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.”
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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
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