I Need More Cowbell

I know I should be using this lofty perch as a forum to discuss important regulatory and business issues. But I have to focus on my immediate need, and I need more cowbell.

If, like myself and much of the rest of the country, you are a fan of Saturday Night Live, you’re probably in on this joke. I’m referring here to the SNL skit in which Christopher Walken plays a music producer who, in working with a band to record the Blue Oyster Cult song (Don’t Fear) The Reaper, repeatedly talks about his need for more cowbell.

While I’m generally in the camp that chooses to avoid recounting funny commercials and TV episodes, I’ll make an exception in this case. You’ve probably already seen the wildly popular skit. If you haven’t, or you find yourself in need of more cowbell, I’ve provided the link above.

But, you may be asking yourself, what prompted my need for more cowbell at this particular time? After all, the skit originally aired more than eight years ago. The answer is a new iPhone application available at the App Store.

Like the Apple product line, the cowbell application is beautiful in its simplicity and entertainment value. It simply creates a cowbell icon on the iPhone or iPod Touch that the user can touch to play the cowbell solo or as an accompaniment to his or her favorite songs. Oh yes, and every once and awhile, you hear Walken in the background saying “I Need More Cowbell!”

For those who don’t care for SNL or this particular skit, this cowbell application seems ridiculous, I know. Yet this is the kind of goofy little application that seems brilliant (ok, maybe not brilliant, but definitely funny) to others. It only makes me love my iPod Touch even more. And word of this silly little application got me to visit Apple Inc.’s App Store, at which users have downloaded more than 60 million programs for the iPhone, as The Wall Street Journal reported this week.

Like the cowbell and some of the games I downloaded from App Store, most of those applications are free. But the Journal reported that downloads at this new online outlet, whose apps are created by third-party developers, have been brisk and could reach half a billion dollars in revenue soon. This demonstrates how creative folks in the developer community can produce great new applications under the right conditions.

However, Apple will hand over about 70 percent of that money to the developers and use the rest to support the applications. This open developer platform strategy, Apple said, is really about driving more sales of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Sources

iPhone Software Sales Take Off: Apple's Jobs

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