Bono has finally spoken out about the marketing stunt turned PR nightmare that involved giving away his band’s new album to every iTunes user, with the help of Apple.
“Oops,” said Bono in reply to a question in a Facebook chat.
“Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to peoples playlists ever again? It’s really rude,” said one commenter in a recent Facebook Q&A.
“Uh, oops,” said Bono. “Um, I’m sorry about that. Had this beautiful idea – might’ve got carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing – a drop of megalomania, a touch of generosity, a dash of self-promotion, and deep fear that these songs that we poured out life into over the last few years mightn’t be heard. There’s a lot o noise out there. I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it.
To be completely fair to Bono and U2 – don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same thing. There is a lot of noise, and if you had a fast-track to cut through it all, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you take a clear pipeline to Apple users?
Of course you would.
But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t annoying. People are particular about their music collections. Surprise – nobody wants unwanted music.
And the “megalomania” Bono speaks of – hey it’s not all you buddy. There’s plenty of it to go around at Apple.
Anyway, I guess it’s time to put this whole thing to bed. Either you can delete the album from your iTunes, or you can just put up with free music. Either way, Bono and crew gained over 81 million listens to at least some part of the album thanks to this promotion.
It’s clear who the winners are here.
Image via U2, Facebook video screenshot