Apple gives U2 album away for free...thoughts?

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Comments

  • TripleB
    TripleB Posts: 65
    I personally like the middle songs - Volcano, Raised By Wolves and Cedarwood Road.
    These remind me of the earlier U2 material.
  • Zod
    Zod Posts: 10,914
    BinFrog said:


    If you go to a record store but do not buy anything, do they count it as a sale?

    It's a bit philosophical. Are you walking out of the record store with a free item or are you walking out empty handed? If you walk out with a free cd, then they might have to record it in their inventory which probably wouldn't count as a sale. Even though the price is zero, I think it's still a sale because the customer accepted the item.

    I think that would be fair in U2's circumstance. Eveyone who accepted the price of zero (free) and downloaded the item should count. Not every itunes customer.

    Alternately if they really want to destroy records they could claim Apple bought 500 million copies and smash every record in the books.... lol. That sort of reminds me of the old English TV show red dwarf, where in an alternate timeline one the main characters becomes insanely rich and buys all the copies of his own album to make it #1 :) Ohmmm!
  • SPJ
    SPJ BRIGANTINE BEACH Posts: 255
    I think it's a great idea, my guess is apple bought the digital album from them for a defined period and they receive a piece from whoever downloads within the timeframe. They still have the physical sales and rights to any royalties in the future. I've listened to it a couple of times and can hear the influence from danger mouse/ broken bells sound and also a little KOL type guitar in there. I thinks it's very good. My favorite track so far is The Troubles.
  • g under p
    g under p Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,237
    SPJ said:

    I think it's a great idea, my guess is apple bought the digital album from them for a defined period and they receive a piece from whoever downloads within the timeframe. They still have the physical sales and rights to any royalties in the future. I've listened to it a couple of times and can hear the influence from danger mouse/ broken bells sound and also a little KOL type guitar in there. I thinks it's very good. My favorite track so far is The Troubles.

    Funny you say that, first time I heard I was said hmmmm what was that. It's now slowly becoming one of my favorites. The song.......This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now is my favorite so far. This one their best albums since ABaby, seems they went back to their early musical beginnings which I've begging for them do for years.

    Peace

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    .....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti

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  • JWPearl
    JWPearl Posts: 19,893
    I see new fans coming, great idea
  • CH139159
    CH139159 Posts: 50
    Spiritual_Chaos said:

    CH139159 said:

    The album is "free" to anyone with iTunes, but Apple paid U2 a substantial amount of money.

    Well, Target paid Pearl Jam a lot for carrying Backspacer :)
    Yes, but you still had to pay for the physical product.
  • tominzinga
    tominzinga Posts: 113
    After one day Ive seen all over my twitter news feed- "Why do I have the new U2 album in my library?" Its genious. Think about it. Its already there, at least half of the people will listen to at least a song. What a better way to get exposure? In terms of the album its a bit of the same old but a nice listen. Now a days I think bands are gunna need to do stuff like this. Rock bands for that matter
    Wrigley 2013 Cinci 2014
  • Jason P
    Jason P Posts: 19,327
    I have a work iphone with no music and there it is ... a U2 album.
    :|
    Be Excellent To Each Other
    Party On, Dudes!
  • bluegrace
    bluegrace Posts: 2,357
    I think I will listen to the new album for a couple of weeks and then get back to the first four plus A... Baby. But it's cool that Lykke Li is on the album.
    Kool Kat Club 1992, Moderna museet 1992, Globen 2012, Friends arena 2014
  • weddingparade
    weddingparade Posts: 1,179
    imo sea/kat should have moved this to other music and not aet
  • josevolution
    josevolution Posts: 31,783
    I listened to the whole thing last night while power walking and it was fantastic listen i really like it its new music new sounds ....
    jesus greets me looks just like me ....
  • lukin2006
    lukin2006 Posts: 9,087
    I like the album .... Certainly better than their last one, and hope this signals a tour soon.
    I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin

    "Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
  • bluegrace
    bluegrace Posts: 2,357
    There will be a world wide tour beginning in the summer of 2015. Can't wait. Hope I get to see them.
    Kool Kat Club 1992, Moderna museet 1992, Globen 2012, Friends arena 2014
  • josevolution
    josevolution Posts: 31,783
    bluegrace said:

    There will be a world wide tour beginning in the summer of 2015. Can't wait. Hope I get to see them.

