Bono Finally Apologizes for U2’s 2014 iTunes Ambush

Before you possibly can stream your favourite album at will on the likes of Spotify or Apple Music, there was iTunes. In an experimental launch technique, U2’s Songs of Innocence was uploaded to the iTunes libraries of customers the world over, leading to a wave of backlash. Eight years later, the band’s frontman Bono has lastly apologized for the havoc his undertaking wreaked.

In 2014, Irish rock band U2 tried to boldly go the place no musician had gone earlier than—and fell flat on their face. In a time once we nonetheless predominantly purchased our music on platforms like iTunes, U2 frontman Bono had a daring thought for a brand new launch technique: Give their upcoming album Songs of Innocence away free of charge by importing it on to customers’ iTunes libraries free of charge. In his upcoming memoir titled Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, excerpts of which had been revealed by The Guardian this weekend, Bono recollects pitching the concept to Apple CEO Time Cook:

“Free music?” requested Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, with a glance of delicate incredulity. “Are you talking about free music?”

“You want to give this music away free? But the whole point of what we’re trying to do at Apple is to not give away music free. The point is to make sure musicians get paid.”

“No,” I mentioned, “I don’t think we give it away free. I think you pay us for it, and then you give it away free, as a gift to people. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

Tim Cook raised an eyebrow. “You mean we pay for the album and then just distribute it?”

I mentioned, “Yeah, like when Netflix buys the movie and gives it away to subscribers.”

Tim checked out me as if I used to be explaining the alphabet to an English professor. “But we’re not a subscription organization.”

“Not yet,” I mentioned. “Let ours be the first.”

Despite his hesitance, Cook took the bait, and Songs of Innocence was launched to the plenty on September 9, 2014—besides the masses didn’t want it. The album’s abominable launch technique additionally prompted conversations in regards to the position of huge tech in our media consumption because the document was uploaded to customers’ private libraries with out their consent. People had been so determined to take away the album from their libraries that Apple even added a help page to their web site with directions on the way to do exactly that. Later in his memoir, Bono acknowledges the mess of all of it.

“I take full responsibility. Not Guy O, not Edge, not Adam, not Larry, not Tim Cook, not Eddy Cue. I’d thought if we could just put our music within reach of people, they might choose to reach out toward it. Not quite,” a later excerpt reads, as revealed by The Guardian. “At first I thought this was just an internet squall. We were Santa Claus and we’d knocked a few bricks out as we went down the chimney with our bag of songs. But quite quickly we realised we’d bumped into a serious discussion about the access of big tech to our lives.”

It was on this time that the music trade was in a little bit of a transient part. Streaming hadn’t utterly dominated consumption, iTunes was nonetheless promoting music, and the nostalgia of physical media wasn’t actually in fashion but. The Songs of Innocence launch technique was a real try to shake-up the then amorphous music trade and get U2 followers, each the devoted ones and potential new ones, excited a few document the band was happy with. Now, eight years later, we are able to lastly relaxation straightforward with an apology from the person behind all of it.