“iTunes users have downloaded more than 2 million copies of [U2’s] “Songs of Innocence” since Tuesday, according to people familiar with the album’s performance,” Peter Kafka reports for Re/code.
“One sign that Apple, U2 and the Universal Music Group, the band’s label, will all take as a positive is that the band’s back catalog seems to be selling very nicely on iTunes,” Kafka reports. “The music industry always expects new releases to spur the sales of old albums, but in this case iTunes buyers seem particularly receptive: Right now there are 17 old U2 albums on iTunes top 100 chart; a remastered version of ‘The Joshua Tree,’ the band’s 1987 release, is at the No. 12 spot.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple’s new TV spot “Echoes” featuring U2, iTunes and iPhone 6 goes into heavy rotation – September 11, 2014
Some iTunes users upset over Apple’s U2 album giveaway – September 11, 2014
Apple and U2 release ‘Songs of Innocence’ exclusively for iTunes Store customers – September 9, 2014
Downloaded the album. Terrible waste of time. U2 is so out. Sorry, Bono.
One great thing about personal taste is it is personal to just one person.
Anybody else have problems finding this?
I looked a dozen times for it before I thought to check my iTunes preferences, the the Store tab, and see that my preference for “Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases” was not turned on.
Der……
I am having trouble. It says I purchased it it but it doesn’t show up anyplace. I can’t download it, I can’t play it from the cloud.
I tried suggestions from several people. The one that worked for me is:
I went to the Quick Links, selected “Not on my computer” near the top right. Then I selected U2 from the list on the left-hand side and clicked on the iCloud symbol in the top right corner of the album icon.
It also downloaded exceedingly fast compared with my prior experience. I have had a 30+ Mbps internet connection for a couple of years, but iTunes never worked this fast before. The entire album downloaded very quickly. Has Apple juiced its iTunes bandwidth using those new server farms?
The plan worked boys!! We got em in our pocket!
Millons, I say Millions…
17 albums in top 100…
That means they nearly own 20% of the top 100 list.
17% to be exact. lol
Always round up if it makes it sound better.
I could have gone all the way to half.
Is U2 really the best Apple can get (partially rhetorical question) ? Or is just the biggest PR RDF ?
As for myself, I’m simply not interested. My favorite new stuff is not in iTunes.
Well they are one of the best rock bands ever, so I guess it would be hard to get better . Perhaps they can please u next time and land justin bieber – if he’s not in jail that is
Correction: One of the *most popular* rock bands ever.
Where DO you go for your kiddie porn?
Just being around posts like yours drops everybody’s IQ. Knock off.
Yours really couldn’t drop much further, dimwit.
What stuff isn’t in iTunes? Please do enlighten and tell who this is, and where you purchase their music.
It’s a great recording. U2 is probably the last great rock band so I’m going to enjoy the swan song of rock in this recording. I expect rock music is going to be hard to find from here on in, with the possible exception of perhaps Linkin Park or Foo Fighters. There are no more rock bands of note on the horizon or likely to get attention.
Widespread Panic. YouTube “Widespread Panic – Red Hot Mama”.
You can thank me later.
Is 2 mil really a good number? It went out for free to 800 million accounts, right? You would think just the auto downloads would get 50 million…
U2 isn’t my cup of tea these days, but I’m always surprised when folks complain about getting stuff for free.
Yes, in this day and age, that is a HUGE number for an album. And Jim, if you can’t find good bands these days, you are paying way too much attention to commercial music, no offense intended. Though I’m not a U2 acolyte, I have to give them credit for writing material like this so far into the game. Music is cyclical, if you think rock is passé, just wait until the day hip-hop is also passé (some would say it’s glory days are already gone as well). It happened with all popular music, everything from classical to jazz to rock to hip hop to acid house – who gives a ****? I won’t ignore anyone still actually putting their heart into it, whatever their mode of expression, whatever the hipster bloggers of the day may think (hint: there have *always* been hipster critics, long before there was even such a thing as the internet or Twitter).
While I have no doubt that Apple paid them an assload for this, I applaud their ability to still write meaningful songs after so much time.
I totally agree that 2 mil is fantastic for an album, absolutely. But with so many accounts, you would think the number would be higher on a free download. Maybe it will just take more time for people to find out it’s there…
(thanks for the clarification @Cubert, 500 instead of 800 mil… still a huge number)
Actually just 500 million – not every country was included. I guess it sucks to live in Nepal.