Bono Is Sorry Apple Made You Download A U2 Album

Bono actually gave a half-hearted apology during a Facebook interview saying: “Oops, I’m sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea and we got carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing: [a] drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, dash of self-promotion and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years mightn’t be heard. There’s a lot of noise out there. I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it,” according to Rolling Stone.

Eight years on, and Bono has reflected on the situation in his new biography. While he doesn’t actually say the word “sorry” he does take responsibility for the whole affair and accepts it was a mistake. As Variety reports, Bono writes: “At first I thought this was just an internet squall, but quickly realized we’d bumped into a serious discussion about big tech. I take full responsibility. Not Guy O, not Edge, not Adam, not Larry, not Tim Cook, not Eddy Cue. I’d thought if we could just put our music within reach of people, they might choose to reach out toward it. Not quite.”

Although almost a decade has passed, the “Songs of Innocence” situation still stands out as a shining example of big tech overreach. However, during that time the largest tech companies have gotten even more powerful, and we all have at least one of them involved in our lives in some way or another. While the likes of Google, Apple, and Amazon certainly make our lives convenient, they’re also capable of doing a lot worse than forcing you to download an album from a band you’re not too keen on.