Earlier this month, Microsoft Research released Songsmith, a song-making app that works only on Windows. To promote the app it released what might very well be the worst promo video ever, featuring a girl singing in front of her laptop about how great Songsmith is.
Besides just being painful to watch (see for yourself below), the laptop she is using to show her Dad how to use Songsmith is a Mac! Did I mention that Songsmith only works on PCs? Whoever made the video thought they could fool everyone by covering up the Apple logo and the rest of the laptop with stickers. Or maybe they knew that would be the only way anybody would bother to watch the video.
(Hat tip to reader Doug Hirsch for pointing this out).
VMWare FUSION!!!
Well, in marketing perspective, this may be one of the best promo vdos ever. Considering the fact that such vdo made its way to TC. Apparently, they succeed in creating a certain level of buzz.
http://www.Phokki.com – Turn photo into graphic art
It’s like that commercial for FinallyFast.com where there the actor is using an iMac to show off his computers new found speed. Then all over the tv screen flashing *”FOR Windows Only!!”
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http://kisalt.net/d2
Indeed, SongSmith works just great on a Mac (running Windows).
Erick should really correct that error in the article.
Precisely! I running Fusion on my Mac, so who says you cannot use SongSmith…..But I wonder how great it is ….. let me try soon
I want to vomit. I also want a glow in the dark towel. Not sure why…
Couldn’t resist myself from viewing the video since its posted on techcrunch, but at the end felt i really wasted my time viewing this sh**** video. Yakkk microsoft atleast hire some professionals for your promotional videos!
Self promoting fags like you with no content should shut the eff up. Techcrunch is now a gay valleywag thanks to you guys lapping up every opportunity to showcase your commenting skills.
wow u need to calm the fuck down man dont have a heart attack they guy used up all of 2 inches on ur screen like holly shit.
You’re name is “Gay” and we’re the fags?
Please tell me what you contributed to this conversation other than homophobic slurs.
Relax, chaiwalla
Rest assured, Amit Bhawani is Gay.
I want to vomit then wipe it up with a glow in the dark towel.
For those that don’t know, windows can be installed on macs quite easily and dual booted (with bootcamp – included with the OS) or you can run windows while inside mac osx in parallels.
And for the rest of you, buy a PC with superior hardware for about 1/2 the price and spend the remainder on booze, bimbos and blow.
Jesus, give it a rest will ya…Your argument is played and about as accurate as me telling you that MS BOB was just ahead of it’s time…
ROFL! True dat
@Phil McCraken
Right and MS BOB’s jokes are cutting edge! Got anything new material for clippy? At least Wayne thinks your funny.
These Mac hipsters don’t understand that. They think they’re special for buying their overpriced, underpowered shiny computers. Just stick an “i” in front of it, and it’s the Trend du Jour.
I also find it amusing that the Mac commercials make all kinds of snarky comments about the superiority of OS X, but then their big selling point is that you can run Windows and MS Office on a Mac.
Running Windows software has never been the big selling point of Macs, although the universality of Macs is definitely a positive you don’t have with any PC. On the other hand, even Microsoft has learned that to run Windows software properly, you had better use a Mac.
A selling point is that you can run Windows.
The big selling point is that you don’t have to.
You haven’t bought or used a Mac apparently- it’s about the same price as a windows machine (accurately spec one out and you’ll see what I mean) and does not include the crapware of the windows equivalent. Then consider you don’t need antivirus and the incredible level of quality of the shareware out there for OS X.
Finally, think 3 or 4 years down the line when you want to upgrade– look at how much a used Mac sells for on ebay. When you’re done, do a virus scan and a spyware scan and think about who’s the smarter computer user.
I´ve done the comparison,. Macs are overpriced. I sued Linux, Windows and OSX daily. I can safely say that viruses and spyware are not because Windows sucks more than the other 2. But mainly because it has a greater audience plain and simply. If we talk about this in a global setting, if the majority was using apple. and i’m talking about,. if the MAJORITY was using apple… then trust me viruses and spyware would be an issue,. but that’s not the case since windows has always been the target for virus creators,. and spyware has always been directed to windows because people that dont know how to use a computer but still buy one,. use windows.,. i like all 3 OS’s there is no reason to be married with one since it is fun to know different things,. but please,. really,. let’s not kid ourselves,. Mac OSX is overpriced and the hardware is inferior,. I own a mac and I own a PC running OSX,. and my PC is pretty damn good at running OSX,. so apple hardware? is not the big deal they make it up to be,.
