According to ultimeaclassicrock.com, Bono recently said he takes full responsibility for U2’s iTunes controversy back in 2014, in his upcoming memoir, Surrender: 40 songs, One Story. ITunes gave away U2’s Songs of Innocence album for free to every iTunes user and faced severe backlash after customers discovered it had been automatically uploaded to their accounts and initially there was no way to delete it.
In his book, Bono writes that Apple CEO Tim Cook responded with “mild incredulity” when he explained his idea to him. Cook said, “‘You want to give this music away free?’ ‘But the whole point of what we’re trying to do at Apple is to not give away music free. The point is to make sure musicians get paid.’ To which Bono responded, “‘No,’ I said, ‘I don’t think we give it away free. I think you pay us for it, and then you give it away free, as a gift to people. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? … Like when Netflix buys the movie and gives it away to subscribers.'”
Cook stayed uncertain about the idea stating, “There’s something not right about giving your art away for free. And this is just to people who like U2?” Bono replied, “I think we should give it away to everybody. I mean, it’s their choice whether they want to listen to it.” Bono wrote that, “If just getting our music to people who like our music was the idea, that was a good idea, But if the idea was getting our music to people who might not have had a remote interest in our music, maybe there might be some pushback. But what was the worst that could happen? It would be like junk mail. Wouldn’t it? Like taking our bottle of milk and leaving it on the doorstep of every house in the neighborhood.”
Bono explained that, “I take full responsibility, I’d thought if we could just put our music within reach of people, they might choose to reach out toward it. Not quite. As one social media wisecracker put it, ‘Woke up this morning to find Bono in my kitchen, drinking my coffee, wearing my dressing gown, reading my paper.’ Or, less kind, ‘The free U2 album is overpriced.’ Mea culpa.”
Bono’s book, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story is set for worldwide release on November first.
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