Why are people COMPLAINING about the new U2 album!?

I certainly agree with your conclusion, but I think the point was that both Apple and U2 assumed most people have no idea who u2 is. Never even heard of 'em.

The question U2 asked is, how do we sell U2 albums to the billions of people who've never heard of U2. Tim Cook's answer was, welp, I can give this one away to 500 million people anyway, then maybe you guys can sell 'em some of your other stuff...via iTunes.

Because if everybody liked U2, U2 would have just put out the album, Apple would have kept its $100 million, and people buying the album through iTunes would have put even more in Apple's pocket. But no. Nobody believed that a conventional release would move the needle, because not enough people know who U2 is anymore. This release is a much longer game for both parties.

I don't think this has come up yet, but if you haven't, check out http://www.whoisu2.com/ It's nothing but a collection of tweets from people asking who the hell is U2. It's pretty hilarious. Worth noting: the consensus picks for who they DO want free music from is One Direction and Drake.

That WAS U2's problem in a nutshell. The heart of this generation of iTuners never heard of U2 in their entire lives. What IS U2's problem in a nutshell is that these kids aren't liking what they're hearing, and now they're pissed at both U2 and Apple.

So this was actually a pretty risky play for everyone.

 

Now imagine the complaining on October 14th, when the album will be removed from your cloud. Suddenly people don't see that album anymore, can't play its music. What do they have to complain about then?

 

It's hilarious that people haven't heard of U2. It's not like they're underground or appeal only to hipsters. They sell out arenas. They make the news. How could people have such a limited exposure to music that they haven't heard of them? Weird.

Maybe U2 has potential as a hipster band yet to be rediscovered. "Yeah, I listen to U2. They're good. But you haven't heard of them." I'll be waiting for the baristas at my local coffee shop to play songs from the new album. Just discovered because it showed up in their iCloud music feed. Wow. This is new. Almost as good as War On Drugs.

 

So it's only going to be in iCloud for a month? If I don't log in to my iTunes account for a month I can completely avoid it?

 

Something being free doesn't immediately make it desirable, nor does it make it welcome, so I understand the problem people are having with this. Let people choose, don't ram your product down their throats, even if it's free.

 

That is so not going to happen. U2 are dags.

 

That is essentially what happened. To be more specific, it appeared automatically on iTunes, and you can delete it but if not, it will be synched automatically to your iPod or iPhone. Doesn't bother me because I do happen to be a U2 fan, but I can definitely see why others didn't appreciate it.

 

Maybe someone "wants you good" and sends you unwanted a lorry of dung for doing your garden but you never dung your garden at all... you would still have the smell and work to remove it.

So why complain about something that's free?
-the smell. U2 and Apple want to make money and charts. A smell i don't like, just as dung.
-the removal. Unwanted work you have to do. If any band will do that, you'll have a lot of dung to remove.
-the use. You never dung your garden refers to never hear U2 for your own. (So do, starting I from 1987.)
-the good. Is it four your good or for someone else's good?

 

Yes, it's partly weird. On the other hand, where has U2 been the past couple of years? NLOTH was released in 2009 and didn't really conquer the radio waves. So if you're in your teens, how will you've had exposure to U2 and their music? I guess many of the "Who are U2" posts are from teens and such.

I think I read something like that, yes. It's in the iCloud for a month and then Apple taketh it away again. So if you haven't downloaded it for free by then you'll have to pay for it.

 

Yes, it's partly weird. On the other hand, where has U2 been the past couple of years? NLOTH was released in 2009 and didn't really conquer the radio waves. So if you're in your teens, how will you've had exposure to U2 and their music? I guess many of the "Who are U2" posts are from teens and such.

I think I read something like that, yes. It's in the iCloud for a month and then Apple taketh it away again. So if you haven't downloaded it for free by then you'll have to pay for it.

 

Well looked on my iPhone this morning and it was there so I've give it a listen and I am not surprised its free. Bloody awful awful record no wonder they are giving it away. This band haven't come up with anything decent since The Joshua Tree IMO.

 

Yes, it's partly weird. On the other hand, where has U2 been the past couple of years? NLOTH was released in 2009 and didn't really conquer the radio waves. So if you're in your teens, how will you've had exposure to U2 and their music? I guess many of the "Who are U2" posts are from teens and such.

