Worst Microsoft Video Promo Ever, Take 2. Just Cover Up The Mac With Stickers.
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products.
The video aside, the music that is presumably made by this product sounds exactly like something made on a Yamaha DX7, which went out of production in 1986! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_DX7)
It's awful, and it made me want a glow-in-the-dark towel more than it made me want songsmith.
BTW, there's lots of cool research coming out of Microsoft Research, but little of it seems to make it into their products.
"If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know."
Why do Europeans shake hands and Asians bow? Culture!
Macbooks are the most aesthetically pleasing laptops out there so I can imagine directors wanting it in an advert rather then a plastic piece of crap.
> Or maybe they knew that would be the only way anybody would bother to watch the video.
That just makes no sense. This article is of poor quality.
You know I really dont like M$, there is plenty to bash them about but this just seems so unimportant.
Covering it up with a big sticker in the middle just looks cheesy, much like the rest of the ad.
Singing by average folks is always a bit corny and campy. Homespun/improvised lyrics and 'casiotone'-like accompaniment makes it even more so.
But it's also social, goofy fun -- as the enduring popularity of karaoke and American Idol demonstrate -- and an important musical & cultural activity (especially for children).
The video fits the earnest aesthetic of amateur/folk/ad-hoc singing, and to mock it for that is to miss the point.
I suspect the Songsmith team is happy even for the ridicule -- as a viral vehicle for promoting awareness of what their work does, the video is among the 'best' rather than 'worst' of that genre. (It's much better than the nonsensical Gates-Seinfeld videos.)
Finally, no discussion of Songsmith would be complete without:
I don't think I agree with you about the ad, but I'm far too happy to argue about it now. It just seems pointless... maybe DLR Songsmith is the cure for "Someone is wrong on the internet" disease?
The Seinfeld-Gates ads got how much free press?
I'd be willing to lay money on this being a sign of things to come with MS - with so many people poking fun at their products, they're actively trying to divert the attention to other things.
Seems more like a play straight out of the bush-cheney administration's playbook :P
As for the advert, it's been a great viral hit, likely intentionally bad. The software is pretty awesome.
Check out the range of "Classic songs by Songsmith" videos appearing on youtube too http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ypycpKQxXR0
I would however criticize them for the absolute lameness of the ad.
Yeah, I find this sort of thing funny. Internet people get all worked up into a lather when they discover that, say, some machine somewhere in Microsoft's network is running Apache/Unix or OSX (OMG!). In the real world, no one cares -- they have real problems to solve, and at the end of the day, what brand of computer you're using is not a big deal.
2) I actually think the product is a decent one but the advert was unwatchable
3) I'm pretty sure they user Autotune to give that girl's voice the correct pitch
It's a lame ad, but so are most ads.
shrug
Though really, they couldn't get a Dell?