Apple’s free U2 album was ‘not proper’ says CEO Tim Cook dinner

The band’s album, Songs of Innocence, solely debuted on iTunes after Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner launched the brand new iPhone 6 on Sept. 9, 2014. For a month after that, the album was solely obtainable on the platform as a part of a advertising and marketing partnership between U2 and Apple.

It was a novel method to distributing music for each U2 and Apple, and it took some convincing to get Cook dinner on board, in response to U2 frontman Bono.

“There’s one thing not proper about giving your artwork away without spending a dime,” Cook dinner reportedly instructed Bono on the time, the Irish singer writes in his new memoir, to be launched subsequent week, an extract of which was obtained by the Guardian. 

“You need to give this music away free? However the entire level of what we’re making an attempt to do at Apple is to not give away music free. The purpose is to ensure musicians receives a commission,” Cook dinner reportedly stated, additionally asking whether or not Bono solely needed U2 followers to obtain the album.

Bono countered that Apple ought to launch the album to all iTunes customers, who may then determine “whether or not they need to hearken to it.” Bono added that he envisioned the iTunes launch of Songs of Innocence and U2’s partnership as the beginning of a brand new kind of subscription service for customers to have unique early entry to their music.

However by Bono’s personal admission, he was useless unsuitable.

‘A present to the individuals’

The album reached as many as 500 million Apple prospects upon launch, however as U2 would quickly discover out, not all of these individuals needed it. The band was inundated by on-line complaints criticizing the transfer as a advertising and marketing ploy and an invasion of privateness. Wired known as the giveaway the “U2 album nobody requested for” that was “even worse than spam.” Salon went even additional, writing that the album had made U2 into an “Web punchline” and “probably the most hated band in America.”

The fallout compelled Apple to create a web site every week after sharing the album that was devoted to explaining how customers may delete the album. In October 2014, Bono issued a public apology for the album giveaway, and the frontman nonetheless says it was a foul concept looking back.

“I take full accountability,” Bono writes in his memoir. “I’d thought if we may simply put our music inside attain of individuals, they may select to achieve out towards it. Not fairly.”

Bono writes that whereas he needed the giveaway to be “subversive,” it as a substitute helped immediate a “critical dialogue in regards to the entry of huge tech to our lives.” He additionally known as the fallout a public relations “landmine” that the band must navigate for years to return, though for all of the backlash, U2 didn’t come out of the debacle empty-handed.

“I don’t assume we give it away free. I believe you pay us for it, and then you definitely give it away free, as a present to individuals. Wouldn’t that be great?” Bono says he instructed Cook dinner on the time.

As a part of the band’s partnership with Apple, the iPhone maker picked up the tab for the giveaway. To launch U2’s album on iTunes without spending a dime, Apple reportedly paid the band an undisclosed royalty in addition to committing to a advertising and marketing marketing campaign for U2 price $100 million, the New York Instances reported on the time citing inside sources.

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