Bono Apologizes for 2014 iTunes Album Stunt, Remembers Pitching Steve Jobs a U2 iPod (theguardian.com) 67
Remember back in 2014 when every iTunes music library suddenly started showing U2's new album, Songs of Innocence?
In a new memoir (excerpted by the Guardian), U2's lead singer Bono says he's very sorry — and explains exactly how it happened: "Free music?" asked Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, with a look of mild incredulity. "Are you talking about free music...? But the whole point of what we're trying to do at Apple is to not give away music free. The point is to make sure musicians get paid."
"No," I said, "I don't think we give it away free. I think you pay us for it, and then you give it away free, as a gift to people. Wouldn't that be wonderful...?"
Tim was not convinced. "There's something not right about giving your art away for free," he said. "And this is just to people who like U2?"
"Well," I replied, "I think we should give it away to everybody. I mean, it's their choice whether they want to listen to it." See what just happened? You might call it vaunting ambition. Or vaulting. Critics might accuse me of overreach. It is.....
At first I thought this was just an internet squall. We were Santa Claus and we'd knocked a few bricks out as we went down the chimney with our bag of songs. But quite quickly we realised we'd bumped into a serious discussion about the access of big tech to our lives. The part of me that will always be punk rock thought this was exactly what the Clash would do. Subversive. But subversive is hard to claim when you're working with a company that's about to be the biggest on Earth.
For all the custard pies it brought Apple — who swiftly provided a way to delete the album — Tim Cook never blinked. "You talked us into an experiment," he said. "We ran with it. It may not have worked, but we have to experiment, because the music business in its present form is not working for everyone."
If you need any more clues as to why Steve Jobs picked Tim Cook to take on the leadership of Apple, this is one. Probably instinctively conservative, he was ready to try something different to solve a problem. When it went wrong, he was ready to take responsibility.
"A study six months later found that only a quarter of iTunes users actually listened to at least one Song of Innocence," remembers Rolling Stone. Elsewhere in the excerpt, Bono talks about actually meeting with Steve Jobs in 2004, a conversation that resulted in the iconic "Vertigo" iPod ad. Then a new single, U2 offered the track to Apple to use for free, though the band attempted to get "some Apple stock" in exchange.
"'Sorry,' said Steve. 'That's a dealbreaker,'" Bono wrote. Instead, U2 settled for their own branded iPod.
Bono suggested it be black and red, according to his article in the Guardian — describing Steve Jobs' reaction as "nonplussed." Apple, he said, is about white hardware. "You wouldn't want a black one." He thought for a moment. "I can show you what it would look like, but you will not like it."
When, later, he showed the design to us, we loved it. So much that he'd ask Jony Ive, the company's design genius, to look at it again, and OK, maybe even experiment with a red component on the device, too. To reflect our Atomic Bomb album cover....
In a new memoir (excerpted by the Guardian), U2's lead singer Bono says he's very sorry — and explains exactly how it happened: "Free music?" asked Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, with a look of mild incredulity. "Are you talking about free music...? But the whole point of what we're trying to do at Apple is to not give away music free. The point is to make sure musicians get paid."
"No," I said, "I don't think we give it away free. I think you pay us for it, and then you give it away free, as a gift to people. Wouldn't that be wonderful...?"
Tim was not convinced. "There's something not right about giving your art away for free," he said. "And this is just to people who like U2?"
"Well," I replied, "I think we should give it away to everybody. I mean, it's their choice whether they want to listen to it." See what just happened? You might call it vaunting ambition. Or vaulting. Critics might accuse me of overreach. It is.....
At first I thought this was just an internet squall. We were Santa Claus and we'd knocked a few bricks out as we went down the chimney with our bag of songs. But quite quickly we realised we'd bumped into a serious discussion about the access of big tech to our lives. The part of me that will always be punk rock thought this was exactly what the Clash would do. Subversive. But subversive is hard to claim when you're working with a company that's about to be the biggest on Earth.
For all the custard pies it brought Apple — who swiftly provided a way to delete the album — Tim Cook never blinked. "You talked us into an experiment," he said. "We ran with it. It may not have worked, but we have to experiment, because the music business in its present form is not working for everyone."
If you need any more clues as to why Steve Jobs picked Tim Cook to take on the leadership of Apple, this is one. Probably instinctively conservative, he was ready to try something different to solve a problem. When it went wrong, he was ready to take responsibility.
"A study six months later found that only a quarter of iTunes users actually listened to at least one Song of Innocence," remembers Rolling Stone. Elsewhere in the excerpt, Bono talks about actually meeting with Steve Jobs in 2004, a conversation that resulted in the iconic "Vertigo" iPod ad. Then a new single, U2 offered the track to Apple to use for free, though the band attempted to get "some Apple stock" in exchange.
