Remember the time we woke up and the U2 Album “Songs Of Innocence” was thrust upon us? If you don’t , you aren’t old enough to know we used to pay for each song or album and this may seem odd to you.
In an excerpt published in The Guardian, Bono, the lead singer of U2 looks back on the failed Apple collaboration of 2014. In the mind of Bono this was the ultimate Rock Star move. IMO I’m still unsure of the thought process on that one and am for sure going to need him to show his work.
The plan was seemingly good on paper; permanently add U2’s then new album, Songs of Innocence to the iTunes libraries of all its users- at the time was over 500 million users. What was intended to be as loving as a wedding invitation was received as a bill. Let’s just say twitter went wild with witty comebacks to this forced “gift.”
Bono has accepted full responsibility for the infamously wretched marketing fail- he believed delivering U2’s album to iTunes users free of charge (due to the fact that apple purchased it ahead of time per their agreement) would be something people could enjoy. Alas, it was more along the lines of a Robo call, leaving the user feeling violated. This day and age people would use the word offended.
Second only to the tweets, the mere fact that apple had to build a specific tool for removing the album floors me. DEAD. This alone gives me more laughs than The Fat Jewish meme page.
Part of the reason for the outrage was how close to the vest we all kept our iTunes libraries, carefully curated content for us that we PURCHASED. Our collection was the digital vinyl of 2014. iTunes was the first place we were able to digitally store our collections. How dare someone come in and take up precious space with something we didn’t ask for; this was long before consent was a mainstream topic.
“We’d realised we bumped into a serious discussion about the access of big tech to our lives” said Bono. The part of me that will always be punk rock though this is exactly what The Clash would do. Subversive. But Subversive is hard to claim when you’re working with a company thats about to be the biggest on Earth”
‘No wonder you have to give your mediocre music away for free cause no one wants to buy it.- Sharon Osbourne
“Guys nothings is for free, how much you making? PS, btw you are just a bunch of middle age political groupies,’ Sharon tweeted as she swiped at the band known for their support of human rights and philanthropic causes.”
In other news, your ringtone has been changed to ‘Beautiful Day’ and Bono is now your friend on Facebook.
— Tom Bromley (@BromleyEsq) September 10, 2014
Apple says there’s going to be a new U2 album every day until you buy their stinking watch.
— tom jamieson (@jamiesont) September 10, 2014
The new iPhone 6 costs £539 in the UK, or £549 if you want it without a U2 album.
— Tom Scott (@tomscott) September 9, 2014
Just woken up to find U2 downstairs watching TV and eating my biscuits. Will their presumptions that I want them in my life ever end?
— Twitflup (@Twitflup) September 13, 2014
“It wasn’t just a banana skin, it was a landmine” – Bono
