Remember When U2 Put Their Album on Your iPod?

Apple and U2 have had a relationship since the early 2000s, when the band offered to appear in an ad campaign for the tech giant at no charge. The song “Vertigo” was provided exclusively by iTunes for a period of time. An agreement between the band and Apple unveiled four versions of U2 Special Edition iPods. All of the band’s past albums were offered on a digital box set.

Let’s look back at September 9, 2014, when over 500 million people suddenly owned the new U2 album. Not everyone was excited. One social media user commented that the free U2 album was overpriced.

[AS OF THIS WRITING: U2 Tickets Are Available! – Get ‘Em Right Here]

The Rollout

Apple was announcing the brand-new iPhone 6. CEO Tim Cook and several other Apple executives touted the new features that seem quaint by today’s standards. One of the big new highlights was that it could track how many steps you’ve taken and how many flights of stairs you’ve traveled. Cook surprised the attendees by bringing out U2 to perform their yet-to-be-released single, “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone).” The song would go on to be part of the new advertising campaign for the tech company. However, it wouldn’t be what everyone remembered. That came next. The crowd offered a standing ovation. 

Cook embraced lead singer Bono and asked the audience, “Wasn’t that the most incredible single you’ve ever heard?” He then turned to Bono and said, “We would love a whole album of that.”

The singer replied, “There are rumors that U2 hasn’t made an album in the last five years. That’s untrue. We have made several albums. We just haven’t released them… We’ve finished our album, it’s called Songs of Innocence, we’re very excited about it. The question is now, zen master, ‘How do we get it to as many people as possible? Because that’s what our band is all about.’”

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OK, Bono

In a clearly scripted exchange, Bono proposed that all subscribers could receive the album by some kind of “magic Apple send button.” Cook agreed. Bono asked if it could happen in five seconds. Cook said the process would start in five seconds, but it would take a bit for it to travel across the internet.

Bono then counted down from five, and the CEO and singer awkwardly touched index fingers. It would turn out to be the biggest public relations nightmare for both Tim Cook and the band’s careers. 

U2 had reached their peak popularity in the ’80s. They were looking for ways to reach younger listeners. Apple was struggling to keep up with Spotify’s growing business. Instead of paying a small amount for the exclusive rights to the album, they would pay a larger amount to deliver the files to every user at no charge. The concept was an attempt to invigorate iTunes users while providing U2 with new fans.

The Backlash

It failed miserably. It wasn’t made free for download by choice, but was forced onto users without their consent. A new form of spam—that’s how consumers ended up viewing it.

Back in 2014, your device housed iTunes libraries locally. That made storage an issue, as the brand new iPhone 6 debut featured only 16GB. So many users woke up one day with a random album taking up space that couldn’t be deleted. The backlash was intense.

Two days later, Owen Williams tweeted, “Hi @tim_cook my iPhone has a virus called “U2″ how do I uninstall it?”

Tom Bryan tweeted, “I’m going to burn that U2 album to a compact disc just so I can smash it to a million pieces and send it back to Apple.”

Tyler, the Creator, tweeted, “GET OFF MY F   CKING PHONE. YOU COULDNT COME UP WITH AN ACTUAL MARKETING IDEA? F  @U2 I DONT WANT YOU. F   BONO. I DIDNT ASK FOR YOU IM MAD”

Despite the lack of punctuation, the message was clear. People were yelling at Apple; they felt this was a violation. 

The Attempt to Fix It

To make things worse, you couldn’t delete the files. They were permanent. On September 15, a tool was unveiled on Apple’s website to delete the unwanted files.

“If you would like U2’s Songs of Innocence removed from your iTunes music library and iTunes purchases, you can choose to have it removed. Once the album has been removed from your account, it will no longer be available for you to redownload as a previous purchase. If you later decide you want the album, you will need to get it again. The album is free to everyone until October 13, 2014 and will be available for purchase after that date. Do you want to remove Songs of Innocence from your account?”

After the album was released in physical formats in October, the band appeared on Britain’s The Graham Norton Show. The host brought up the fact that, normally, when bands come on, they’re trying to sell an album, but everyone had this one already. 

Guitarist The Edge replied, “It’s for all of the people who got very annoyed that it was given to them free. They now get to buy it.” Bono added, “There were a lot of people who were uninterested in U2, who are now mad at U2, which, as far as we’re concerned, is an improvement.”

The Ultimate Impact

The album’s producer, Mark “Flood” Ellis, said, “What they did raised where the music is valued in society, right now, and I think that’s still something that hasn’t been answered correctly. Because it brought about the question of ‘What are people’s listening tastes?’ and maybe the biggest question it raised was, ‘Are people allowed to have choice or is choice actually being eliminated?’ and that’t not just music.”

The intentions were good, but the backlash was huge. It was viewed as a violation where the user’s choice was removed from the equation. In his 2022 memoir, Bono wrote, “I had this beautiful idea, and we got carried away with ourselves. …Artists are prone to that kind of thing.”

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images