Bono Apologises for iTunes Giveaway

Now this is a day we never thought we'd see.

It was the free giveaway which divided many: U2's new album, Songs of Innocence was unveiled on 9th September along with the new iPhone and Apple Watch, but the method of delivery irked many: it was automatically downloaded into your 'purchased' folder, rather than sitting there in the ether. The backlash was such that Apple released an 'uninstall' program, to enable users to take the record off their devices.

Bono and the boys had previously defended their strategy but in a Facebook interview yesterday where U2 answered fan questions, they apologised.

The frontman said, "Oops. Um. I'm sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea and we got carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, dash of self-promotion, and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years might not be heard. There's a lot of noise out there. I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it."

For all the Twitter fury, a poll we conducted suggested that, in the main people weren't all that annoyed: 59% said the release hadn't bothered them, 26% were angry, while 15% were happy. The band walked away with a multi-million pound payment and the record has been downloaded 26 million times, making it one of the most popular albums ever, so we guess Bono's probably pretty happy after all that.

(Images: Rex)