U2 Singer Bono Apologizes For iTunes Album Release

Oct 15, 2014 09:00 AM EDT | Matt Mercuro

During a Facebook interview posted online on Tuesday, U2's Bono apologized for the way Apple handled the band's 11-song "Songs of Innocence" LP giveaway, which caused automatic downloads for a number of users after the company linked the album to all iTunes accounts.

Apple spent approximately $100 million on a worldwide ad campaign touting the exclusive download, but drew criticism for automatically attaching the album to iTunes accounts, which caused unexpected downloads for those using the iOS or Mac automatic music download feature.

Customers weren't able to delete the LP from their online profiles either.

"Oops, I'm sorry about that," Bono said in answer to a Facebook fan question. "We had this beautiful idea, we got a carried away with ourselves, artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, dash of self-promotion and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years mightn't be here.

"There's a lot of noise out there, I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it," Bono added.

Apple released a tool to help users remove the album from their account history after the debacle.

Despite the issues, the album is considered a success after achieving 26 million downloads in just a month. Along with full album downloads, Apple SVP of Internet Software and Service Eddy Cue said some 81 million people "experienced" songs from the LP through iTunes or streaming on iTunes Radio and Beats Music, according to AppleInsider.

The giveaway doesn't count toward official music sales figures at Nielsen SoundScan because it was distributed for free, according to Reuters.

The Grammy Award-winning band performed its single "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)" at Apple's Cupertino, California event in September, during which the company unveiled two new iPhones, a smart watch and a mobile payments system.

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