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U2's 'Songs of Innocence' Downloaded 2 Million Times After Promotion

I am proud not to be one of these two million downloads.

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JosephAW said:
I do appreciate Apple's and Cook's kind gestures of giving gifts from time to time for owning an Apple device. I'd rather wait for the free Christmss album or app later this year. And of course the free gifts of iOS and OS X. I can remember paying the $130 several times for an OS X upgrade in times past.
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iOS and OSX are not free. Now the cost of free is subsidised with the hardware cost. Or in other words a percentage of the hardware cost we pay goes to developing iOS and OSX. It's not free. The cost is just bundled in the hardware cost.
 
BaldiMac said:
Did it download automatically or is that an assumption? It didn't for me, and I have auto-download turned on.

Hard to imagine that less than 2 million out of 600+ million iTunes accounts have auto-download turned on.
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Same... I had to download it myself...
 
farewelwilliams said:
2 million? isn't that kind of small?
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I think an album going platinum (2 million copies sold) in three days is pretty good work for a pop band, even an established one.

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the8thark said:
I am proud not to be one of these two million downloads.

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iOS and OSX are not free. Now the cost of free is subsidised with the hardware cost. Or in other words a percentage of the hardware cost we pay goes to developing iOS and OSX. It's not free. The cost is just bundled in the hardware cost.
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Actually, if you look where revenue is coming from, the free OSes (both) are subsidized by iPhone and iTunes store sales, not Mac hardware. Not enough revenue from that segment to subsidize OS development. Honestly, they're free because Apple no longer needs the revenue from OS sales.

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SgtPepper12 said:
I really couldn't care less about a free album, if I really wanted that album I'd have it by now, free or not.
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Except the Apple event WAS the album release as well, so no, you would not have had it before that.
 
Mums said:
Pirate Bay. Demonoid.

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Your username "ghostface147" is racist and I'm going to report it to the moderators.
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I don't do illegal, but thanks.

I may be naieve or ignorant, but what is racist about the username?
 
Cuban Missles said:
I don't do illegal, but thanks.

I may be naieve or ignorant, but what is racist about the username?
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They're probably so out of touch they don't realise their name is likely inspired by the rapper called Ghostface Killah so if anyone's racist it's guardian of public morals herself for assuming a rap alias is racist because how dare anyone mention black people. That's racist :rolleyes:

Pretty sure discussion of torrent sites where pirate material is available is a moderator-worthy offence actually. So they're twice as devoid of any moral standing as they already are with their groundless accusations of racism.
 
farewelwilliams said:
2 million? isn't that kind of small?
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Yeah it's only 0.66% of our nation....? In less than a week? That's double-platinum, which fewer than a thousand record ever have sold.. and probably fewer than 20 in the time they've been given.... Are you serious?
 
To people saying 2 million isnt small and comparing sales to albums people have to go out and spend money on.....

Find a better excuse as to why a free album has only been downloaded 2 million times when its its been practically forced onto everyone with an iTunes account. The iTunes match streaming argument is at least a more valid one.

And the reason why we get get so annoyed by U2 and a lot of fans is because you constantly tell us we have to like them because they are 'amazing'. Our opinion of them being rubbish is not valid to you so we get angry.

Apple did the same thing by pulling them out at a keynote and shoving their album down our throats because they think we all should like them.

To the people that like U2 and have been polite about it then please ignore all the above and carry on, I respect your choice in music as you obviously respect others that disagree.
 
I don't think an album being given away for free and shoved down millions of peoples throats should be aproved for platinum.
 
I listened to it a little, and then un-downloaded it.

It wasn't a huge nuisance to delete it, but nor was it of any value to own it for a few days.

Meh. The Dude abides.
 
How many people who know nothing about this promotion (and probably tech stuff in general) are going to see this in their purchases and call up Apple thinking they've bought something they didn't want to? More than it's worth I'd wager. XD

probably would've been better to have a popup when you first load iTunes with a download link that adds it to your purchases, at least then everyone knows where it comes from.
 
u2 getting platinum...which i haven't seen any with that status in a very long time ...like 2pac... is pretty much stupid...u2 have no confidence in making good music..so they look to their illuminati friends like apple for support.
 
milo said:
Didn't show up for me, not even by the next day. I had to go to the store then into the purchases tab to finally be able to click and download. And even after it was on one of my macs, it still didn't appear on another that was (supposedly) synced with iTunes match. Even in the iTunes store the album showed up but showed as "purchased" with no way to download there.

Nice to get a free album, but it sure didn't give a good impression of Apple's ability to roll out something like this seamlessly. Definitely not "it will just appear in your iTunes library!" as they claimed in their hype.
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Nope. I just had to click "download" once, and I got the whole album. Did you go into "Purchased Items" within the iTunes Store? I found the album there, waiting to be downloaded.
 
Still can't download it. Doesn't show up in my iTunes list, and says purchased in the iTunes Store. Wonder what's up?

Isn't in the purchased playlist either.
 
Jeez, people.. You know I'm not the biggest fan of U2 either, but it's a gift for crying out loud. Show a little graciousness or at least have the decency to not make an ass out of yourself complaining about it..

Some of you people are an embarrassment.
 
I rather like U2, but I think this was a completely unnecessary move from Apple.

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BTW - I'm almost completely switched to a better [for me] music source, Spotify premium (Spotify is awesome, streaming makes sense WAY more than purchasing, Beats is not available where I live and I have already invested tons of time into creating Spotify playlists - so for me, Apple overslept music streaming revolution).
And - lo and behold - the album is NOT released on Spotify (there is a special notice from Spotify that U2 has decided not to release this album on Spotify). So in essence - Apple spent hundreds of millions, shoved this new U2 album to those who even don't want it and at the same time made it "exclusive" (at least for now) and robbed this new music from unknown number of U2 fans, who can not [legally] access on their preferred platform/service. What can I say. Splendid! :rolleyes:

Screen_Shot_2014_09_13_at_22_47_18.png
 
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Four oF NINE said:
Jeez, people.. You know I'm not the biggest fan of U2 either, but it's a gift for crying out loud. Show a little graciousness or at least have the decency to not make an ass out of yourself complaining about it..

Some of you people are an embarrassment.
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The thing is - this is not a simple "gift". This is some awkward new hybrid promotion marketing move.

IF the album was available for download for free in the same manner the regular weekly singles are AND the album was not made exclusive only to Apple customers, THEN bitching about it would be, of course, ridiculous. But the reality is very different.


I don't think I'm being an ungrateful ass... I actually like U2, but even I feel a bit strange Apple has "invaded" my music library and added a new item I have never asked for... Not a big deal, but simply a strange move, imo! :)
 
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