Bono says "The iTunes stunt was all me!"

Virgin Radio

24 Oct 2022, 06:04

He put 'Songs of Innocence' on your iPod in 2014.

Remember when U2 put their new album, for free, on your iPod?

That was almost ten years ago, and now the Irish band's singer, Bono has revealed that the idea was his.

“I take full responsibility,” Bono writes in an excerpt taken from his memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, which was published this weekend by The Guardian.

The 62 year old went on to say that Apple CEO Tim Cook was confused by the band’s decision to push the album in this way, but that he wanted to "get [the album] to as many people as possible, because that's what our band is all about".

The longtime CEO told Bono: ”‘You want to give this music away free? 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.'”

Bono then said: ”‘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?'”

Many thought it wasn't wonderful, at all. The move was a contentious one, with some resenting that U2 had a record installed on their device without consent.

Bono continued: “I’d thought if we could just put our music within reach of people, they might choose to reach out toward it. Not quite. As one social media wisecracker put it, ‘Woke up this morning to find Bono in my kitchen, drinking my coffee, wearing my dressing gown, reading my paper.’ Or, less kind, ‘The free U2 album is overpriced.’ Mea culpa.”

“You might call it vaunting ambition," he wrote. "Or vaulting. Critics might accuse me of overreach. It is. If just getting our music to people who like our music was the idea, that was a good idea. But if the idea was getting our music to people who might not have had a remote interest in our music, maybe there might be some pushback. But what was the worst that could happen? It would be like junk mail.”

It's certain that U2's next record will enjoy a more conventional release than Songs of Innocence.

Bono recently told the Irish Times that he and U2 want to make an "uncompromising, balls-to-the-wall, transcendent rock 'n' roll album, with unreasonable guitars, like properly aggressive as the times deserve", and hope to begin recording their 15th record by the end of the year.