It doesn’t really matter. The video is not trying to illustrate how easy it is to run Windows apps on Macs.
Considering some microsoft employees on twitter prominently talk about installing windows 7 on their macs this isn’t too surprising.
To be overly fair to Microsoft – they don’t make (much) computer hardware, so if you can run Windows on it – they should be happy selling it.
Yes, that’s true, but Microsoft, in it’s brilliant inability to accomplish anything that doesn’t smack of piggybacking on someone else’s hard work, so often presents itself as though they DO create the same products. It still makes me cringe when anyone refers to Bill Gates as a genius simply because they don’t know any better. It’s astonishing how many intelligent people Microsoft have duped over the years. Thank God for the internet and blogs like this one! That level of deception just isn’t possible anymore.
Oh he is a genius alright. And in his time he was apparently a decent programmer too. Unfortunately he went to the dark side and ended up as the leader of a software company more known for questionable ethics than quality. In the end he made enough money so unless he was really trying to remain poor he can be accurately described as a genius, although an evil genius in the opinion of a lot of people.
It’s like that commercial for FinallyFast.com where there the actor is using an iMac to show off his computers new found speed. Then all over the tv screen flashing *”FOR Windows Only!!”
Wow – That video is horrific. Is this really the best way they could think of to promote this video?
It could’ve been a Sony N series Mac Book Clone that was floating around best buy locations and online for around 1299 starting price.
Gotta be sarcasm, right? Tongue-in-cheek?
I don’t think I could eat the amount of food that this ad makes me want to vomit.
hmm, I have a 15″ MacBook pro with Vista dual boot, and a sticker covering up the apple.
…. Still a lame ass commercial.
Wow, someone should be fired for creating that promo. It brings MS Sucktitude to a whole new level.
I find his first sentence very ironic.
Nobody makes videos that bad unless it’s on purpose.
Untrue. There are ad firms out there where I’ve seen similar cheesy commercials made. I am confident they were really trying. An online karaoke startup I was involved in paid $5K for something similar to this. The difference is that MS actually released theirs to the public.
Yes, what a cringeworthy video.
And, boy, did it ever work! Everyone and their dog are blogging, emailing and retweeting this. Result: Everyone and their dog knows about Songsmith and might secretly give it a try.
Pure genius.
“Everyone and their dog knows about Songsmith and might secretly give it a try.”
Ummm…No.
Exactly. I thought it was cheesy, stupid and corny…but I did go to check out Songsmith.
If I had a mac, I’d cover it with stickers too to hide the fact that it’s an Apple…
What’s quite funny is, and Tom just said it, why not make the worst video you could. I mean, look at what’s happening.
Ya’all need to be hush hush, otherwise we’ll start seeing more of these. And no one will like that right?
No, I don’t think so.
haha
There are already quite a few excellent parodies of this floating around, but here’s the “more cowbell” version:
http://www.yout...feature=related
Hilarious.
That was the worst thing I think I’ve ever watched online.
I’m going to go watch 2 girls 1 cup to get those songs out of my head.
i just threw up a little in my mouth.
That’s hot.
All we need is a cup.
This is absolutely the worst promotion video ever!
oh my god, i feel like i should kill myself in rhyme. Im not sure if its the corny ass no its that damn video. and i want a glow in the dark towel. dry myself after i wash this song out of my mind.
“Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love ya, Tomorrow….”
This was really funny … 2 days ago. The Mac was pointed out very quickly after it was posted on digg.
The best part about this is the guy in the middle who wants to use this software to write better songs for his band. He chooses pretty “happy” and “jazzy” for his new song. Oh god, this is so bad. Are they actually expecting that anyone would write music with this?
Ugg, throw up in mouth more and more. Didn’t Crispin Porter and Bogusky get involved with Microsoft? WTF is this? Seriously.
The happy and jazzy sliders were the best. LMAO
Disturbingly awful video. Noted. And… my next stop is to my technet subscription to see if I can dl Songsmith. That looks like a lot of fun. So… effective ad. It worked.
