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iTunes Users Downloaded U2's 'Songs of Innocence' 26 Million Times, 81 Million 'Experienced Songs'

It just kinda annoys me how Apple and U2 are acting like people went out and actually bought this album. It was basically pushed to everybody's iOS device, whether they wanted it or not. Hell I didn't want the album on my iPhone. This release was anything but impressive. You wanna talk about an album release that was actually damn impressive? Look no further than Beyoncé. Damn near a million copies of her album sold within 3 days, with no promotion, no forcing of the album onto anybody's device, no hype from Apple or any other marketing machine. She literally posted a video on Instagram in the middle of the night and the woman still managed to sell damn near a million copies of her album in 3 days. And it went on to arguably be the best album of 2013. That is damn impressive. And I know they'll be people on here who'll be all "boo Beyoncé sucks" It's not even about being fan or not, it's simply recognizing that her album release was nothing short of phenomenal. U2's release? Not so much, despite what they and Apple want the public to believe.
 
What were Apple thinking both U2 & Apple lost face big time, the worrying thing is it was so obvious, ask any average person before hand if thats a good idea & for sure they would have said "ummm thats not going to go down well"

Maybe they could have given away so many redeem codes or a lucky app gift you signed up for etc but to give people no choice..even then I think U2 now look like bunch of has been desperate to make a $, they sure didn't do it for Apple love..
 
Last week I was walking and wanted to enjoy some music so I just tapped play on the Music app.
After a couple of songs I told to myself what the **** is that? I don't know this song. It turned out it was one of the U2's songs automatically downloaded on my iTunes library and added to my iPhone when I restored my backup the day I bought it.
I have the 64 model so I'm not concerned about the space wasted by the U2 album, but it was quite disturbing. I do like some U2 songs, but why was the new album copied without me having any knowledge of that?
 
26 million is not the true, try halving that..

Simply because most probably didn't even want it, but got downloaded because users had "Automatically download" option enabled in iOS iTunes & App Store Settings.

The fact Apple offered a way to remove it afterwards is not even an issue.

Just one more way Apple like to fudge the numbers in their favor.

(edits: That hand-finger-touchy thing that Tim did, is just looks wired.. I was freaked out by the whole experience.)

And i was right to freak out :)
 
H2SO4 said:
That bit was quite cute. No, very cute.
Anyhow, Apple already have a vehicle for offers it’s when you sign up and agree to have ads pushed to you beforehand for New Music Tuesdays etc. This is how they should have pushed the song across or had it as a banner on the iTunes Store home page. If you’ve opted out you miss it.
They dropped the ball and are using semantics and massaging figures to play it off as a success.
I mean jesus, millions of people have ‘experienced' prison, that doesn’t mean they like it.
Click to expand...


I guess you completely changed my mind. They should never try anything new. All of the necessary and best vehicles are already in place and could never be improved. Really what they should have done is passed out CDs at their headquarters. I mean they already had the building and all, and the way I think things should be done is always right and the best. You opened my eyes to just how deeply I have been wronged, especially with the prison analogy.
/s
 
I actually really like the first song from the album, the one from the commercials and that they played live. The rest of the album is just so-so, nothing noteworthy. Boring more than offensive.
 
Yeah. And how many people chose to keep the awful album once it had been automatically downloaded for them?
 
So from 500 million customers to at the most 80 million… For something that was thrown directly into devices I don't understand how that adds up…
I guess there are really 100 million iTunes accounts only. :confused:
Unless they are calling # devices = # customers?
 
siddavis said:
i guess you completely changed my mind. They should never try anything new. All of the necessary and best vehicles are already in place and could never be improved. Really what they should have done is passed out cds at their headquarters. I mean they already had the building and all, and the way i think things should be done is always right and the best. You opened my eyes to just how deeply i have been wronged, especially with the prison analogy.
/s
Click to expand...

qed.
 
Well, I liked the album. I might not have bought it, as I've never really listened to them before. I might look at the back catalogue though.
 
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