News
Apple: No plans for iPod ads
While advertisers struggle to reach consumers who have abandoned traditional radio in favor of their iPod, Apple says it has no plans to allow commercials on its device or iTunes.
“We have gone out of our way to not take advantage of advertising opportunities,” said Greg Joswiak, vice president of iPod product marketing. “We don’t think it’s part of the experience we want to give.”
Except for a handful of podcasts, industry experts believe there’s little opportunity to place ads on devices such as the iPod.
“People are using an iPod because they want to choose the music they listen to,” said Craig Davis, chief creative officer of WPP ad agency JWT Worldwide. “To interrupt and intrude on that with advertising would be pretty unwelcome.”
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1
pretty unwelcome? haha. try very.
that’s pretty much a deal breaker…
Posted by Puck in washington dc on August 1, 2005 at 6:56 AM (PDT)
2
Movies start 20 minutes after the scheduled time so they can foist paid commercials on us (sucks). This would be too much; it would be an outrage.
Posted by panorama in Boston on August 1, 2005 at 7:34 AM (PDT)
3
I dunno if you’ve heard about this...but there are iPod ads all over the T system in Boston. They are on almost every single green line train on the system. There are stations plastered with ads, and South Station is a giant iPod advertisement. if this guy is only talking about ads on the device, then he’s right, but man, they are taking every single opportunity they can everywhere else. Absolutely everywhere. Boston is iPod city.
Posted by qbunt on August 1, 2005 at 9:38 AM (PDT)
4
Of course they are advertising the iPod. This is talking about putting ads on the iPod through the music store or podcasts.
Posted by fergie on August 1, 2005 at 11:05 AM (PDT)
5
on the other hand, would you sign up for a free ipod if you have to listen to an ad every 5 songs or so?
Posted by khyberny on August 1, 2005 at 11:15 AM (PDT)
6
Yeah, put ads on the iPod! Then watch how the iPod gets dumped like nuclear waste!
Someone wants to put ads on MY iPod? I’ll throw mine in a landfill before I have some bozo in my ear trying to sell me a car, or Vioxx, or whatever. Get out of my face!
Posted by Obadiah on August 1, 2005 at 12:02 PM (PDT)
7
Google registered a patent for placing context-sensitive adverts into an RSS stream. Seems like a small leap to also enable people to drop context-sensitive adverts (either text or audio) into RSS-enabled podcasts. I’d expect the big podcast aggregators to leap on this new revenue stream like rabid dogs.
Posted by Demosthenes on August 1, 2005 at 3:45 PM (PDT)
8
I’d hurl my iPod into the nearest trashcan if advertising EVER became part of it. I paid good money to avoid the radio by buying an iPod.
Posted by sugarnova on August 1, 2005 at 5:05 PM (PDT)
9
to even think about something like that being a possibility is rediculous. To throw down 300 bucks, then listen to paid ads? id have to get paid to listen to ads. Maybe apple could give out ipods that play paid ads…
Posted by Nate on August 1, 2005 at 5:39 PM (PDT)
10
To throw down 300 bucks, then listen to paid ads? id have to get paid to listen to ads.
People happily spend several thousand on plasma TVs, then watch content sponsored by advertising.
For myself I have a ReplayTV, that’s like a Tivo but cooler. It records TV, then magically identifies the ads and plays right over them, no pushing remote buttons required.
I’m sure that if sponsored podcasting took off, then people would invent similar advert skipping ("content stealing") tech for those who wanted to use it.
Posted by Demosthenes on August 2, 2005 at 5:41 PM (PDT)
11
The Slate podcast has a brief commercial at the start. It’s not bad, but that’s where it belongs - interleaved with audio by the content provider. If they start making ads too long I’ll fast-forward, put in too many ads and I’ll unsubscribe. There’s no good reason for Apple to even think about an “advertising infastructure”; things are peachy as-is.
Posted by James on August 3, 2005 at 1:41 AM (PDT)
12
I’d mind if i paid for a song and there was advertising.
But it would be okay if they had free music, but before/while you listened you’d see a picture ad on the ipod screen, making music free but the song paid for by advertisers.
But definately not on my paid for songs
Posted by Marc on August 3, 2005 at 2:12 AM (PDT)