Roger Fingas
Apple on Thursday released a trailer for "Bang! The Bert Berns Story," a documentary streamingly exclusively on Apple Music starting Oct. 24.
The film explores the musical contributions of Berns, a songwriter and producer reponsible for songs like "Twist and Shout," "Hang On Sloopy," and "Piece of My Heart," and credited with kickstarting the careers of Neil Diamond and Van Morrison. Posted on YouTube, the trailer also points to Berns's connections with the Mafia, specifically Thomas Eboli, who eventually took control of the Genovese crime family.
The movie is directed by Berns's son Brett, and features interviews with people like Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Van Morrison, and Solomon Burke.
In the past year Apple has been pivoting to original video, using it as a way of distinguishing Apple Music from services like Spotify, Pandora, and Tidal. Spotify and Tidal actually have made attempts at video, but only on a small scale that doesn't appear to have affected subscriber numbers.
Apple's slate has so far consisted largely of documentaries and a handful of shows, led by "Planet of the Apps" and "Carpool Karaoke." The latter two have received mixed reviews at best.
The company is now thought to be hunting for "big, smart, splashy dramas," and prepared to spend about $1 billion over the next year. The company has allegedly bid for at least two shows, including a morning show drama with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and an update of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories." It may also venture into more series-length documentaries. It's not clear if new shows will be limited to Apple Music or even air on it at all, since higher budgets may demand a greater audience.
Andrew Orr
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Wesley Hilliard
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Amber Neely
7 Comments
Based on the trailer, I'm interested in seeing this. But I'm an aging Gen-Xer who is interested in rock history, so I doubt this will move the needle on Apple Music subscriptions. Man, those rockers from the 50s and 60s look a heartbeat or two away from the grave. Too bad they didn't make this 20 years ago.
It’s amaxing that a company so good at predicting popular interest in consumer electronics is so bad at predicting popular interest in original video content.
I love music documentaries and so am very interested in this (the Clive Davis one looks great as well). I don’t think, as random suggests, that these are designed to really “move the needle” on Apple Music subscriptions: that’s the music’s job, really. But Apple building up a library of excellent music documentaries across a mix of demographics interest is a great way to help keep us there. I don’t see Spotify trying to do this — they’re too busy not paying artists to care, at least thus far. Also: don’t underestimate the “late boomer-early gen Xer” audience — it’s a large and financially-healthy segment, and while it is not the youth market I’ll be the first to admit, it IS helpful to pull them in as well as having the trendy stuff the kids like.
There you have it - the reason the 70-odd-year old music industry which made trillions in the 60’s & 70’s now trails the barely 10-year old mobile software industry in revenues & profits - the slave plantation ideology as decreed by organised crime pervades it like a cancer, stifling any attempt at growth through fairness in distribution or merit in artist promotion.
Keep dragging that putrid corpse kicking and screaming into the present day all you will, Apple. You’re flogging a dead horse...