U2: Uninvited guests

Mom taught me to always say please and thank you. Dad taught me that you never look a gift horse in the mouth. But Granddad always said, if it doesn’t cost anything, it’s not worth anything. And Vergil warned us to beware of gifts – they may not be what they seem.

U2 have certainly caused a stir with their new album, “Songs of Innocence” – not so much because of the music, but rather because of the distribution method. Personally, I don’t feel inspired to write about the musical content of the album. Despite the best of intentions, I never managed to warm to U2 and “Songs of Innocence” will definitely not win me over. U2 is a band you either love or hate. So it can be assumed that a large share of the 500 million iTunes users who were “gifted” with this album do not want the music. And even among the other, pro-U2 faction there are many who are appalled at the way the album “appeared” on their devices. U2 and Apple are calling it a “gift”, but let’s be honest, it’s actually more like the silent, unexpected attack of a stealth aircraft.

In a business that constantly needs to come up with new ways of getting people to spend their money on music, the publicity stunts are taking on new forms. Last year, for example, Jay Z teamed up with Samsung and gave away his album “Magna Carta Holy Grail” to owners of certain Galaxy devices. Users had to register for an app to claim the album, and downloads were limited to 1 million. That campaign had more of a “gift” feeling, because after all, only Jay Z fans would have taken advantage of the offer and I’m sure they appreciated belonging to this exclusive group and being among the first to own this album, which went on to become very successful.

U2/Apple’s ambush-style attack, however, makes me feel decidedly uncomfortable. There are so many questions, the first of which being: why? U2 and Apple throw their arms in the air and jubilantly proclaim: “It’s a gift!” But there is no such thing in the world of commerce – not without any ulterior motives, that is. U2’s benefits are clear: Apple paid them for their work, the sales of their past albums have seen a sudden boost, they again have the attention of the media, and they’ve used the opportunity to announce their follow-up album, “Songs of Experience”. What Apple stand to gain isn’t as clear to me, which increases my unease. They wouldn’t spend that kind of money without expecting some kind of ROI.

It may be true that there is no such thing as negative publicity, but taking away my freedom of choosing whether I want to click on the “download” button or not is more than questionable. It’s an invasion. But maybe Apple have, in a way, done us a service with their very public display of an unwanted, unsanctioned intrusion into our digital devices: they have raised awareness of just how easily they can tamper with our devices and how they can manipulate what we see and hear in our own homes. Perhaps we should see that as the actual gift.

Die deutsche Version dieses Blogeintrags findet ihr unter http://zartbitter.co.at/allgemein/u2-ein-ungebetener-gast/