So, it seems that U2 is really feeling it now from all the flak they’ve been getting since Apple gave away the band’s new album, “Songs of Innocence”, for free to everyone with an iTunes account. As such, Bono acknowledged he and his bandmates may have gone “too far”. The singer has responded to the people who complained about finding an unwanted album in their iCloud purchase history (read: forced down their throats). The apology came as part of a video interview hosted on Facebook.
The interview video featured U2’s members asking questions from fans which were submitted through Facebook.
One such fan happened to ask Bono, “Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to people’s playlists ever again? It’s really rude.”
To which Bono explained:
Oops … I’m sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea. Might have gotten carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that thing. A drop of megalomania, a touch of generosity, a dash of self-promotion, and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years might not be heard. There’s a lot of noise out there. I guess, we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it.
Watch the interview here:
That having said, according to Apple, more than 26 million people have downloaded the album and 81 million have listened to at least part of it as part of the promotion. But for those who aren’t big fans of U2 per se, Apple released a handy tool to purge “Songs of Innocence” from users’ respective iCloud libraries.
Alas, that wouldn’t be the last you hear from U2, forcefully or otherwise, because U2 posted a message on their website to say that they will continue to work with Apple. They specifically said, “We’re collaborating with Apple on some cool stuff over the next couple of years, innovations that will transform the way music is listened to and viewed. We’ll keep you posted.”
Uhm, okay.
