Music fans share backlash as Apple destroys vintage instruments in “tone-deaf”, “ugly and dystopian” new ad for iPad Pro

8 May, 2024

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Apple‘s new iPad Pro advert, which sees a selection of vintage instruments being destroyed, has caused controversy among music fans.

The advert was shared by company CEO Tim Cook and features vintage, guitars, pianos, trumpets, and metronomes, as well as turntables, speakers, and arcade games being crushed to a soundtrack of Sonny and Cher‘s ‘All I Need Is You’.

Fans have flocked to social media to share their outrage at the advert. “Can’t recall the last time I saw a promo that so immediately and completely turned me against the product it was supposed to be selling,” one wrote.

Check out the advert – and the displeased response to it – below.

“This feels like the first ad that is a tone deaf miss from Apple. An ad showing beautiful tools of human creativity being crushed to be replaced by the newest and thinnest gadget feels antithetical to Apple,” reads another comment. “I’d expect this from an AI company not Apple.”

Another X/Twitter user said: “What an incredible self own by Apple, lol—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.”

Meanwhile, someone else wrote: “For years on here I’ve been talking about how the fortunes of tech companies are built on destroying artists, and now @apple has an ad celebrating it.”

Meanwhile, in January, the tech giant confirmed it will pay artists higher royalties for music made available in spatial audio.

Starting in January, artists can receive a 10 per cent higher royalty rate for spatial audio music. ‘Spatial audio’ is essentially defined as virtual surround sound, and was made available in June 2021 at no additional cost.

It follows a Bloomberg Report in December that the company were planning to “give added weighting to streams of songs” mixed in Dolby Atmos (spatial audio is created through technology from Dolby Atmos). Listeners will not have to listen to the spatial audio tracks in order for artists to receive the increased royalties.

Apple Music said the higher 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.”

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