'The iPhone Antenna Song' Writer Profiled

Hours before Apple's iPhone 4 press conference, we pointed to a YouTube video of "The iPhone Antenna Song", a humorous two-minute song written by Jonathan Mann, who has been writing and performing a new song every day for the past year and a half.

Mann's effort received new prominence when Apple opened the press conference by playing the clip, with Steve Jobs noting, "We saw that on YouTube this morning and couldn't help but want to share it."

The Los Angeles Times profiles Mann, an "unabashed Apple fanboy" who uses his iPhone 4 for shooting and editing footage.

"The idea of Steve Jobs doing a little jig to my song, it doesn't get any more amazing than that for me," Mann said in an interview in his rumpled Berkeley apartment.

Mann notes that he wrote the song to express frustration over his perception that the iPhone 4 antenna issue has been blown out of proportion, claiming as he did in the song that he has never dropped a call with the device. He reports that he was contacted by Apple early Friday asking permission to use the clip in its press conference.

"I knew the press conference was happening. I had my own opinions. The media was blowing this thing way out of proportion, so I wrote the song and sent it around to a few blogs," Mann said.

The marketing effort paid off. Apple contacted him early Friday morning to ask permission to play the song at the news conference.

"I created something at a moment that resonated with people in a way that was really positive and meaningful. That's what's so cool about it for me," he said.

According to the report, Mann has received no compensation from Apple for the song's use in the press conference, although he apparently wouldn't say no to a free iPad if Apple were to offer him one.