U2 frontman, tax avoider and international aid supporter Bono apologized for the putting U2’s new album on everyone’s new iPhone. The band got on Facebook and answered questions to promote their new album, Songs of Innocence. The band passed around the questions–they were printed on paper!–and gave some good humored answers. (The paper was a nice touch: almost as retro as U2 itself.)
Bono was asked: “Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to people’s playlists ever again? It’s really rude.” Bono was ready with an answer he didn’t just make up on the spot–this has been a PR problem for the band and he was ready with a humble, innocent answer: “I had this beautiful idea. Might have gotten carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that thing. A drop of megalomania, a touch of generosity, a dash of self-promotion, and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years might not be heard.” Even U2 fears not being able to cut through the “noise out there,” he confessed. Bono probably didn’t realize that if they put the album in the iCloud people could just hack in and take it if they wanted. And if, say, nine people had stolen Songs of Innocence that would have been better PR than giving it to a million people for free.
