March 29, 2024

Bono’s Response To That Whole Free Album Thing? ‘Oops’

Remember when U2 gave us all their new album, Songs of Innocence, for free via iTunes? Remember how some people got a little PO’d that it had automatically popped up in their music libraries? Well, that all came to a head this week when Bono officially apologized for… giving people music for free. The horror.

In a Q&A posted to Facebook, a fan asked Bono, point-blank: “Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to people’s playlists ever again? It’s really rude.”

Related: Was U2′s Apple Album Release A Good Idea? We Asked The Experts

Bono, rather sheepishly, responded, “Oops. I’m sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea — might have gotten carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of 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.”

U2 made history when the band made a special appearance during Apple’s latest product launch and gave away their record for free via Apple’s music services: iTunes, iTunes Radio and Beats.

The album reached 500-million people, 26 million of which downloaded it to their devices. Some users were displeased with the record’s existence on their phones, however, and Apple set up a dedicated site that allowed people to delete U2′s latest output.

Asking a band to apologize for giving away their music for free in a musical landscape that routinely demands that very thing seems a little hypocritical, to be sure — especially when users were given the option to remove the record if they so desired.

What do you think of Bono’s apology? Weigh in in the comments below.

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and book “Stuff Hipsters Hate.” She likes trying not to die in moshpits and listening to songs on repeat. Follow her on Twitter @BrennaEhrlich for news on cats and punk bands.

About the author  ⁄ Brenna Ehrlich

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