U2

On the innocent morning of Sept. 9, countless iTunes users scrolled through their music library, found a new U2 album and thought to themselves, “That’s weird, I never bought this.”

The new album, Songs of Innocence, was a gift from U2 and iTunes to customers and is available for free download until Oct. 13. Unfortunately for U2 and Apple, not everyone has been thrilled with this gift. In fact, iTunes recently set up a one-click device that allows those who don’t want the album to easily delete it from their music libraries.

In a world where music is illegally downloaded left and right and albums are often leaked well before their release dates, one would think a free album would be a welcome surprise. But this doesn’t seem to be the case.

Users can go to itunes.com/soi-remove if they are interested in removing the album. The Web page is simply a picture of the album cover, a short description of what will happen once the album is scrapped (“it will no longer be available to download as a previous purchase”) and a button with the words “Remove Album.” The whole thing reminded me of what used to happen when I tried to get rid of one of my Neopets — the sad-looking picture, the description and the button that would end it all.

Why did this service need to be created in the first place? Well, many iTunes users felt a bit angry upon coming to the realization that iTunes had simply stuck this album in their library without their consent. The well-intentioned “gift” was suddenly a nuisance and a violation of privacy.

So how does Bono, lead singer of U2, feel about this? In an interview with Chicago’s WXRT, Bono touched on the situation by stating that “a lot of blood, sweat and tears just went into your junk mail.” The album contains a variety of very emotional and meaningful songs, including one about Bono’s deceased mother.

The album, U2’s 13 LP to date, has received mixed reviews. Billboard gave the album 4 out of 5 stars and wrote: “[U]nless Apple has some super amazing new apps up its sleeve, it — like so much of Songs of Innocence — is strong enough to keep fans from messing with their iPhones.” However, in an article for The Guardian, Kitty Empire wrote, “while Songs of Innocence is more succinct, glossy and nimble than recent U2 outings, there is very little of the rawness, directness or spontaneity of youth to it — and precious little innocence.”

The idea of iTunes giving a gift to its users is nice. In theory, this giveaway should have gone off without a hitch. U2, with its extremely large and dedicated fan base, is one of a handful of bands that could actually get close to getting away with this stunt. However, that fan base does not consist of every iTunes user. If U2 had simply made the album free and not forced it into each and every library, there would be far less controversy and the album probably would have been better received.

It’s usually considered rude to turn down or get rid of a gift, or even to ask for something else instead. But with hit songs on iTunes selling for $1.29, it’s likely that if iTunes wanted to reward its users, most of them would have preferred a gift card.