Bono is once again apologizing for the publicity stunt that saw Apple secretly download U2’s Songs of Innocence album to the accounts of a half a billion iTunes users in 2014
During a recent interview with The New York Times, Bono and The Edge were asked what their old manager Paul McGuinness said to them following “the whole iTunes mess,” as it’s now called.
“He said pretty much the same thing that [Apple Inc. CEO] Tim Cook said when I pitched him the idea, which is: You spent your whole life getting people to pay for music. Why would you want to give something away for free?” Bono says.
What was called called “the largest album release of all time” by Cook caused a major backlash against both Apple and U2 for unwillingly forcing the album on users. Since then, Songs of Innocence is widely remembered only for the backlash it caused, not the music itself.
Bono explains that back then, “We were experimenting. We wanted to see if we could get Apple or another company to pay for our music and then they distribute it.”
The band felt it took “some experimentation to fix the music [business]. It’s astonishing how little other musicians are paid and it’s frightening.”
Still, the frontman assumes all responsibility, admitting, “Yeah, that was all on me. I went too far on that one.”
However, The Edge believes it was a necessary step for U2 to take at the time, adding, “We take risks. We have to. So you fail, you fall on your face at times. That’s part of the gig.”
Bono has previously issued apologies for the blunder. Not long after it happened, he responded to a comment on Facebook that asked, “Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to peoples’ playlists ever again? It’s really rude.”
“Oops, I’m sorry about that,” Bono said. “I had this beautiful idea and we kind of 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 mightn’t be heard. There’s a lot of noise out there. I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it.”
He also wrote about the stunt in his 2022 memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, recalling how he pitched the idea to Cook as a way to launch a music subscription service.
Read the full interview here.