, that's because people want to go, but no one can seem to wrap their head around that. As if an Apple product should be cheap because everybody wants it.
And everybody didn't want "Crime of the Century." It wasn't until 1979 and "Breakfast in America" that Supertramp had a Top Ten hit with "The Logical Song." "Give a Little Bit" from 1977's "Even in the Quietest Moments" went to number 15 in the U.S. and number 8 in Canada, but around the world...it was number 29 in the U.K., the band's home.
And before "Even in the Quietest Moments" came "Crisis? What Crisis?," which wasn't quite as good as "Crime of the Century," nor as commercially successful. Not that "Crime of the Century" was so successful. You occasionally heard the magical "Bloody Well Right" on FM radio, but that was about it. "Crime of the Century" was for a club of people who listened at home, they didn't need no machine to tell them what to listen to, they found it themselves, and were dedicated to it.
And Supertramp's long gone. Rodger Hodgson, of the high voice, writer and singer of "Dreamer" left the band after the peak of "Breakfast in America." The subsequent Supertramp albums had a fraction of the success of what had come before and as for Hodgson... He had one played song, "Had a Dream (Sleeping With the Enemy)," and then he essentially disappeared.
Kinda like Kate Bush, kinda like Queen, but even worse. Supertramp is not top of mind, but when you hear "Dreamer" in the VisionPro ad...
Used to be hits were made on the radio. Blockbusters. But today you can have a number one record on Top Forty and the majority of America has never even heard it. Streaming rules. But even the Spotify Top 50 doesn't reach everybody. If you want to reach the masses, you've got to have a sync.
Usually with a streaming show. A hit streaming show. Just getting in some TV show might get you a fee, but it won't boost your career. But if you're in a series that penetrates the culture... Yes, don't listen to the bozos telling you music is as good and powerful as ever, that's complete hogwash. If that was so, new tracks would penetrate the public consciousness, but they don't. They're all niche products. Even though the music business hates to hear this. But a hit streaming TV show? It often cuts across demos, both in age and wealth. You don't need to hear a record, you can live without that experience. But if you hear about a streaming program from enough people you have to tune in, to be a part of the conversation if nothing else. You can live quite happily without knowing a single track by the Weeknd, and you won't feel left out either. Same deal with Taylor Swift. But Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat spins Morgan Wallen's "Somebody's Problem" in the locker room. Because it resonates. Most of today's music doesn't resonate, it doesn't have that kind of message, most acts are boasting, issuing platitudes or defensive...it's hard to relate to that.
Not that I want to say Wallen's tracks are ubiquitous either. But they're closer to what Queen was selling than most of the hit parade. We're looking for that which we can identify with, because after all we're human.
Humanity, what a concept. That's the essence of life. It's not hardware, but software. It's not the computer, but what you use it for.
"Dreamer" stands alone. As do "Running Up That Hill" and "Bohemian Rhapsody." They don't need the sync to complete them. But when used with the visual image...
This is a new paradigm. This will keep the classics alive. That's why they call it "classic rock." This rock of yore contains something that today's music does not. If nothing else, more people know it! And when newbies are exposed to it, they resonate.
Will the public resonate with "Dreamer"?
I wouldn't bet on it being ubiquitous, but more classic rock tracks will be. And this success won't be driven by radio or Spotify, but syncs.
Today everybody's depressed, pessimistic, not optimistic. Oh, don't talk to me about putting on a false attitude, convincing yourself you're a winner, I'm talking about your essence, the vibe around you... That's what the sixties were about. Sure, there were riots in the street, but everybody was thinking about possibilities, what they could become. They weren't playing it safe, they were going for the gusto. And people listened to and were inspired by the music, it helped foment change.
Today we depend on Apple for that. And looking at the VisionPro, all you can say is...
"Far out, what a day, a year, a life it is!"
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