The band's manager Guy Oseary says, 'If someone doesn't like the gift, they should delete it,' and Apple has created a removal page to do just that.
- Sep 16, 2014
AceShowbiz - U2's camp addressed the criticisms regarding the surprise free release of their new album "Songs of Innocence" on iOS devices. The band's manager Guy Oseary told Mashable, "It's a gift from Apple. If someone doesn't like the gift, they should delete it."
"There are people who are going to be thrilled to get a gift. There are people who are not going to care to have this gift. We knew all of that going in. No surprises here. If someone doesn't like it, then great, that's OK, delete it. ... We just want to share it with as many people as possible. If you don't want it and you don't need it, delete it."
Asked about public's response regarding the Apple strategy, Oseary said, "It's disruptive, and it has never been done before. This will probably be dissected for many years to come - did it work, did it not work? - from many people on the sidelines who have a point of view. I'm just happy that a lot more people are listening to this album than they would have."
"A lot of people, from the look of the iTunes chart, are clearly rediscovering the band's catalog or discovering it for the first time. There are a lot of things that are unknown, but for me, I'm blown away by what Apple was able to do and what we were able to do with them. Anything music with Apple is exciting because they're such a powerful company. I love it when someone with that much power is willing to try new things."
When asked if they planned to do more "disruptive" releases, the manager replied, "I think we've done enough disruption for a minute. We plan on continuing to support this album. We have the deluxe version coming Oct. 14. We also want to share this album with people from a live perspective, playing songs here and there for an audience."
The band seemed to have anticipated the backlash since day one. On September 9, when the album was automatically added on iTunes during the launch of iPhone 6, Bono said on their website, "For the people out there who have no interest in checking us out, look at it this way... the blood, sweat and tears of some Irish guys are in your junk mail."
Rumor suggests Apple purchased the album in an exclusive deal worth up to $100 million. After the promotion backfired, the tech giant creates a removal page to appease the unhappy costumers. "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," the company says.
"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."
