New U2 Album - given away free on iTunes. Discussion time!

Hook · September 13, 2014, 04:22:24 AM

Here are the original questions

"1. Is it intrusive for Apple to add albums to your music library uninvited? I thought it was a nice free gift to get, but I haven't listened to it yet

2. Is this the ultimate sell-out? Are U2 just corporate whores now?

3. Would Steve Jobs have resorted to a stunt like this? I doubt it somehow.

4. Is this a good business model? i.e. get paid a lot of GUARANTEED money from Apple in exchange for losing album sales, and make even more money from touring. Is it just an advertising stunt?

5. Are U2 even relevant anymore? Personally, they are still one of the best live bands I've ever seen. But they seem stuck in a self-tribute act, recording-wise."

I should say I have no love for apple except for their music apps (outstanding!) & I really agree with thetworegs but I love to discuss!

1) I think the nature of the internet & cloud is intrusive & it doesn't matter Apple, Microsoft, google; they are the other Big Brother.
2) I don't buy the sell out crap. Everyone said the same thing about REM after the left IRS records. It's not selling out to have millions of fans and packing shows as long as they are making music & statements that they believe in. & I for one have seen no reason to doubt their integrity. I saw the Joshua Tree tour & it still outshines almost all concerts I 've seen(Elvis Costello is right their with them). I din't like the Zooropa crap but I think "All That You Can't..." is a really great, strong CD & I haven't hated any of their new stuff. When Bono gets a talk show or The Edge puts out a cookbook then they've sold out.
3)Who cares, He's dead.
4)Yes for Apple & yes for U2. I think all music should be free, not sure how that effects photographers. Don't get me wrong, we need licensing rights & copyright & all that so the writer/performer can make some money off the recording but I think the CD is on it's way out & anyone can rip the audio off youtube. I liked the Radiohead "stunt" & I like getting this U2 album.The biggest change in my musical habits in the digital age is I haven't bought music in years. I assume if they send me Bieber's new album I can somehow digitally burn it.
5) I would think if your one of the top grossing, touring bands, yeah your relevant. As far as I know ( have only seen them the one time over 20 years ago

) they don't shy away from their new material live so it must pack a punch. Like I said I really liked "All That You Can't Leave Behind" & the "..Atomic Bomb" one was pretty good too. I think their was another after that I didn't hear? I'm looking forward to hearing this new album, I pulled it off the cloud yesterday. Thanks U-Apple-2.
Rock On!

bruno · September 13, 2014, 05:46:04 AM

Arh - now I understand. This is a cloud purchase - its not actually downloaded (certainly not on the Mac) - so it must stream it over the internet. Interesting. The reason I could see it in iTunes was cos my view all music (cloud) was switched off.

B

peterp · September 13, 2014, 08:37:33 AM

I'd say nay it can actually be downloaded, I loaded a Win8 KVM onto my Linux system so I could run idiotTunes.
And it let me select and download that album.

Not sure about the quality though, or maybe something about running it through a KVM but even at 320Kbs it sounded like lo-def, with little definition. Lot of bass and lot punched up vocal coming out of my studio monitors not much else.

Now I need to figure out how to kill an apple ID, buggers would not let you access it without first setting your Credit Card info. Neat trick for a free download.
I can see why apple would want to do this they probably got a lot of new IDs complete with CC info created from people just wanting to hear what all the flap was about.

Quote from: bruno on September 13, 2014, 05:46:04 AMArh - now I understand. This is a cloud purchase - its not actually downloaded (certainly not on the Mac)

bruno · September 13, 2014, 09:38:18 AM

Quote from: peterp on September 13, 2014, 08:37:33 AMI'd say nay it can actually be downloaded, I loaded a Win8 KVM onto my Linux system so I could run idiotTunes.
And it let me select and download that album.

Not sure about the quality though, or maybe something about running it through a KVM but even at 320Kbs it sounded like lo-def, with little definition. Lot of bass and lot punched up vocal coming out of my studio monitors not much else.

Now I need to figure out how to kill an apple ID, buggers would not let you access it without first setting your Credit Card info. Neat trick for a free download.
I can see why apple would want to do this they probably got a lot of new IDs complete with CC info created from people just wanting to hear what all the flap was about.

Quote from: bruno on September 13, 2014, 05:46:04 AMArh - now I understand. This is a cloud purchase - its not actually downloaded (certainly not on the Mac)

Okay - I thought I'd see if I could create an audio CD. The way I do this is to create a playlist - as soon as I created a playlist for the album, it prompted me say it would need to download a local copy from the cloud :-)

Greeny · September 15, 2014, 02:10:00 AM

I've actually listened to all the tracks now, and it's a pretty disappointing album. It's by no means bad, and there are some quite good moments here and there. But overall, it just feels tepid, over-produced and uninspired... stuck in a moment that they can't get out of(!). And the 'Joey Ramone' song sounds like a One Direction / X-Factor pop track. That one is so bad that I almost didn't listen to the rest.

Sorry U2... deleted. Easy come, easy go.