Bono Apologises For Putting That U2 Album On Your iPhone

Bono has revealed excerpts from his upcoming memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, out on 1 November, with The Guardian.

The stories range from the beginnings of U2, his father, what he thought of the band's Live Aid performance, and getting to know the Obamas. Most interestingly, however, is Bono's reflection on the infamous Songs Of Innocence saga: that time when U2 put their 13th album on our iPhones in 2014.

At the time, many were concerned with the album being added to their music libraries without consent. Chris Wade at Slate wrote, "Apparently, consent and interest are no longer a requisite for owning an album, only corporate prerogative. Which is, you know, extremely unsettling, possibly indicating a terrifying new future where taste and culture are even more explicitly chosen directly for us by our corporate overlords."

Now, Bono has addressed the deal with Apple. The story began in 2004 when the band was on the cusp of releasing Vertigo. "Edge, our manager Paul McGuinness, [producer and record executive] Jimmy Iovine and I made a visit to Steve Jobs. We had a hunch that we thought might benefit both Apple and U2," he started. From there, Bono told Jobs that U2 wanted to be on an iPod commercial and would do it unpaid. 

Apple designers showed the band the black and red signature U2 iPod, which they loved. "The iPod was about to turn Apple from a medium-sized world-class hardware and software player into a global Godzilla. In truth, we were fortunate to ride the Apple wave through that period. The fantastically kinetic commercial brought the band to a younger audience and thousands of people bought the U2 iPod just because it wasn't white."

Flash forward to 2014, and Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, asked, "Free music? Are you talking about free music?". It took some convincing, but Bono eventually revealed his vision. He said to Cook, "I think we should give it away to everybody. I mean, it's their choice whether they want to listen to it." 

Reflecting, he wrote, "On 9 September 2014, we didn't just put our bottle of milk at the door but in every fridge in every house in town. In some cases we poured it on to the good people's cornflakes. And some people like to pour their own milk. And others are lactose intolerant... I take full responsibility.

"At first I thought this was just an internet squall... 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."

Read the rest of the excerpts here, and if you're interested, pre-order the book.