Wow this ad is so… ridiculous. This is a shame for MS, even if they don’t do good softwares, they could do good commercial with all the millions invested in marketing…
This seems to be a parody
wow, i didn’t know that dora the explorer was a blond pre-teen stuck somewhere in redmond.
this is hilarious … in the 2009 top worst videos, this one has just reached the 1st rank. Thank you Microsoft.
you know, at the end, I’m starting to think they make it by purpose… (my 2 cents.)
Homer Simpson: “You know, I’m pretty sure the telephone company made that commercial on purpose!”
*GASPS*
There is no way those aren’t MACs covered in stickers.
What was the stylist or whoever thinking? You can totally find nice looking PCs, it’s a matter of taste.
Apparently everyone on this Microsoft production prefer MACs.
Haha. For some reason, this reminds me of Nintendo’s infamous “clean is better than dirty” television campaign for Super Mario Sunshine.
http://www.yout...h?v=0WPteMFkI2k
OMFG… that video is so horrible it’s going to be amazing in 10 years. (waiting for mashups…)
But seriously… who at MS thought that this app required a 4-minute promo video? LOL.
Awesome.
First, MSFT poisioned Steve Jobs’s wheatgrass shot with uranium, then this???
What’s next???
at 3:10 he’s singing about being in the closet, and I believe him.
I was totally thinking the same thing!
how did you even reach the middle? wasn’t blood coming out of your ears by then??
It would have been awesome if Jerry Seinfeld did a cameo in the middle of the video.
OMG. That’s really, really cringy. Any chance they *wanted* to make it so bad? It actually looks like an April 1 joke.
Microsoft Research folks / Rick Rashid / Kevin Schofield:
It’s probably you guys in charge of this. Must be. If you’re reading this, please fire right away the person in charge of this. And if it’s an agency, fire them too and ask for a refund. I sure hope you didn’t actually pay for this.
Anyway please don’t let any MS Research guys ever get close to marketing stuff unless they’ve been through a crash-course Marketing 101.
(Now that I think about, maybe it was the creation of some dude who knew he’s getting fired and just wanted to have some fun?)
note that this wasn’t a real produced video, that is just a fun gag video created by the developers (a friend of mine) and their friend’s children.
The main people in that video are the developers on the project. I would suggest editing the post to qualify the video as such.
Especially the insults to the kids, not appropriate.
I completely agree about insulting the kids especially, and all the homophobic comments.
Anyways, you can tell these are obviously all amateur actors – i had read somewhere that they were possibly the developerss that worked on the project, and was hoping to see it confirmed here.
Trouble is, once you sign it as Microsoft and upload it under a Microsoft url for people to see, it becomes official.
And once perceived as an “official” commercial, it’s vexatious. It’s not much of a wonder that it’s getting a negative response (though a lot of people have already downloaded the software mainly because of this video).
And, even though i’m sure they had the best of intentions with this production (it obviously took a lot of work), it really leaves people completely dumbfounded.
This video has been going around for a couple of weeks now, and i think it would be a good idea to make it clear to the public what this video is really about and position the project accordingly.
Cheers, all.
This is nothing new for MS: the UK ‘I’m a PC’ ad also uses a Mac, although slighty converted. 32″ in the vid one can see an iMac with edited screen, still the stand of the monitor kinda gives it away: http://uk.youtu...h?v=rEktoRG9PrI
but so what – a Mac is a PC, right?
Did anyone actually make it through the entire video? That was excruciating, I didn’t make it to one minute in.
I did. It was like a car wreck. I tried to avert my eyes, but I couldn’t. Jeebus help he.
The hair on the back of my neck is refusing to come back down.
Here’s Songsmith’s take on Radiohead:
http://theopene...ixes-radiohead/
Oh My God, i just lose one ear X_X
What did they do to Radiohead T_T
OMFG! Indeed the worst ad ever!
There’s NO WAY that girl belongs to that GAY GUY she calls ‘dad’. No Way.
This commercial sucks even more than he probably does.
The video is admittedly cringeworthy, but to echo a few of the comments above, it’s definitely an amatuer thing thrown together by the two Microsoft Research employees who made the product. If you watch the interview on scobleizer, they talk about it.
