Since its Tuesday release during Apple’s press event, U2’s free album giveaway has reportedly reached 2 million downloads. Recode reported the numbers today but didn’t clarify if the two million downloads included those iOS devices and Macs automatically setup to download purchased content.
That’s 2 million of the approximately 500 million people with access to the free album through either an iTunes download or streaming on iTunes Radio and Beats Music.
Earlier today we noted that Apple reportedly paid U2 and its label an undisclosed royalty fee in addition to committing to a $100 million ad campaign as part of the partnership. The band also has plans to continue working with Apple on other music related projects.
As noted by Recode, the album’s release has also put a lot of U2’s back catalogue (conveniently on sale) into the top charts on iTunes: The music industry always expects new releases to spur the sales of old albums, but in this case iTunes buyers seem particularly receptive: Right now there are 17 old U2 albums on iTunes top 100 chart; a remastered version of “The Joshua Tree,” the band’s 1987 release, is at the No. 12 spot.
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I think the album is quite good by the way.
“Songs of Innocence” – the most deleted album in history. That should qualify it for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.
Not sure how it would be the most deleted. Considering it didn’t get downloaded unless you went into purchases and .. you know.. downloaded it JUST to delete it.
hahaha excellent point. haters gonna hate…
a lot less than 500 million they were bragging about and considering the album was auto-downloaded to many people like me that don’t give a shit for U2, hardly counts towards a 2 million album release. Maybe you should compare it to albums that are illegally downloaded and see how the numbers compare?
Still waiting to be able to download it :-/
In iTunes, go to the iTunes Store. On the home page, go to Purchased (on the right column under Quick Links). Go to Music, and then you can download it.
This finally became available to me this morning. Presumably they had to stagger it a bit. Unfortunate that so many people who didn’t want it got it before me.
While I understood the issue some people had, I personally didn’t mind the gesture. I saw it as more of a free album rather than spam.
Yeah. I didn’t really have any desire to read Winnie the Pooh either, but I didn’t mind it being in my iBooks account. U2 is the Winnie the Pooh of the Music app now.
Haha yeah. Spot on.