14/09/2026
Was it genius marketing or going way too far? This was the question tossed around amongst fans 12 years ago today after they were forced to own Songs Of Innocence by U2 when they bought an iPhone 6. With the new phone, it automatically went to the purchased section of the iTunes library. On one hand, the idea of free music was enticing to people. On the other, no one had the choice to opt out even if they wanted to. What if they didn’t like Bono and company? What if the album wasn’t very good? Couldn’t we just have the option to own it?
For U2, their sole purpose was to get the record in front of as many people as possible. Bono recalled on stage with former Apple CEO Tim Cook that the number of users they had could guarantee immediate exposure.
“The question is now, how do we get it to as many people as possible, because that’s what our band is all about,” Bono said. “I do believe you have over half a billion subscribers to iTunes, so — could you get this to them?”
The album would continue to essentially be given away for free until October 13th, 2014, when they released the record commercially. For what it’s worth, Bono made it abundantly clear that he and the band got their money’s worth. “We were paid,” he told TIME. “I don’t believe in free music. Music is a sacrament.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple paid U2’s label Universal Music Group a hefty lump sum for exclusivity. For five weeks, fans had their music for free, regardless of whether they wanted it or not.
Nowadays, this is hardly controversial because streaming allows access to every song ever recorded, practically for free. But at the time, music listeners were annoyed and fellow bands were skittish about the precedent U2 set. Drummer Patrick Carney of The Black Keys argued that they “devalued their music completely.” “[The release] sends a huge mixed message to bands … that are just struggling to get by,” he told The Seattle Times. “I think that they were thinking it’s super generous of them to do something like that.”
Besides an extremely positive Rolling Stone review, U2 received middling to extremely underwhelming responses to Songs Of Innocence. For instance, Pitchfork gave the record a cold 4.6/10, arguing that “it’s not even that interesting—it’s just a blank message.”
