U2 Gives Away New Album NOW, Skip Charts, And Who Cares? No Money in CD Sales
U2 has released its new album to iTunes subscribers today like right now, to all 500 million of them. Songs of Innocence is the title. Sign up for iTunes– it’s free– and you can get the album free if you order it by October 13th. The album will not qualify for chart positions or RIAA certifications. And U2 is saying basically Who cares?
Album sales have vanished. The most U2 would sell in its first week, if they were very very lucky, would between 300,000 and 500,000 copies. And that’s being extremely optimistic. It’s not worth the price of printing them up. Just give it away, and make the money through publishing, which the group owns, and concert tours. LiveNation will soon announce a world wide tour that should net the group hundreds of millions of dollars.
It’s brilliant, and no different in concept than giving CDs to ticket buyers, which has been tried with Madonna and Prince. LiveNation has U2 under a 360 contract, they can simply build in the price of the album. Universal Music can collect on vinyl, a small amount of physical CDs, and streaming. My guess though is that “Songs of Innocence” will limited to streaming on iTunes Radio and not available on Spotify and other services.
Check mate.
Hats off to Guy Oseary who continues the tradition of taking U2 into brave new waters, started by Paul McGuinness.
[…] Well no. Apple paid U2 anywhere from 40 to 100 billion, so U2 isn't giving away anything. U2 may be the smartest band in the music business. A few articles on why Apple and U2 may be doing this. Exclusive: Guy Oseary on U2's $100 Million Deal With Apple, And What's Next for the Group | Billboard Apple Gives Away U2's Album For Free To Get Credit Cards, Launch Apple Pay – Business Insider U2 gives away new album – and it U2 Gives Away New Album NOW, Skip Charts, And Who Cares? No Money in CD Sales | Showbiz411 […]
Ummm…dude…stop with the mythology of “free.” It doesn’t exist – see this article about the $100M U2 is getting from Apple to release their album for “free”: http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/music-news/u2-gets-100m-from-apple-to-give-away-new-album-30576404.html
[…] U2 Gives Away New Album NOW, Skip Charts, And Who Cares? No Money in CD Sales. […]
[…] Now Apple has changed its tune yet again, offering the entire U2 album “Songs of Innocence” for free to 500 million iTunes users. CEO Tim Cook called it “the biggest release in the history of music.” It’s also an acknowledgment that the old pay-per-song model is over, just like the “buy a physical album to get the hit single” business that it helped destroy. As entertainment writer Roger Friedman noted: […]