Sting 25 iPad App
Yesterday Sting announced an iPad App called Sting 25. It’s free to download, and although flawed (like any proper human endeavor), it is a brilliant piece of marketing. I’ll get to the App in a bit, but first … why I care …
I grew up in that southern conservative Christian tradition that taught that non-Christian music was all evil. My grandparents, who raised me, didn’t believe or teach me that. It was the churches they took me to. My grandparents owned rental property. One time a renter moved out and left a cable box behind. I got it and hooked it up in my bedroom. My grandparents had the local channels. That cable box gave me ALL the channels.
I believe in yin and yang. I believe we are two sided coins. You can’t experience what you like about me without experiencing what you dislike about me. As good Christian boy, I spent the most time watching Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker produced content. I loved them so much that I built an exact replica of their PTL set out of Lego. I even painted it to match what I saw on TV, and I sewed dresses for the girl lego singers. Drop the good Christian from the boy, and I gotta tell ya, I was very happy to get Cinemax on that cable box! Fridays after Dark I got naked women in my bedroom. My grandparents not know what they were missing!
Cinemax didn’t only bring naked women on Friday nights. It brought me the very first documentary I remember watching, Bring on the Night (1985). Sting was a successful artist with the Police, but he was driven to stretch himself musically beyond his pop potential. In the documentary as Sting prepared for his first solo show, he pulled together great jazz players to create a whole new musical sound. Even though I didn’t *listen* to secular music, I watched it on TV, especially on MTV. I watched this documentary over and over again and fell in love with the concept of “Behind-the-Scenes.” I also fell in love with the sound of the music Sting and his jazz players were creating.
The Sting iPad App is a look behind-the-scenes of Sting’s solo career. It’s looks good on iPad. It has concert footage, interview clips, music video clips and audio clips. There are loads of photos accompanied by quotes and insights into how Sting’s unique musical style has unfolded over the last 25 years or so. I love Miles Davis and it’s cool listening to audio clips talking about Miles Davis. Even thought Miles has been gone for years, Sting still has his phone number stored on his phone.
Sting 25 opens like a PBS show without the voice over. The App is unobtrusively underwritten by sponsors. It’s a circular viewing experience. You can start anywhere, but the official starting point is footage from a concert celebrating Sting’s 60th birthday. That part is worth the download. It features performances by Bruce Springstein, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder.
Media content seems to be streaming from the cloud rather than stored in the App, and I had to wait on some buffering during video playback. Each little part seems to be a different media file downloaded on demand. It’s a constant endeavor of tapping to move to the next bit and then tapping to play that bit. Some video clips are repeated in different sections and most are cut in the wrong emotional place. Lots of the clips were just too short and ended in the middle of whatever moment was being captured by the filmakers.
I wish the editing was better and I wish the App had a “play all” option that would show all the content as one piece rather than as an endless bunch of fragmented pieces. It’s kind of like a prix fixe dinner if a server brought out a course and picked up the plate as soon as you took a bite. The overall experience is pretty much like extra features on a DVD, without the DVD.
Sting 25 succeeds in providing a behind-the-scenes look into the life and music of Sting. The live performances with Bruce Springstein, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder are something special. Music videos started as marketing material to get fans to buy music. Music Apps like Sting 25 will do the same thing.
It worked for me. I bought some Sting songs, which you can do directly from the App. 
Timeflies iTribute: The first rap song that made me cry
Timeflies is a rap due produced this rap song and video on their iDevices as a tribute to the greatest man who’s ever lived, Steve Jobs. It got me crying in a good way. Lyrics are here if you’d like to rap along.
Thanks, @Timeflies! Y’all did good, yo!
Read MoreLady Gaga on the VMAs
I didn’t see the VMAs because I don’t have cable. I tried to watch the All-Access streaming coverage, but their wasn’t a good shot of the stage the the audio sounded like the microphone was out of the arena, down the hall and in the men’s room. Instead I watched Twitter coverage and enjoyed the jokes people were making about what I couldn’t see or hear.
I was interested in seeing Lady Gaga’s opening monologue because it sounded different, and Gaga is interesting. I can’t imagine how she does all she does with the costume changes and piano changes and just the constant stream of never-ending changes.
This morning I’m listening to The Adam Carolla Show. Adam is interviewing Andrew Dice Clay who feels that Gaga’s VMA monologue is an homage to the Dice man. There conversation reminded me I wanted to see it, so I Googled it up and found it on The Hollywood Reporter embedded in an article entitled, Lady Gaga’s VMA Shtick Was ‘Embarrassing,’ Says Branding Expert.
I read the article and when I read these words, it made me wish I had a radio show…
“What Lady Gaga did left people confused as to who she is,” Amanda Guralski told E! Online. “She has developed a brand of outlandish clothing and outspokenness, being comfortable born the way you are, but the VMAs was a brand destroyer.”
I feel kind of sorry for this Amanda Guralski. She’s probably a lovely woman and her advice might apply nicely to people not in SHOW BUSINESS, but to say Gaga’s monologue at the VMAs “was a brand destroyer” does far more to destroy Guralski’s credibility as a “branding expert” than anything else. It’s like she doesn’t get that Gaga is theater! That’s what the Gaga brand is all about.
If you haven’t seen it, Lady Gaga takes the stage dressed as Jo Calderone, an Italian guy dumped by Gaga. There are moments of tension in the piece where the audience is wondering where this is going, but it turns out to be brilliant. Calderone talks about wanting to experience a real moment from Gaga and he says Gaga told him, “I’m not real. I’m theater.” sHe then walks over to a piano and does what Gaga does best. sHe sang with that amazing voice and tore up the piano. I had tears in my eyes.
Lady Gaga didn’t do a drop of damage to her brand. Nope. She further solidified her position as the greatest entertainer alive in one of the greatest live performances in the history of TV.
Watch it again…
Read MoreLooking forward to X Factor
The way they present X Factor is brilliant. My first exposure to it was when Susan Boyle broke through. The way they cut away to the judges and audience creates a kind of magic that works even when it isn’t justified. This clip shows a girl singing an Elton John song. She isn’t good, but the way the show is edited makes her feel good.
It’s going to be a good show and I’m looking forward to watching.
Embedding is not allowed. You’ll have to click to watch on Youtube.
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