Overview
Whether you’re a fan or not, you're probably now the owner of the latest album from U2. Last week the Irish band surprise-released their thirteenth album, Songs of Innocence, by giving it away for free to all 500 million iTunes users. Those with the "automatic downloads" feature turned on, automatically received the album on their devices.
Apple has since revealed that over 33 million customers have accessed the record - but what about those 467-odd million that don't want to? Deleting the album has proved a bit of a problem for many users, leading to backlash across social media and the phrase, "how to remove U2 album", becoming one of the most popular Google searches of the week. Odd Future's Tyler The Creator compared finding the album to "waking up with a pimple or like a herpe."
As The Guardian reports, Apple has acknowledged the criticism by making a dedicated page to delete the album from iTunes libraries.
The site says:
If you would like U2’s Songs of Innocence removed from your iTunes music library and iTunes purchases, you can choose to have it removed. Once the album has been removed from your account, it will no longer be available for you to redownload as a previous purchase. If you later decide you want the album, you will need to get it again. The album is free to everyone until October 13, 2014 and will be available for purchase after that date.