Bono Apologizes For Automatic ‘Songs of Innocence’ iTunes Download

U2 frontman Bono apologized yesterday for the free iCloud download of the band’s new album Songs of Innocence that was automatically distributed to virtually everyone with an iPhone or an iPod.

Not everybody among the estimated 500 million customers by any means were pleased that the new album wound up in their playlist or library without their consent, prompting Apple to subsequently release a fix that would remove the eleven new songs from an Apple device.

As The Inquisitr previously reported, the free download allegedly set Apple back $100 million, including a fee paid to the band and a marketing campaign such as television ads that teased the September 9 company event that launched the new iPhone 6.

At the time, many unhappy Apple device customers saw the free album not as a giveaway but as an overly aggressive marketing tactic, with many voicing their frustrations on social media.

In a Facebook Q&A session yesterday, Bono — who wasn’t altogether innocent, as it were, in the Songs of Innocence playlist download — apologized (see embed below) for what happened.

“Oops. I’m sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea, and we got carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, dash of self-promotion, and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years mightn’t be heard. There’s a lot of noise out there. I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it.”

Separately, Bono raised eyebrows recently when he defended Ireland’s corporate tax regime that some believe provides loopholes for multinational companies like Apple and Google and that is now under investigation by the European Union. The self-described “natural social Democrat” explained that “… tax competitiveness has brought our country the only prosperity we’ve known. That’s how we got these companies here … We don’t have natural resources, we have to be able to attract people.”

According to The Observer of London, “The Double Irish loophole allows U.S. companies, mostly in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors, to reduce their effective tax bill far below Ireland’s already generous 12.5% corporate tax rate by shifting most of their taxable income from an operating company in Ireland to another Irish-registered firm located in an offshore tax haven, such as Bermuda.”

Back in late 2012, Bono generated a lot of social media buzz when he proclaimed that only capitalism, commerce, and entrepreneurship can lift people out of poverty, and that various forms of welfare only provide what amounts to a band-aid on the problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUwXM_yDo7Q

Do you think Bono’s apology about the Songs of Innocence download will smooth things over with Apple device customers?

[Image via landmarkmedia / Shutterstock.com]