Apple’s latest iPad Pro advertisement has caused controversy among music fans due to its depiction of vintage instruments being destroyed. In the ad, guitars, pianos, trumpets, metronomes, turntables, speakers, and arcade games are crushed to a soundtrack of Sonny and Cher’s ‘All I Need Is You.’ Fans have taken to social media to express their outrage, calling the ad “catastrophically awful” and “dystopian.”
One commenter said, “An ad showing beautiful tools of human creativity being crushed to be replaced by the newest and thinnest gadget feels antithetical to Apple,” while another added, “At a time when artists, musicians and creatives are more worried than ever that tech companies are trying to crush them into dust for profit, along comes Apple and makes an *ad* whose whole message is: yes that is exactly what we’re doing.”
Despite the backlash, Apple has not commented on the controversy surrounding the ad. However, in January, the company confirmed that it would pay artists higher royalties for music made available in spatial audio, a virtual surround sound available in the latest version of Apple Music at no additional cost.
Starting in January, artists can receive a 10 per cent higher royalty rate for spatial audio music, with Apple Music stating that the increased royalties are “not only meant to reward higher quality content, but also to ensure that artists are being compensated for the time and investment they put into mixing in Spatial.” Whether this will be enough to ease the concerns of musicians and creatives remains to be seen
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