September 15, 2014: Responding to its disastrous U2 album giveaway, Apple supplies iPhone homeowners with a instrument for wiping all indicators of Songs of Innocence from their telephones.
It comes after one of many strangest PR debacles in Apple historical past. After placing a free copy of U2’s newest launch on each iPhone proprietor’s handset as a particular promotion, tens of millions discover themselves with an album they didn’t order of their iTunes library. Many weren’t blissful about it.
Apple’s U2 album giveaway backfires
Apple and U2 shared a particular connection for years, with the band’s frontman, Bono, turning into good buddies with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and design chief Jony Ive. Within the early 2000s, Apple used the band’s tune “Vertigo” because the soundtrack for an iTunes advert. (The business helped make the tune successful.) Apple additionally lent its help to Bono’s Product (Pink) charity, devoted to wiping out HIV and AIDS.
Nevertheless, regardless of the success of those initiatives, the U2 album giveaway on September 9, 2014, got here off as a catastrophe. After lower than 1% of iTunes customers downloaded the freebie album on the primary day, Apple shoved Songs of Innocence down customers’ throats by mechanically pushing it to units. The detrimental fallout proved intense.
U2 album giveaway: A contact of megalomania
Bono later blamed the cock-up on getting carried away. He additionally stated it was primarily based on “megalomania, a contact of generosity, a splash of self-promotion, and deep concern that these songs that we poured our life into over the previous few years won’t be heard.”
Apple appeared baffled by the backlash. From its perspective, it merely gave away a free album. The corporate actually didn’t anticipate the form of response it acquired. In actual fact, Cupertino was so assured that it paid U2 and its file label a reported $100 million for the rights to Songs of Innocence.
On September 15, nevertheless, Apple relented. It printed an internet web page with particulars revealing how customers might wipe the brand new U2 album from their accounts. (Sadly, the web page is now not energetic.)
As with all web outrages, U2-gate blew over earlier than lengthy. However Apple by no means repeated the same giveaway. Even when it does supply free trials of merchandise, it doesn’t assume customers will need to participate.