Considering 99% of customers are complaining about having U2's album put on their iTunes and iPhones, I don't think they should be discussing future plans of any kind.
I think it would have been closer to 99% if it were a Justin Bieber 'album'.
But on one level, it does raise an interesting question: What else can they 'gift' us with? I mean, Ford forbid Tim gets a hard on for Ted Nugent. How would people feel if Ted Nugent's new tripe showed up as a 'gift'?
I look at the 'gift' as a feature of the new iTunes. It was perhaps questionable to push it out like that, but it is what it is.
Yet every time I read about someone 'disappearing' things, or automatically pushing things onto people's devices/computers, I get a little edgy... I wouldn't want someone coming into my house and filling my refrigerator with Pepsi, or Odwalla, or swapping my toilet paper...
And if this drop results in high charting for that album, now you know how a certain aspect of the book publishing business works. For some niche authors, their 'books' are mysteriously sold by the pallet loads while the local bookstore (if you are lucky enough to have one (Walmarts don't count BTW)) can't give them away. Most of those pallets are either shipped to a pulp mill, or the books are given away as 'perks', or just for something to give...
Sales numbers are often inflated, and gamed... (Like movie releases. They say 'screens' because a theatre company is contractually required to 'show' the movie on a 'screen'. I witnessed this once by coming in late for a not very well reviewed movie. They were 'playing' the movie with the light off. They had to send someone up to turn the projector bulb, and sound system on)
