Apple spotlights M5-powered MacBooks with new music-driven campaign

Apple has a long history of making silicon sound cinematic. With the latest films for its updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, the company once again attempts the familiar trick of translating processor upgrades into something that feels less like engineering and more like rhythm.

Two new spots created with TBWA\Media Arts Lab sit within Apple’s ongoing “Great Ideas Start Here” platform, a campaign framework designed to showcase the company’s latest Mac lineup and the chips that power it. The films take different tonal routes but arrive at the same destination: performance, reframed as creative momentum.

The first film, titled Tabs, centres on the new MacBook Air (M5) and approaches productivity with a kind of musical choreography.

Rather than lingering on spec sheets or processor diagrams, the film follows a user moving fluidly between tasks. Browser tabs flick open, files slide into place, and windows expand and collapse. The edits move quickly, almost percussively, matching the rhythm of the soundtrack.

That soundtrack belongs to Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì, whose Afrobeat compositions bring a propulsive energy to the sequence. It is an unusual but deliberate pairing. Afrobeat thrives on layered rhythm and movement, and the film mirrors that cadence visually as the user navigates through multiple tasks without friction.

The message is simple enough. The new Air, now powered by Apple’s M5 chip, is built for movement, both literal and metaphorical. Tasks happen quickly, ideas shift directions, and the device is designed to keep up without breaking the rhythm.

If ‘Tabs’ is about velocity in everyday work, the second film raises the stakes.

Directed by François Rousselet and scored by Antonio Sánchez, the spot titled ‘Best Performance Yet’ shifts its attention to the new MacBook Pro (M5 Pro and M5 Max). The tone becomes more intense, the pace more deliberate. Instead of casual multitasking, the visuals focus on demanding professional workflows.

Developers write and compile codes. Scientists examine medical slides under digital microscopes. Designers build complex three-dimensional renders. Video editors move through high-resolution timelines. The camera jumps rapidly between these disciplines, presenting them less as isolated professions and more as variations of the same creative state: concentration.

Sánchez’s jazz composition drives the structure of the film. Drums accelerate, pauses appear, then the rhythm builds again. The edits follow that musical logic, giving the impression that each workflow is part of a larger improvisation.

Overlay text punctuates the visuals with bursts of technical bravado. Apple claims the new chips deliver up to twice the CPU performance compared with earlier M1-generation machines, along with graphics speeds that can reach five times the previous capability. The numbers appear briefly, almost like captions in a fast-moving documentary about productivity.

For Apple, these claims are not just about raw speed. The company positions the M5 Pro and M5 Max as engines for emerging workloads, particularly those involving artificial intelligence and heavy creative processing. In other words, machines built not just for today’s tasks but for the next wave of digital experimentation.

Together, the two films sketch out Apple’s familiar narrative about the Mac. Technology is present, certainly, but rarely in isolation. Instead, it becomes a supporting character in a story about creativity, momentum, and the slightly romantic idea that the right tool can help ideas arrive faster.