The song in Apple's new iPhone Duo commercial is "Threads," the fifth track on ear's second album Rumspringa. And there is a detail that makes the placement land harder than a sync usually does: ear's first song was recorded on an iPhone.
"Nerves," the duo's debut single, was cut on Yaelle Avtan's phone in their university library and self-released in November 2024, a fact Paste noted in its write-up of the ad. Two years later, Apple is using their music to sell the most ambitious iPhone it has ever built. Library to launch film, on the same device.
Worth being precise about what happened, because there were two different pieces of music in play. On stage at the September 9 keynote, the iPhone Duo reveal was scored by Dylan Thom's "SAS." "Threads" is in the commercial, which is the version most people will actually hear on repeat for the next several months.
The timing could not be much better for them. Rumspringa arrived May 29 on A24 Music, took a 7.3 from Pitchfork, and was named Stereogum's Album of the Week. Jonah Paz and Avtan only formed ear in 2024, after meeting at Bard College, which means the whole arc from a library recording to a global product campaign has taken about two years.
Their tour opened Saturday at a heliport in New York.
Listen to “Threads”
Apple's own spot is on its YouTube channel.
Watch: “Rumspringa”
Artwork via Bandcamp.
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