Feature Cast “Channel Surfing” iPod Commercial (2004)
Feature Cast's "Channel Surfing", the iPod silhouette ad first shown at Steve Jobs' Macworld keynote in January 2004, and the UK breaks producer behind it.
Premiered at Macworld
The silhouette commercial set to "Channel Surfing" by Feature Cast was first shown during Steve Jobs's keynote at Macworld Expo in San Francisco in January 2004, the event on 6 January at which Apple introduced the iPod mini. Apple then posted the spot on its website, and MacTech reported it on 19 January 2004. It follows the formula the campaign had used since October 2003: black silhouettes dancing with iPods in front of vivid background colours.
Not yet in the iTunes store
As with the N.E.R.D. remix in the previous commercial, the track was not at first available from the iTunes Music Store. In early February 2004 MacTech reported that Apple had not said whether "Channel Surfing" or the "Rock Star" remix would ever be sold there; by 10 March 2004 both could be bought, months after the ads began airing.
The producer
Feature Cast, later billed as FeatureCast, is a UK-based DJ and producer whose sets mix mid-tempo breaks, hip-hop, funk and drum and bass. He went on to release music on labels including Jalapeno Records, Bomb Strikes and Ghetto Funk, issued the album Run For Cover in 2012 and had his track "Got That Fire" used in FIFA 13. He has played festivals including Glastonbury and Bestival and headlined the main stage at Australia's Breakfest in 2014.
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