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The Morning After: Bono finally apologizes for that free iTunes U2 album

It was all his idea.

Apple

Once upon a time, back in 2014, U2 gave away an album's worth of songs to every iTunes user in the world. And a lot of people were not happy. The blowback was so intense that Apple had to release a special tool to remove it. And it was all Bono’s fault, as he explained in an interview with The Guardian over the weekend.

When Bono approached Tim Cook, along with Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller about the idea, he was met with some incredulity. "Are you talking about free music?" Cook said.

In Bono’s words: "'No,' I said, 'I don’t think we give it away free. I think you pay us for it and then you give it away free, as a gift to people.'" Cook was apparently not convinced, asking if it would be distributed only to U2 fans, and the singer replied: “I think we should give it away to everybody.” No, Bono, no!

– Mat Smith

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