Before you could pullulate your pet record album at will on the likes ofSpotifyorApple Music , there was iTunes . In an observational release strategy , U2 ’s Songs of Innocence was upload to the iTunes libraries of users across the humanity , resulting ina wave of rebound . Eight days subsequently , the band ’s frontman Bono has at last apologized for the havoc his labor make for .
In 2014 , Irish rock band U2 tried to boldly go where no musician had gone before — and descend level on their fount . In a meter when we still predominantly buy our music on platforms like iTunes , U2 frontman Bono had a bold idea for a newfangled release strategy : Give their upcoming album Songs of Innocence away for barren by uploading it straight to substance abuser ’ iTunes libraries for liberal . In his coming memoir title Surrender : 40 Songs , One Story , excerpts of which were published byThe Guardianthis weekend , Bono recalls pitching the idea to Apple CEO Time Cook :
“ Free medicine ? ” asked Tim Cook , the CEO of Apple , with a look of modest incredulity . “ Are you talking about complimentary medicine ? ”
Bono suggested the idea of giving away the album for free in 2014 to Tim Cook.Image: Emmanuel Dunand (Getty Images)
“ You require to give this euphony away detached ? But the whole point of what we ’re trying to do at Apple is to not give away music gratuitous . The point is to ensure musician get pay . ”
“ No , ” I said , “ I do n’t recall we give it away destitute . I think you give us for it , and then you give it away devoid , as a giving to people . Would n’t that be rattling ? ”
Tim Cook promote an eyebrow . “ You mean we give for the album and then just distribute it ? ”
Tim look at me as if I was explaining the alphabet to an English prof . “ But we ’re not a subscription organization . ”
“ Not yet , ” I said . “ countenance ours be the first . ”
Despite his hesitancy , Cook took the bait , and Songs of Innocence was released to the masses on September 9 , 2014 — exceptthe masses did n’t want it . The album ’s atrocious discharge scheme also prompted conversations about the role of heavy tech in our media white plague since the phonograph recording was upload to user ’ personal libraries without their consent . mass were so desperate to transfer the album from their subroutine library thatApple even added a help pageto their website with instructions on how to do just that . Later in his memoir , Bono acknowledge the stack of it all .
“ I take full responsibility . Not Guy O , not Edge , not Adam , not Larry , not Tim Cook , not Eddy Cue . I ’d think if we could just put our medicine within reach of people , they might opt to reach out toward it . Not quite , ” a late excerption read , as publish by The Guardian . “ At first I thought this was just an cyberspace squall . We were Santa Claus and we ’d knocked a few bricks out as we went down the chimney with our bag of song . But quite cursorily we realised we ’d encounter into a serious discussion about the access of big tech to our lives . ”
It was in this time that the medicine industriousness was in a bit of a transient form . Streaming had n’t whole dominate consumption , iTunes was still selling music , and thenostalgia of physical mediawasn’t really in trend yet . The Songs of Innocence exit strategy was a genuine attempt to shake - up the then amorphous music industriousness and get U2 fans , both the devoted single and potential newfangled ones , excited about a book the set was proud of . Now , eight years subsequently , we can finally repose easy with an excuse from the gentleman behind it all .
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