Entertainment

Bono Apologizes For That Whole Free-U2-Album Thing

During a Facebook Q&A session, U2 lead singer Bono apologized for the automatic download of his band's latest album onto millions of Apple devices.

Bono Apologizes For That Whole Free-U2-Album Thing
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You may recall "BonoGate" in September when denizens of the Internet freaked at the sudden, inexplicable appearance of U2's "Songs of Innocence" album on their Apple devices.

The band's frontman, Bono, has candidly apologized. It happened during a special Facebook Q&A:

BONO: "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."

Apple had touted the move as a "big moment in music history" and said over 500 million people received "Songs of Innocence."

Unfortunately, some of those 500 million people weren't interested in listening to U2, let alone having it on their devices.

The backlash was so bad it forced Apple to create an online tool to help folks remove the album from their iTunes libraries.

Amazon recently capitalized on the snafu, sending out a tweet earlier this week saying while the album was streaming for free, they weren't going to add it to your library for you.

But all things considered, the album has done fairly well. Speaking with Apple's senior VP of Internet software and services, Billboard reports it managed to be downloaded 26 million times with over 81 million listening to individual songs. Not bad, Bono.

This video includes images from Getty Images.