By Patricia Negron
If you have an iPhone or iPad, you may have suddenly noticed that the new U2 album, “Songs of Innocence” appeared in your music library on Sept. 10.
“Never before have so many people owned one album, let alone on the day of its release,” Apple boasts on its website. But, that honestly feels way too much like cheating: never before have so many people been forced to own an album!
My favorite songs from the album are “The Miracle of Joey Ramone” and “Iris (Hold Me Close)” because of the stories they tell, but I have to admit that “California (There Is No End To Love)” has a particularly catchy chorus. All in all, the songs flow well together in a way that doesn’t sound monotonous; each track definitely has its own particular spark.
The album attempts to embody the feelings of childhood and is clearly a reference to the first part of William Blake’s collection of poems “Songs of Innocence and Experience.” This might be an indication that their next album will be “Songs of Experience” and will have a darker feeling to it.
This surprising move from Apple with U2’s album has received different reactions, some definitely better than others. Some people think that it was creepy for Apple to place U2’s new album on everyone’s phones without asking. Others regard this as a breakthrough because the music is free yet the musicians are paid for their work as well. However, most people are questioning if the idea of putting free music in people’s phones might go against the customers’ rights and satisfaction.
In the past few decades, technology has advanced in a way that nobody could have predicted and the uses for it have become increasingly more creative. As technology continues to advance, there will be certain aspects of it that will simply have no precedent; we still have yet to see whether Apple’s latest move will be remembered as ethical or unethical.
It is also important to remember that this is probably the most attention that U2 has received in a while because fans, haters, and all Apple consumers are talking about this.
In a recent interview with TIME Magazine, the band talks about “a secret Apple project that might just save the music industry.” While I personally do not have anything against U2 or their music, it just seems a little presumptuous to assume that a project will save the whole music industry from the evils of piracy and free access to music offered by the internet.
I probably would not have listened to the album if it had been on YouTube instead of on my iPad. But, I found myself enjoying the mellow rock album pretty quickly—it’s the type of music that they’re known for, and it’s good.
People have been sharing and downloading music illegally for more than a decade, but even convincing everyone who uses YouTube instead of downloading to start buying all their music again seems impossible. If there’s one thing I can say about my generation it’s that our student debt is so high that we’ll do anything for free things, even watch a 30-second ad on YouTube between songs.
Although musicians should be paid, students don’t always have money to spend on music. It was a cool move from Apple to give me a new album to add to the extremely limited selection of music on my iPad, but as a consumer I would have greatly appreciated the option to do so in the first place.
For those of you who are iPhone or iPad owners and want to erase the album from your library, a quick google search will show you various discussions on the Apple support website, which will direct you to a link that, upon your confirmation, will erase the album from your account.
