As part of a PR campaign, music group U2 and Apple decided to give away the bands upcoming album, “Songs of Innocence” for free on iTunes (the deal is valid until the physical release of album in mid-October).
IMHO though, the execution was handled poorly as rather than giving each iTunes user the opportunity to decide for themselves whether or not they wanted the album or not, it was literally forced on everyone. The album shows up as purchased in ones library and if they had automatic downloads enabled on any of their devices, the songs would have also showed up there too.
While the complaints may seem like much to do about nothing, the issue I have is about respecting peoples individual tastes and preferences. Not everyone likes or even knows, who U2 is. Furthermore, I don’t want any company forcing stuff that I do not want on me in the first place.
Apple is usually good about stuff like this. In this case though, I think they stepped over the line of good taste; the whole campaign was a bit overzealous as far as trying to claim this as the biggest release of all time. Sure it is technically by the fact that it was tagged as purchased and inserted into every iTunes account holders library whether or not they wanted it or not. The fact that it wasn’t every persons individual choice, invalidates that claim at far as I’m concerned.
