U2 New Album Release Date and Updates: "Songs of Innocence" Downloaded by 26 Million Apple Users and Physical Release would be on October 14
U2's new album, Songs of Innocence, has been confirmed by Apple to have been downloaded 26 million times, making it one of the most popular albums of all time.
Since the release of the new iPhone 6 and iOS 8, U2 coincided their album release via Apple. The U2 album has been integrated in the music app, then it will be up to the user if he/she wishes to download the entire album. And it is a free offering for Apple's 500 million iTunes users. A rough 5% of Apple customers took advantage of the free offer to download U2's 13th album.
According to a report by The Guardian, Eddy Cue, Apple VP explained: "To help put this into perspective, prior to this, 14 million customers had purchased music from U2 since the opening of the iTunes store in 2003."
Aside from the free downloads, people also streamed tracks via iTunes, iTunes radio and Beats Music. Around 81 million people took part with U2's music and as described by Cue, it is 17 times the combined population of Ireland.
On October 14, the album will be physically released worldwide. Aside from the 11 tracks, the CD format will be combined with 6 acoustic tracks and 4 new songs.
This initiative made by U2 to partner with Apple is a clever idea that resulted to at least $5 million in royalties and is expected to grow more. On top of this, U2's back catalogue had jumped up the list since last month.
Some people had thought the free U2 album is not good enough, so Apple had released a special website to remove the U2 album from their devices. "Apple is a tech company fighting to get musicians paid," the band told Billboard in a statement. "The idea that they wanted to make a gift to the very people that actually purchase music is both beautiful and poetic, and for that we are very grateful."
These Irish guys sure are very busy these days, as they will also launched their World Tour come next year. And along the process is that they are reported to be halfway through their next album, Songs of Experience! It is confirmed by Bono that the next album will be released in about 18 months and will coincide with another Apple event. Bono claimed, "Interactive format for music will bring back album artwork in the most powerful way."
Bono had also been collaborating with actor Bill Murray and an eight-piece orchestra. This new project is called The Venetian Blinds.