I think I read something like that, yes. It's in the iCloud for a month and then Apple taketh it away again. So if you haven't downloaded it for free by then you'll have to pay for it.

 

They lost me at How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. Too loud. Too compressed. Drone metal like Sunn O))) can survive being compressed to DR5 and still be enjoyable. U2 cannot. One of the interesting aspects of the U2 sound is the jiggly jangly sound being somewhat spacial. When compressed to DR5 it loses that completely. Ceases to be anything sonically worth listening to. I didn't find what I'm listening for. So I jumped off the wagon. I never even bothered even sampling any songs from NLOTH.

I will give the new album a try. Just to see if they've changed their sound back to something I can listen to and enjoy. But I'm not going to get the album from iCloud. I'll wait till I can try the songs from CD rather than lossy.

I do suspect that people who are asking "Who are U2" are teens and tweens. At least I hope so. Even if you don't like U2's music, you still ought to know who they are and that they're a well known band. Especially now with how accessible music is and how easy it is to sample broad and diverse areas of music. They're in the Rolling Stone's top 100 albums list. People interested in music ought to have explored at least what's in the top 100 albums list. Spotify makes that easy and accessible to do.

Plus, if you've got an iCloud account that is automatically syncing your iToy, and you didn't watch the Apple keynote where U2 was there. Well, you deserve some ridicule for not knowing who U2 is. I didn't watch the keynote, and even I knew about the U2 tie in.

 

The people asking who U2 is probably couldn't find the United States on a map.

 

I'm not complaining about a free listen, I'm complaining because it's a terrible album!

 

Can the American U2 fan find Ireland on a map?

 

I like Apple's products for the most part, but this was an obnoxious, unnecessary intrusion. Waking up to find that unwanted, unsolicited "gift" on my phone was the cyber equivalent of having someone break into my house and lay a turd in my LP collection.

This is not really fair. I don't buy tracks off iTunes. My iPhone was on its factory settings. I don't feel I can be condemned as stupid for not pre-emptively fending off U2/Apple's hack/spam.

Seriously annoying, and yes, I do live in the "First World" (to coin a ridiculously out of date phrase,) and know it's not comparable in gravity to the Syrian civil war or Siege of Palestine, but it's still pretty damn irksome.

 

Because U2 are a woefully bad corporate Christian rock band, and we Apple users have suffered enough, without having that bilge force fed into our iTunes accounts.

 

Yes, next to England.

 

I wasn't aware that it was a plot from the hip-hop youth, thanks for the heads-up !

"The mother is so, so important in rock music. Show me a great singer and I’ll show you someone who lost their mother early on. There’s Paul McCartney, there’s John Lennon. Look at Bob Geldof and what happened to his mother. “In hip hop, by contrast, it’s all about the father – being abandoned by the father and being brought up by a single mother."

Perhaps not the most mind-blowing revelation of the year but at least Bono himself has something slighty more insightful to say about hip-hop.

That said, aside from committing randomly to the anti-hip-hop-phobia police, I'm pretty much the anti-digital old fart who'll wait until the album gets a physical release.

"why compain about something that's free": indeed. Especially when one thinks that application(s) probably appear on iPod daily (I may be wrong, I don't have one). Then comes that trend that's called U2 bashing, a phenomenon that has come a long way since Ian McCulloch in 1981. Is Mac (a Great among the Hip-Hop Greats) a Prophet or what?

 

Love U2....love the album...love that I got it for free... Hate the method of delivery (although sneaky and brilliant). I've read download sales of U2 has increased, so it is working, so it is making an impact, but no one messes with my iPod!! I'd be pissed if a new Beyoncé or Jay-Z album popped up on my iPod without my permission. This will be the new thing for the future people! Now, how do I set my iTunes to prevent this from happening to me?

 

Yeah, but that type of thing was really cool back then, and Weezer didn't have the status of U2 in 2014.

 

So its not so much the 'intrusion' but the intruder. Everybody would be happy if it had been War on Drugs.

 

I'm having to delete the album track by track from my phone -- how do you just delete the entire album in one touch?