"'Sorry,' said Steve. 'That's a dealbreaker,'" Bono wrote. Instead, U2 settled for their own branded iPod.
Bono suggested it be black and red, according to his article in the Guardian — describing Steve Jobs' reaction as "nonplussed." Apple, he said, is about white hardware. "You wouldn't want a black one." He thought for a moment. "I can show you what it would look like, but you will not like it."
When, later, he showed the design to us, we loved it. So much that he'd ask Jony Ive, the company's design genius, to look at it again, and OK, maybe even experiment with a red component on the device, too. To reflect our Atomic Bomb album cover....
the music business in its present form is not work (Score:5, Funny)
the music business in its present form is not working for everyone.
So how exactly does promoting one of the most entrenched bands help the music business work for anyone else?
Re: (Score:2)
It just boggles the mind that they ever thought this was a good idea. Apple pay them on behalf of customers (because that's where the money comes from), and then force it onto people's devices without asking.
That's supposed to be a sustainable way for artists to get paid.
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It just boggles the mind that they ever thought this was a good idea. Apple pay them on behalf of customers (because that's where the money comes from), and then force it onto people's devices without asking.
Bono has a pretty high opinion of himself and his music. He probably actually thought people would be overjoyed. Sadly for him, folks didn't like their limited phone storage space being wasted on even a single album.
Re: the music business in its present form is not (Score:2)
He's just a piece of shit
https://youtube.com/watch?v=hb... [youtube.com]
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Well, it was both that and that Jobs loved U2.
He figured that Apple users would love free music too so they just gave it to everyone who had an account. Now, maybe the implementation could be better, but I suppose it was the only way Apple could do it was to basically add it to everyone's accoun
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I've never understood what the big deal was. Your new ipod came with a free album on it. You ether kept it or deleted it, end of story. The last pure MP3 player, Creative I think, came with some Mozart and some Beethoven on it. I don't recall losing my shit over it but then I like Mozart and Beethoven.
Seems to me it was just a bunch of U2 or Apple haters finding a reason to bitch.
Re:the music business in its present form is not w (Score:5, Informative)
It wasn't just new iPods. They added it everyone's iTunes accounts, which if you had automatic sync turned on meant it was automatically downloaded to your computer and then copied to your iPod and iPhone.
Worse still, even if you deleted all the tracks, the album would still pollute your iTunes library. Apple released a fix for that fairly quickly.
Slashdot covered it at the time: https://apple.slashdot.org/sto... [slashdot.org]
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Somehow I can't remove it, but it seems to be superseded by "Cleansing" from Prong. That is, when it inadvertently starts up "Music", that is the album that appears.
Otherwise I only use Spotify (This is my favorite play list [spotify.com])
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This happened when apple was exceedingly stingy on how much flash storage came on their base model iPhones.
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Not sure why you got downvoted for speaking the truth. I hated U2 before it was forced on to my phone, that just cemented my hate for them. Bono is a complete self-righteous douche. Fuck U2.
"No," I said, "I don't think we give it away free (Score:5, Insightful)
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Just like this is Apple and Steve Jobs in a nutshell:
Re:"No," I said, "I don't think we give it away fr (Score:5, Insightful)
Bono has a long history of being generous at other people's expense.
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Bono has a long history of being generous at other people's expense.
Well as long as it's rich fuckers who horde unimaginable wealth than I see no problem with it. The only issue is "generous" is not what I would describe being gifted a U2 album. Taking the piss maybe.
Well meant (Score:2)
Well, I givv them that the whole thing was well meant.
But again, that's the opposite of well done.
Will he apologize for creating U2 though? (Score:4, Funny)
Hmmm?
First world problems (Score:2)
Yep
Force fed and violated (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
I liked U2 up to Zooropa, too. The trouble with U2 all started with the song One of the album Achtung Baby. That's not to say One is a bad song - in fact, One is a pretty awesome song. The trouble is it was their first massive mainstream hit, and ever since then they've just been trying to make the same song over and over again. The taste of mainstream success turned U2 into boring, repetitive crap. No more experimental stuff like Exit or Numb, or pretty much all of Zooropa. No more bold new sounds li
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...force-fed me U2 music and it just appeared, unwanted...
That kind of sums up the entire career of U2 for me. MTV, radio, commercials, bar jukebox, random background music in a place of commerce, etc
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Zooropa appears to be when U2s freshness date expired. I personally liked them from War to Zooropa. I still regard the Joshua Tree to be one of the greatest albums of all times.
Re:I can't stand people who piss on Bono. (Score:4, Insightful)
One, his music is beautiful.
