Bono takes the blame for the 2014 iTunes U2 album disaster
Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner with U2 in 2014


AppleInsider may well generate an affiliate commission on purchases produced through links on our internet site.

U2 frontman Bono takes the blame for the unwell-fated iTunes album giveaway of 2014, an extract from his memoir reveals, but though Apple took warmth for the endeavor, CEO Tim Prepare dinner evidently wasn’t fazed by the reaction at all. 
Apple’s gift of a absolutely free duplicate of the U2 album “Tracks of Innocence” was found as a enormous blunder for the new music-offering provider, with grievances from many forcing Apple to occur up with instructions to take away the album from consumer libraries. 
In extracts from Bono’s memoir “Surrender: 40 Tunes, One particular Story” revealed in The Guardian, the rock frontman recounts conferences concerning the band and Apple executives in 2014. In the meeting, Bono spoke with manager Male Oseary, Eddy Cue, Phil Schiller, and Tim Prepare dinner, with the suggestion of a giveaway being from Bono’s aspect of the desk. 
“You want to give this new music away free of charge? But the total stage of what we are striving to do at Apple is to not give absent tunes cost-free. The point is to make absolutely sure musicians get paid,” Bono was informed. 
Bono in its place insisted that Apple ought to pay U2, but then give it absent as a present. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?,” he additional. When Prepare dinner pressed, Bono in comparison it to how “Netflix purchases the film and offers it away to subscribers.” 
“But we are not a subscription business,” Cook dinner fired back, ahead of Bono available “Not but. Permit ours be the very first.”
Cook was evidently however skeptical about the deal, and asked additional if this was just to all those who appreciated U2. “I assume we ought to give it away to all people,” Bono proposed, “I signify, it can be their selection regardless of whether they want to hear to it.” 
On the reception the album had, Bono states he usually takes comprehensive accountability. “Not Guy O, not Edge, not Adam, not Larry, not Tim Cook dinner, not Eddy Cue.” Bono believed that if the audio was designed available for listening, folks “could possibly pick out to achieve out towards it.” 
Bono has formerly apologized for the incident, which saw automated downloads of the album to hundreds of thousands of customers, in the weeks after it transpired. 
“At initially I assumed this was just an internet squall. We ended up Santa Claus and we might knocked a couple of bricks out as we went down the chimney with our bag of music,” he offers. “But really immediately we understood we would bumped into a significant dialogue about the entry of significant tech to our life.” 
Bono normally takes a minute to commend Cook dinner on his steps afterward. “You talked us into an experiment,” the CEO claimed to the rockstar. “We ran with it. It could not have worked, but we have to experiment, simply because the tunes enterprise in its existing type is not working for absolutely everyone.” 
Bono then points out the “probably instinctively conservative” leadership model of Cook dinner, and that when he needed to test and clear up a difficulty, he was nonetheless completely ready to take duty. 
The extract also discusses yet another Apple CEO conversation 10 a long time prior, with Bono and Edge traveling to Steve Careers with Jimmy Iovine in tow. Whilst U2 didn’t do commercials, it was proposed that the band was a fantastic match for Apple’s advert design at the time. 
For remuneration, Positions didn’t believe Apple had the spending plan such a band would expect. Bono countered by indicating they just required to be in the professional, having said that whilst the band wasn’t hunting for money, they instructed a “symbolic volume” of Apple stock, nevertheless Careers termed it a “dealbreaker.” 
As an choice, a personalized U2 iPod in black and red was suggested, though Positions insisted “You wouldn’t want a black a single. I can present you what it would seem like, but you will not like it.” 
Afterwards, right after the band were being revealed the initially edition and observed it favorable, style main Jony Ive was invited to look at the device’s structure a next time. At some point, the specific version iPod in red and black noticed general public release.