Today’s guest post is by Peppercommer Catharine Cody.
I hate to admit it, but I get the majority of my news from Facebook. Earlier this week while trolling through status updates, I saw one that really intrigued me: “Apparently U2 had their new album downloaded onto every iTunes account!”
Baffled, I quickly checked my own account and sure enough, there was the new album. I don’t like U2. You couldn’t even pay me to download their music. I guess that’s why they gave it to me for free.
But, I feel annoyed. Now when listening to my music on shuffle I hear songs I don’t want to! I have a prolific album, ranging from Les Miserables to The Beatles. And, having random U2 songs really grinds my gears. I know, first world problems…
Instead of forcing people to listen to their new album, U2 could have done so much else to connect with Millennials. Trust me, if I knew U2 donated the money spent on uploading music to my account to a charity I care about I may actually have listened to their songs! A CSR move like that would have helped to improve their image, especially with the Millennials who love to participate in charity events (think ALS ice bucket challenge, people.)
So tell me, did you see the U2 album pop up on your account? How do you feel about it? This millennial has deleted it.
I don’t mind U2 (their Joshua Tree album) but was unhappy when their tunes shuffled into my playlist. Thought I’d been hacked! I find Apple’s campaign too broad sweeping; They could have targeted U2 fans instead of everyone with iTunes. Also think their campaign worked because so much attention was captured, and spending $100 Million elsewhere may have been better.
Very interesting insights, all. I appreciate the comments! I agree it’s cool that we received free music, but I’m still annoyed that it was done without my knowledge or consent.
U2 hasn’t made a great album in a very very long time – arguably since “Achtung, Baby.” I haven’t yet checked to see if it popped up on my account, but I’d probably give it a listen, without expecting much. It’s a pretty sneaky way to get their stuff out there, but I suspect most people under the age of 40 will just delete it.
Matt and I are in synch on this — more so than iTunes with its customers.
I like U2 but was annoyed with this also as moments after it synced to my phone, so did every other album from my iTunes library on my home computer. This was due to my settings being changed from “sync to iTunes” which I never had turned on so of course I was out of space and my phone kept shutting itself off. Now, how do you go about removing these other songs? You have to delete them individually! So now I’m really annoyed as who has time to swipe and touch over a thousand songs? I’m going to let my niece do this next week while vacationing in Florida. She’s 6.
The only U2 song I like is “With Or Without You” and that is only because that is used as the background to one of Michael Scott’s awesome videos in ‘The Office.’
Also, I am a millennial and I have an iPhone. I have never bought songs off of iTunes and never will, so if U2 is there, it will stay there and never be played by my account.
I was pleased and surprised to get an album for free and I like U2 (not all of their stuff, but most). It’s better than a stick in the eye!
I thought I was the only one who didn’t like U2! Yuck. Thanks for the heads up.
Good post. While I’m sure U2 will do something positive with the monies, that doesn’t mean we have to like their music or think something that invasive is OK.
FWIW, I’m a generation older than you but I stopped liking U2 around the time of “The Joshua Tree” (though “Actung! Baby is OK). They’re not the Beatles. I can point to dozens of other fiftysomethings who gave up on U2 around the time Bono started thinking he was Albert Schweitzer.
Agreed, Kim. I deleted it the second I found out.
Honestly, I didn’t even notice. But I still concur. I have no interest in listening to the new U2 album, even if it IS free. Sorry U2, but as Michael Scott would say, “No tanks.”