A $100 million fiasco

Time Cook at U2 at the iPhone 6 launch
(Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29208540)

According to the rumours floating around, Apple paid U2 around $100 million USD to give away millions of copies of the new U2 album, "Songs of Innocence". 

The laws of supply and demand would lead us to believe that if the price is zero then demand is infinite. Well perhaps not. Lots of people are completely pissed that Apple dumped this album into their iTunes library. (And I'm sure that Apple shareholders are questioning the cost of giving away for free something that some many people didn't want.)

And now Apple has released a removal tool to get rid of the album. Given the amount of data that Apple collects about user preferences you'd think that the popularity of a new U2 album would be easy to calculate. Like all of the members of U2, I'm on the wrong side of 50. I've bought a few U2 albums in the past, but have not really bothered with the band's music for the past 20 years of so.

So, I should have been a prime candidate for the new album, aware and potentially curious. Well it is sitting there in my iTunes library and I just can't be bothered even giving it a listen. 

Based on the public response to the album I'm not the only one.