Have “U2” Been Chosen to Receive a Free Album?

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Annalisa Leite, Editor

Has an album called “Songs of Innocence” shown up on your music app on your iPhone this week? Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Over 500 million people have had the band U2’s album appear on their iPhone due to a deal with Apple, and not too many people are happy about it.

On Tuesday, September 9, the world heard big news from Apple’s Product Launch Ceremony. Although everyone was excited about the new iPhone 6 and the Apple watch, the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, was more excited about the music performance from U2. ““Wasn’t that the most incredible single you ever heard? We would love a whole album of that.” Cook told the audience after the band finished playing its newest single, “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone).”

Paul David Hewsen, or Bono, member of U2, agreed with Cook. “The question is now, how do we get it to as many people as possible? Because that’s what our band is all about” said Bono. Later that day, Apple entered U2’s entire album into 500 million apple users purchased folders.

The reaction from iPhone users blew up twitter feeds the following week, and most weren’t positive. Rapper Tyler the Creator was unimpressed by his free album, and was very aggressive toward his tweets to the band, Bono specifically. Twitter User Chris Plante (@plante) tweeted, “Apple punishes customers with mandatory U2 album.” Another user, Matt Binder (@MattBinder) was very insulted, saying “U2’s new album being automatically added to our iTunes library is the most disgusting invasion of personal space by technology in history.” U2 has not responded to any negative comments on twitter.

Apple had a successful response to their Production Launch Ceremony, but Apple cutomers weren’t too happy with their Viral Marketing Ploy. Twitter user Matthew (@EveryBrokenWave) sums up everyone’s feelings towards Apple and U2. “U2 and Apple are a lot more similar than people realize. In both cases, you either love them or you hate them.”