The new iPod Nano was unveiled in September. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)Will one of Apple’s new iPod commercials propel a semi-obscure Brooklyn band into the national spotlight?
The technology and media company has done so with other independent acts — earning it a reputation as a tastemaker, doing for bands what Oprah Winfrey has done for books.
While music heavies like Eminem, Bob Dylan and Wynton Marsalis have also been called upon for Apple ads, it’s the independent musicians that have benefited most.
A number of bands and singers have sold thousands of downloads, placed on Billboard charts and earned an international fan base after their songs were used for iPod commercials.
For these bands, the iPod is almost like an iGod.
The singer-songwriter Leslie Feist also had her catchy composition, “1, 2, 3, 4,” featured in an iPod Nano commercial last year, which lifted sales and helped secure her a highly coveted musical guest spot on “Saturday Night Live.”
Search queries like “iPod Nano commercial song,” “iPod Nano song,” and “iPod Nano commercial” all jumped more than 350 percent in one weekend, according to Yahoo. It seemed as if everyone wanted to know who possessed the raspy voice behind the “1, 2, 3, 4.”
And another song, “Music is My Hot, Hot Sex,” by a Brazilian band, CSS, was selected by an 18-year-old student in Britain for a homemade commercial for the iPod Touch.
That ad, which was originally posted on YouTube, was viewed by Apple’s advertising agency, which invited the student to adapt it for a professional commercial broadcast during football games, during “Desperate Housewives” and in Game 4 of the World Series. That sent a year-old song by a foreign band onto the Pop 100 chart.
And an iPod Touch commercial features a song, “Around the Bend” by the Asteroids Galaxy Tour, which has garnered some fans already.
Chairlift’s debut album, “Does You Inspire You.”Now the latest iPod Nano commercial uses a a psychedelic song, “Bruises,” performed by a Brooklyn band called Chairlift.
The band was formed two years ago by three friends — Caroline Polachek performing vocals, Patrick Wimberly on drums, Aaron Pfenning on guitar — who met at the University of Colorado. The band’s first album, “Does You Inspire You,” is being released in November by Kanine Records, but elements of it have already been available on Amazon and iTunes.
The process of getting selected for an iPod commercial is hardly as open as an “American Idol” showdown.
“We don’t really know how they picked us,” Mr. Wembley said. “They contacted us out of the blue about three days before we were going to play in L.A.” A man who said he was a representative for Apple said he wanted to see the band perform because the team was thinking of using a Chairlift song for a commercial.
“We put him on the guest list,” Mr. Wembley said. “We didn’t meet him or talk to him or talk to him directly. They’re really secretive. They want to keep their new campaigns top secret, so top seret that they are not even letting the band know they are going to be the song on the commercial.”
They saw the album pop up to to between No. 60 and 80 on iTunes. The “Bruises” single landed within the top 10 sellers in the alternative music category.
“They have set themselves up as tastemakers when it comes to music,” said Mr. Wembley, of Apple. That gives the band credibility despite the fact the song is being used in a commercial, albeit one for a music device and store. “We wouldn’t have done the commercial for anybody. We wouldn’t have done an S.U.V. commercial.”
In contrast, John Mellencamp caught flak from some of his fans for licensing his song, “Our Country,” for a Silverado spot that mixes images of the Statue of Liberty and Rosa Parks with footage from Hurricane Katrina and the Vietnam War.
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