Eh, some of it. Most of it is boring AF. U2 is a band which can be replaced by a very small shell script which generates new songs by mishmashing the old ones. There are plenty of others, Jamiroquai leaps immediately to mind.
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Jamiroquai I find so incredibly undervalued. Lots of people have never even heard of him, but they almost all know at least one song.
Then again, it's not like he needs the money :P
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Jamiroquai I find so incredibly undervalued. Lots of people have never even heard of him, but they almost all know at least one song.
If you know one, you know 'em all, since they all sound the same. The sound is good, but I don't know why anyone would need more than one song.
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I do kind of agree with this. He's talented, and he nailed that sound, but he didn't really go any further.
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LMAO. A shell script you can only write by feeding it U2 songs, you clown.
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It's a fact. He's over 80 courics in weight.
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I really like their early stuff that sounds new wave, Out Of Control for example.
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That's why I dislike Bono. He takes ideas, makes other people pay for them, then declares them wonderful.
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Which part is that? (Score:5, Insightful)
The part of me that will always be punk rock
What part is that, exactly? Comparing U2 to punk rock is like comparing a kiss from grandma to anal with no lube.
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I'm sure there's a category for that on Pornhub.
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The part of me that will always be punk rock
What part is that, exactly? Comparing U2 to punk rock is like comparing a kiss from grandma to anal with no lube.
I agree with you on the theory, but not quite sure about the execution
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A "gesture" is making it available for free on the store to anyone who wants it, not adding it to your library without permission.
Still have them (Score:4, Interesting)
To this day, those are the only songs on my iPhone. I've inadvertently drug them around with me through at least 3 generations of iPhones (I'm on an iPhone 13 pro now). They still play at those random times when I plug my phone into someone's car to charge and it autoplays whatever music it finds on the device.
It's pretty much a forgettable album, although there are a couple songs that are kinda catchy.
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They still play at those random times when I plug my phone into someone's car to charge and it autoplays whatever music it finds on the device.
Ugh... Who thought that was good idea?
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Ugh... Who thought that was good idea?
Most people. Music is after all a major reason for connecting a phone to a car.
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I doubt it beats charging.
Wanting a completely random audio file on your phone to play when you plug in your phone couldn't possibly be the common case.
interesting comments from Cook and Jobs (Score:2)
More interesting in the summary were the comments of Cook and Jobs.
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Agreed, I consider myself a U2 fan, though admittedly, I haven't bought a U2 CD since 2004. However, it was seriously annoying entitled marketing. I guess that U2 and Aple showed uswho owns our devices.
Remember? (Score:2)
No, I don't. I've never had an iPod, almost never installed iTunes anywhere[1], and the only U2 album that has ever existed in my grasp is a cassette copy of *The Joshua Tree*, and I regret that.
[1] I admit installing it once to reset a work-mandated-and-provided iPhone when I'd forgotten my iCloud password because I never used the damn thing.
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Are you trying to ironic? Or do you just not see it.
White (Score:2)
Apple, he said, is about white hardware.
Fortunately they have not trademarked the color. Yet.
Taxes (Score:2)
The issue is that the implementation was dictated by the business end and not well thought out.
It has, if I am remembering correctly, to do with how that they need to put a value on (something) that they are providing to show that they did, in fact, provide something of value.
The easier way to understand this is that they started off their (now, free) OS upgrades at $20 to encourage people to upgrade. In order to not consider the purchase of an apple hardware product having an 'open financial obligation',
Measurement (Score:2)
Where's the apology? (Score:2)
The Playlist (Score:2)
The series "The Playlist" on Netflix is a very good documentary of Spotify and its trials with the music industry.
Echos a lot of the discussions here.
What percentage am I in? (Score:2)
Because I played the whole album?
I don't care (Score:2)
I don't care what Bono says. Let him stick to helping refugees.
what a comedian (Score:5, Insightful)
Punk Rock was when the band Negativeland released a record with a spy plane on the cover and the letter U and the numeral 2 printed large above their own band's name. What Bono did was allow his record label to sue SST records to near oblivion [wikipedia.org], ignoring the valid artistic discussion of fair use and parody. It's further telling that he references the Clash as a thought leader for punk. The Clash were at best a haircut band. Pussy Riot is a punk rock band [wikipedia.org].
Subversive isn't found in product pitch meetings between a millionaire and a billionaire. Subversive is found in the Russian hard labor prison punishing women for singing and dancing in a church.
Reminds me of other non-competitive activity (Score:2)
Let's see: Pay us for it, this ridiculously low per-unit fee, no matter if you use it or not, and people can delete it if they want to.
That's how Windows got here.
A Pretty Cool Premium (Score:1)
I thought it was a pretty cool premium at the time -- a free U2 album, when they were a top act.
I'm not a U2 fan. I never listened to it.