Remember when U2 gave away an album's worth of songs to everyone on the internet? To the point that Apple had to release a special tool to remove the album, a lot of them didn't want it near their music library. U2 lead singer Bono wrote about that in an article.
When Bono approached Tim Cook, he was met with skepticism. Is that about free music? Cook said that. It's to make sure musicians are paid.
I don't believe we give it away for free. You give it away as a gift to people, because you paid us for it. Wouldn't that be great? There was a letter written by Bono.
"Tim Cook looked at something." We pay for the album and then distribute it. I said, "Like when you buy the movie and give it away to subscribers." Tim looked at me like I was talking to a professor. Cook said that they're not a subscription organization. "Not yet," I replied. We want ours to be the first. Tim didn't think it was true. This is only for people who enjoy U2? I believe we should give it to everyone. They can either listen to it or not.
The band realized that many people didn't want to listen to it and didn't want to hear it at all.
One social media wisecracker said, "Woke up this morning to find Bono in my kitchen, drinking my coffee, wearing my dress and reading my paper." The U2 album is overpriced. He wrote "Mea Culpa" I accept full responsibility. Not Guy O, Edge, Adam, Larry, or Tim Cook. If we could just put our music in the hands of people, they would be more likely to listen to it. Not quite, isn't it?
The tie-up with Apple on the iPod was a happy one. It was U2 that convinced Steve Jobs to let them be in those famous iPod silhouette ads for the first time, as well as talking him into building the U2 edition iPod in black with a red click wheel. They asked Jobs for a symbolic amount of Apple stock, but he refused. According to Bono, Steve apologized. That's a dealbreaker.
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