Apple launch: U2’s free album creates music industry history

Veteran rockers U2 have pulled off the largest album release in history. At Tuesday’s Apple Inc event to launch new products, the Irish quartet made its latest record available for free on Apple’s iTunes online stores to half a billion iTunes users worldwide. The Grammy Award-winning band performed its latest single “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” at the Cupertino, California event, at which Apple unveiled two new iPhones, a smart watch and a mobile payments system. U2 released its new 11-track “Songs of Innocence” live on stage with Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. The album immediately appeared in iTunes users’ music libraries. However, the giveaway to more than 500 million iTunes users will not count toward official music sales figures at Nielsen SoundScan because it was distributed for free. The band will release “Songs of Innocence” and a deluxe version featuring four new tracks and acoustic performances to the rest of the world on Oct. 14. “Songs of Innocence” will also miss the Grammy awards eligibility period, which runs from Oct. 1 2013 to Sept. 30 this year, and only applies to “commercially released” records.

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