Yesterday, to help celebrate the celebration of a phone and a watch and the omnipresent-overlord vibes of Apple, its C.E.O., Tim Cook, announced that the new U2 album, “Songs of Innocence,” was being added automatically to everyone's iTunes library.
Even in an age in which we've grown accustomed to artists giving away their albums for free or suddenly unleashing them without warning, the arrival of U2's Songs of Innocence feels slightly curious. It was announced, minutes before its release, at
Yesterday, U2—easily the biggest rock band left on the planet—surprised everyone when they released their long-in-gestation new album for free.
I don't want to live in a world where U2 are well and truly irrelevant, and yet I fear I've been living in that world for quite some time. Or at least working there; what we learned yesterday, when Bono and the boys gave away their
Members of the music group U2, including Bono, left, at an Apple event in 2004 with Steven P. Jobs. The group is expected to play a role in Apple's announcements this week.Credit Peter DaSilva for The New York Times.