    Tickets are so hard to get that's one of the reasons i gave up on this band yrs ago , saw them a bunch of times in early 80's but once Joshua tree exploded it was next to impossible to get tickets i hope to see them next tour ....
    jesus greets me looks just like me ....
  • HesCalledDyer
    HesCalledDyer Maryland Posts: 16,498
    Jose, you may be in luck; I got tix on the 360 tour rather easily. Hopefully that wasn't just a fluke.
    Star Lake 00 / Pittsburgh 03 / State College 03 / Bristow 03 / Cleveland 06 / Camden II 06 / DC 08 / Pittsburgh 13 / Baltimore 13 / Charlottesville 13 / Cincinnati 14 / St. Paul 14 / Hampton 16 / Wrigley I 16 / Wrigley II 16 / Baltimore 20 / Camden 22 / Baltimore 24 / Raleigh I 25 / Raleigh II 25 / Pittsburgh I 25
  • PJ_Soul
    PJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 50,759
    Haven't had the chance to see U2 yet. Will definitely be there next tour no matter what.
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
  • josevolution
    josevolution Posts: 31,783
    HesCalledDyer said:

    Jose, you may be in luck; I got tix on the 360 tour rather easily. Hopefully that wasn't just a fluke.

    I hope your right buddy i hope your right ...
    jesus greets me looks just like me ....
  • Popmartijn
    Popmartijn Posts: 382
    justam said:

    Zod said:



    I wonder how it would get counted. Just the people that bothered to download it, or does every copy given to every ITunes customer count (regardless if they wanted it or even liked u2 or rock music.. lol). If everyone counts they could shatter records. Aren't there something like 500m iTunes customers. I don't have have an apple device and I have an iTunes account (as there's some HD movies and stuff you can't find on bluray but are in HD on iTunes).

    I was wondering about how it would be counted too. I'm sure we'll find out when the figures arrive at the end of the week!

    No, downloads of the album in the next coming few weeks (until the physical copies are released on October 14th) do not count towards the Billboard charts. This because the album isn't generally available as it's exclusive to iTunes for now.
    For that reason nothing from the album qualifies to be included for the upcoming Grammy awards early next year (provided it would merit a nomination) as that one apparently also has as a criteria that the song/album has to be commercially available, which isn't until after the cutoff date (September 30th).

    BTW, I see that amounts of up to $100 million are being mentioned for this U2/Apple deal. Don't believe those that say that Apple is paying U2 that much for the album. The actual amount to 'buy' the album for an exclusive 5-week period is much lower (my guess it's more around $10 million, though I now think it might be a bit more). The $100 million number is for the complete marketing campaign that Apple has for the iPhone/iWatch that features U2. So it also includes the cost for any videos (like the new commercial) and buying advertising time to show those videos.
    Still, it's a nice lump sum for U2 to have worldwide exposure with their new album.
  • bluegrace
    bluegrace Posts: 2,357
    ^^ Interesting. From where do you get the info?
    Kool Kat Club 1992, Moderna museet 1992, Globen 2012, Friends arena 2014
  • Popmartijn
    Popmartijn Posts: 382
    bluegrace said:

    ^^ Interesting. From where do you get the info?

    Which information specifically are you wondering about. The info about the downloads charting and the Grammys are from a Billboard article. http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6244166/u2-songs-of-innocence-excluded-from-next-grammys
    That article also has some info on the money being thrown around.
    The exact payment of what U2 gets by having it an Apple iTunes exclusive for 5 weeks is not known, so what I mention is just my speculation.

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