On July 16, 2024, Apple launched a new commercial titled "Privacy on iPhone." The theme revolves around privacy, highlighting how Safari can prevent your browsing from being monitored. The commercial is presented as a short video (1:48 minutes) on the official Apple YouTube channel, where it has received significant exposure with 19.8 million subscribers and views to date. The overall tone of the video is threatening, featuring flying camera drones that harass various iPhone users. This eerie atmosphere is cleverly enhanced by a haunting musical soundscape created from an instrumental recording of the traditional Arabic song "Billathi Askara" - The Intoxicated Beloved. The aim of this study is to explore how “Billathi Askara” has surprisingly found a new beginning for a new generation of millions of music listeners and iPhone users. The results of this study show that the song was recorded by Swedish composer, flutist, and artist Björn J:son Lindh (1944-2013) at Metronome Studio in Stockholm in June 1978. The music production highlights Björn J:son Lindh’s innovative virtuosic flute playing, employing the flutter-tonguing technique to produce an unsettling and claustrophobic sound quality. The song originally featured on his album “Bike Voyage II”, released in 1978. Universal Music now owns the copyright. The choice of this song for the album “Bike Voyage II” was inspired by Björn J:son Lindh’s interplay with the Swedish/Egyptian musician Nagi El-Habashi, who played cello on the recording, which also featured renowned Swedish musicians Janne Schaffer (guitar) and Stefan Brolund (bass guitar). Björn J:son Lindh was a highly skilled cross-disciplinary musician with remarkable musical integrity and creativity, who repeatedly embraced new musical directions across various genres, including classical, folk, pop, and film music. He collaborated with prominent Swedish musicians like Staffan Scheja (piano), and he for example played a significant role in the Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Tim Rice hit song “One Night in Bangkok” from the musical Chess (1984). Björn J:son Lindh was also associated with BIS Records through his collaboration with musicians like Dan Laurin (recorder). BIS Records was started up by Swedish record producer Robert von Bahr in 1973. Over the next 50 years, von Bahr transformed BIS Records into one of the most productive independent record labels for classical music internationally. BIS Records is renowned for its innovative recordings that crossover musical genres and its excellent sound quality with great dynamics. In 2023, Robert von Bahr, at the age of 80, transferred his creation, BIS Records, to Apple. Additionally, the BIS catalog, which features over 2,000 albums, is now used both commercially and creatively by Apple through Platoon, the company's artist and creative services division. However, it remains unclear whether Apple's acquisition of BIS directly generated interest in Björn J:son Lindh's music among Apple's creative directors. The selection of the song "Billathi Askara", recorded in the late 1970s, for a new commercial in 2024 certainly highlights the need for innovative approaches in music production and the importance of creative uses of music in media productions, such as in Apple's Safari commercial.
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