How Did We Get The New U2 Album for Free [VIDEO]

I might be one of the biggest U2 fans you know, even if I'm not, how cool was it we got a FREE U2 album on Tuesday. Since the moment I hit play, I've wondered how it happened.

Somebody had to be on the good side of a cash transaction somewhere, after all, this is the 'largest album release in history', so said Tim Cook at Apple's Keynote on Tuesday. It costs a fortune to buy a U2 concert ticket so I doubt that 'Dublin Doughmakers' just gave Apple a full album to give to a half a billion people. Here's some interesting things I found.

From U2.com:

A letter from Bono, on the arrival 'of our new baby' - Songs of Innocence.

'Hello, bonjour, ciao, hola, hallo, zdravo, dobar dan, Dia duit, hæ, hej,hei, cześć, olá, ćao, namaste, sawatdee, jambo, pozdravi, Γεια σου, привіт, שלום, مرحبا, こんにちは, , سلام, 你好, Привет….

Remember us? Pleased to announce myself, Edge, Adam and Larry have finally given birth to our new baby… Songs of Innocence. It’s been a while. We wanted to get it right for you/us. We just finished it last week and thanks to Apple and iTunes it’s with you today. That’s already amazing to me as it normally takes a few months to turn this stuff around.

Part of the DNA of this band has always been the desire to get our music to as many people as possible. In the next 24 hours, over a half a billion people are going to haveSongs of Innocence… should they choose to check it out. That is so exciting. People who haven’t heard our music, or weren’t remotely interested, might play us for the first time because we’re in their library. Country fans, hip hop afficionados from east LA, electro poppers from Seoul, Bhangra fans from New Delhi, Highlifers in Accra… might JUST be tempted to check us out, even for a moment. What a mind blowing, head scratching, 21st century situation. Over 500 million people… that’s a billion ears. And for the people out there who have no interest in checking us out, look at it this way… the blood, sweat and tears of some Irish guys are in your junk mail.

There are some really good songs on this album, some of my favorites include the song featured in the video above called "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)", "Cedarwood Road", and "Raised By Wolves." To quote my friend and former Stevee Nix bandmate Nick Sinnaeve, "it's no 'Joshua Tree' but a good listening album." Nick is my 'go to' guy when it comes to U2.

You won't find a guitar player in our area better than Nick Sinnaeve who can play like The Edge. And for the record, there'll never be another "Joshua Tree."

So where's the money trail?

Bono adds:

To celebrate the ten year anniversary of our iPod commercial, they bought it as a gift to give to all their music customers. Free, but paid for. Because if no-one's paying anything for it, we’re not sure “free” music is really that free. It usually comes at a cost to the art form and the artist… which has big implications, not for us in U2, but for future musicians and their music... all the songs that have yet to be written by the talents of the future… who need to make a living to write them.

 

As to how much U2 was paid by Apple for "Songs of Innocence", that is still unknown but U2 will make a ton more via a marketing agreement said to be worth around $100 million. That marketing will include a global television campaign, the first piece of which was the commercial that was shown during the event ("Echoes" video above). Look at this from billboard.com

U2 and Universal Music Group will face some hurdles due to disgruntled retailers. Sources say Target has a policy of not carrying any title that was first released to digital retail. Target refused to initially carry Beyonce's self-titled album following her surprise iTunes exclusive, and Amazon withheld the usual prime page placement.

 

To entice retailers, Universal is offering four tracks that iTunes will not have until November, according to sources. Some retailers could walk away with more tracks, as sources say Universal has three additional tracks for select retailers.

 

The awareness surrounding the Apple giveaway and related advertising efforts could be a financial boon to U2's catalog. As such, Universal is said to be planning the most aggressive catalog program it has ever executed for U2. The band's catalog has already been sale-priced at iTunes and is promoted as "limited-time pricing" on the iTunes Music Store home page. Studio albums are $5.99, live albums and collections are $7.99, and deluxe studio albums are priced at $11.99.

 

I assume the front-loader full of cash is on it's way U2's corporate office as we speak.

Hey U2... you think you could give us a FREE concert ticket too?