In a Facebook interview where U2 band members answered questions asked by their fans, U2 frontman Bono apologized to iTunes users that were upset after the band's new album "Songs of Innocence" was automatically downloaded on their devices without their consent.
In the apology, Bono says that the group "got carried away" with themselves and were worried that songs they had spent two years working on "might not be heard."
Oops. Um. I'm sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea and we got carried away with ourselves.
Artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, 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's newest album, "Songs of Innocence," was provided for free to 500 million iTunes users as part of Apple's September 9 iPhone event. As part of the promotion, Apple pushed the album to iTunes accounts, causing some devices to download the album without user permission.
The automatic downloads caused quite a bit of backlash, prompting Apple to create a tool to allow users to remove the free U2 album from their devices.
Despite the negativity over the auto downloads, U2's partnership with Apple appears to have been wildly successful, with "Songs of Innocence" seeing 26 million downloads from iTunes users. Additionally, more than 81 million users are said to have "experienced" the album, via iTunes, iTunes Radio, and Beats Music.
Apple's deal with U2 and Universal Music Group is worth an estimated $100 million and is said to be part of a "long-term relationship" that will see Apple and U2 continuing to partner up to promote innovation in music.
