LONDON - Bob Dylan, fresh from getting into bed with Victoria's Secret for an ad campaign, is now starring in a spot for Apple's iPod that cross-promotes his new album, 'Modern Times', the first in five years.


The ad, created by TBWA\Chiat\Day, broke this week and features Dylan performing the single 'Someday Baby', set against a stark white backdrop -- a look that runs through much of the advertising for Apple products.


It also features an almost-silhouetted dancer prominently displaying a white iPod -- a motif that runs through all of the iPod advertising.

Dylan, whose fans once were once up in arms when he started playing an electric guitar, has well and truly embraced the age of digital music.


His deal with Apple includes a Bob Dylan digital box set, called 'The Collection', only available on iTunes. It features all of Dylan's albums -- almost 800 tracks in total -- and can be downloaded in the US for $199 (£104.70).


Apple also gave US fans the chance to get advance tickets on dates to Dylan's tour later this year, if they pre-ordered 'Modern Times', which came out yesterday.


"Bob Dylan is one of the most respected poets and musicians of our time, and he is a personal hero of mine," Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, said.


"Being able to offer his new album and the exclusive box set of his works on iTunes is a real thrill for us."


Having shunned the commercial world for decades, in 2004 Dylan made his first ad -- promoting the US lingerie brand Victoria's Secret. He was then criticised for a 2005 deal with Starbucks to sell rare tracks in its US stores.

Your iPod glistens on your waistband, a totem of modern engineering brilliance, perhaps the most ubiquitous cultural icon of the 21st century so far. This shiny box of wires and lights has become a byword for a whole western youth demographic, the 'iPod generation'.


But what does it say about a culture when its defining product, a product outwardly symbolising style and modernity, is accessible to that culture only through the exploitation of foreign labour?


Foreign labour exploitation? Yawn. Who wants a hippy tugging on the seam of your faux-distressed Diesel jeans, mumbling inanities about the guy in China who got paid £1.36 a day to solder your iPod together? No one. These are facts that we're not used to confronting when making a purchase decision in the glossy white foyer of Nike Town, or the glass and marble cathedral that is the Regent Street Apple Store. Frankly it's easier to ignore it. In fact, Apple assumes you won't be thinking about the workers in Foxconn's Longhua plant -- Apple's notorious iPod City. After all, you don't see the worker's faces in the iPod advertisements.

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A number of American and British newspapers have recently published articles and commentary exposing the poor treatment of the Chinese workers who produce the popular iPod. Yet Apple Computer Inc. has reported a substantial increase in profits, boosted in part by record iPod sales.


The financial markets responded by raising the value of Apple's shares by more than 10 percent. What is the significance of these events? Does the apparent indifference of consumers and investors all over the world to these media exposés of the factories in which iPod's are made mean that corporate social responsibility no longer matters?


The vision of many social activists that there was, in fact, a market for virtue - and that consumers could be counted on to "vote" their values through their purchasing decisions - was always unrealistic. Consumers primarily choose which products to buy on the basis of price, quality and convenience. They rarely pay attention to the social or environmental practices of the company that produces them. Only a handful of companies have ever been rewarded by consumers for being responsible or punished for acting irresponsibly. While a few "ethical brands," such as Fair Trade coffee, do exist, their American market shares are extremely modest. In short, consumers cannot be counted on to drive corporate social responsibility.

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The i-Station8 from Britain’s Logic3 serves as an iPod docking system and offers strong sound in a package small enough to fit in a backpack. Built into the 8-inch-high unit are eight 3-watt speakers and a 2.5-inch subwoofer with radiator. The unit also has a backlit LCD screen that displays the song being played. The i-Station doubles as a charger and has USB and Firewire ports and line-out plugs to connect an iPod Video to a TV.


Techno-stress factor: Low.


Price: Retails for $180; sells for about $171 online and at Best Buy


Details: www.logic3.com


Related Articles: DLO INTRODUCES HOMEDOCK DELUXE WITH ON-SCREEN IPOD NAVIGATION | Ipod Foldable Speakers | iPod Gadgets: 10 Most Bizarre

Here’s a question you think you know the answer to, but probably don’t. Which company sells the most portable music players?



Silly question, you probably think, it’s Apple of course. Well, actually it isn’t. In fact, in the last quarter, Nokia sold 15 million music enabled phones, which is approximately twice the number of iPods sold.


Still, Apple has the perceived leadership, and in any case its iPod products are purely for playing music. Nokia is selling hybrid products which just happen to include music abilities. So, it would perhaps be a misleading statement to say Nokia is the genuine market leader.


But then yesterday came news that the mobile phone company has forked out $60 million to buy Loudeye Corp, which distributes 1.6 million music tracks across 20 or so countries. In fact, it has the biggest music catalogue in the world - or so say some press reports.

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