So even if it is tasteless and difficult to watch, the ad hominem attacks (like paul just above me) are quite unwarranted.
(btw, it seems to be an effective enough marketing tool).
that’s ad homonem attacks, not hominem… I suppose an my attempt at humor was just as effective as their attempt to make that girl his daughter.
point made.
Actually it is “ad hominem” http://en.wikip...wiki/Ad_hominem
but whatever
here’s another reason for not using MS product!
I wonder if Steve started throwing chairs around after seeing this…
wow this was sooooo painful to watch…. i kept cringing and shuddering the whole time…
awful.
C’mon, be nice. As the other commenters have noted, this video was just a fun project created by the developers out of excitement for their project.
It’s one thing to mock a multi-billion dollar actress that can’t hold a note, but c’mon, these guys could be fellow TC readers. Pick on a worthwhile target!
The most awesome thing is how Linux escapes this idiocy by not pretending to be anything that it isn’t. Nobody spent marketing dollars trying to convince people otherwise. Every consumer of a *nix machine is therefore more wise and brilliant than his Mac and Apple counterparts; it’s literally impossible to “buy into” our culture. Brains are a required component.
*disclaimer. My laptop *is* covered with stickers. Most of them are actual fruit and vegetable stickers, none of them are laser-etched decorations or marketing schemes.
Wow. Microsoft made something worst than Windows.
The commercial stinks, but I disagree – I would use Songsmith as an artist- and I would encourage both pop and electronic artists to do the same. I’m not being factitious.
Great songs come first from melody, and if a software can figure out the chords for artists, They could spend more time on the innovation of the sounds and experiment more with the song structure. This ultimately leads to better, more evolved songs, and raises the standard for quality of music. I see this as a great tool for song writers.
We can laugh at the ad, but let’s not underestimate the tool underneath.
This marketing ploy can generate several responses while satisfying the intended purpose for the ad.
1. Mac users see the ad, know that it’s Microsoft software but purchases it anyhow thinking that it would work on their Mac because the ad shows that the software ‘users’ are indeed using a Mac.
2. People see the ad and is completely appalled by the very nature of it. People will then tell their friends about the horrific ad which in turn will then drive traffic and attention to the ad not to mention the software.
In either case Micro$oft wins. Brilliant!
I can’t believe you guys! A few researchers (yes, people with *PhDs*, people FAR smarter than you will ever be) and their kids make a video, and you people make a soap opera out of it.
Why don’t YOU make a video for your Crunchbase (or whatever actual non-cringeworthy product you guys make) with your colleagues and your family, and put it on the internet? Then we can make fun of your programmers beer belly and your daughters lisp.
This was a promo for a *RESEARCH* product. It is NOT a Microsoft product. It is NOT being sold, and it is NOT being marketed by Microsoft. They made a home video, which actually USES the product it is promoting, and does a nice job at it.
Sure, it’s a little amateurish, but it IS kinda fun. Why don’t you just enjoy the product? Clearly you haven’t tried it, you were too busy making a soap opera out of it all.
Well said, John. MS Research is one of the best groups within Microsoft, and it’s a shame so many people have taken cheap shots at a cool application.
You have some weird definition of fun, mate. And the ridiculous “PhD = smarter than you” statement tells me the rest.
@ivalio : never implied that PhD == smarter. Those were two independent statements, please don’t misconstrue the message. We all know that web designers are smarter than everybody.
Going back on topic, my complaint is that sometimes I have trouble differentiating Techcrunch from Valleywag. Maybe they should merge into ValleyCrunch or TechWag or something to that effect.
“It is NOT a Microsoft product.”
That’s why it’s written “MICROSOFT Research”. But i agree, when you see the partners you quickly understand it’s just a copy/paste from a soft called Band In A Box. So it IS microsoft, but research… well, i guess that copy/paste is the definition of research at MS.
“It is NOT being sold”
Just look at SongSmith’s dedicated webpage : http://research...h/download.html
The price is $29.95. Yeah of course, you assumed it COULDN’T be sold. But hey… that’s Microsoft
After all, they even sell smileys for WLM so a WHOLE crappy program… of course they put a price on it !
SongSmith, it will save your kids from depression, save your job, and save your marriage. SongSmith, sing in rhymes or die.