You may think U2 songs on its new album are free, but reports suggest that it's not really free as far as U2 and Apple are concerned.
According to reports, Apple paid U2 an amount of $100 million for the rock band's "Songs of Innocence" album.
On September 9, along with Apple's launch of its newest gadgets, U2 also launched their new album, which took five years in the making. U2 performed the album's first single "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)".
At the said Apple's event, the company said the album would be distributed to 500 million iTunes users for free.
The iPhone maker made U2 songs in its new album part of the iTunes users' music libraries (even if you don't like it).
According to Rolling Stone, after minutes of its release, the "album was unleashed in the largest album release of all time".
U2's front man Bono told Rolling Stone about the album: "We wanted to make a very personal album.
"Let's try to figure out why we wanted to be in a band, the relationships around the band, our friendships, our lovers, our family. The whole album is first journeys - first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually. And that's hard. But we went there," Bono told the Rolling Stone exclusively the day before the press conference.
The "Songs of Innocence" album, which runs for 48 minutes long and contains 11 tracks, is a collaborative work with Danger Mouse, Paul Epworth, Flood, and Ryan Tedder.
"I think having them around really helped," Bono told Rolling Stone. "Some of the music out there now that people call pop, it's not pop - it's just truly great. And we wanted to have the discipline of the Beatles or the Stones in the Sixties, when you had real songs. There's nowhere to hide in them: clear thoughts, clear melodies."
Do you think this U2 songs in its new album are a free gift from Apple or just a marketing ploy? Sound off your comments below.
