The Big Flop - U2: A Song Of Innocence & Backlash with Andy Daly and Izzy Roland | 79

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

In the fall of 2014, half a billion Apple iTunes users woke up to find U2's latest album downloaded to their devices. The band thought they were democratizing music, instead, U2’s attempt to force-feed their music to the masses turned into a PR nightmare complete with deletion tutorials, customer revolts, and the most expensive 'unsubscribe' button in music history.Izzy Roland (Dimension 20, The Sex Lives of College Girls) and Andy Daly (The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) join Misha to reminisce about simpler times, when Big Tech and do-gooders got along.Listen to The Big Flop on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-big-flop/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Before we dive into today's tale of catastrophe, I have to tell you about Wondery+. If you're someone who craves the juicy details behind the biggest flops, Wondery+, is exactly what you need. Add free episodes and early access to new stories that will take you even deeper into the world of business blunders. Trust me, it's a game changer. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcast. Way back in 2014, the biggest rock band in the world sent a free album to half a billion iTunes users. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. But lots of folks felt icky about having their playlists messed with. That's right. Today on The Big Flop, we're talking about U2 and the album that had millions of people saying,

I still haven't found what I'm looking for. The delete button. Apple slipped U2's new album, Songs of Innocence, into your iTunes account, and boy, did some people get mad. Don't worry, you haven't been hit with a U2 virus. Apple is telling users how to delete the U2 album it gave away for free.

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where we chronicle the greatest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time. I'm your host, Misha Brown, social media superstar, and still haven't found what I'm looking for at Don't Cross a Gay Man. And on our show today, we have a comedian, an actor and podcaster. It is none other than Andy Daly. Welcome, Andy. Thank you. I'm delighted to be here. Oh, the crowd goes wild. Oh, I didn't hear that. That's interesting. I didn't hear the crowd.

You're like, strange. Crowd goes wild. Oh, I didn't hear that. That's interesting. I didn't hear the crowd. Strange. Joining Andy, we also have a comedian, actress, and writer. It's Isabella Rowland. Hello. And no crowd for me either. All right. Well, if we can get our audio tech, if we could just like input that right there, that'd be great. I would love that.

Well, I'm so excited to have both of you here. Before we jump into the whole story, I have one question. Uno, dos, tres. Cantor say. Oh. We've got a real fan. We've got a big U2 head over here. We are at a place called Vertigo, that's for sure.

Yeah. I don't love U2 Vertigo, that's for sure. I don't love U2, but I love Ireland. Okay, okay, that's fair. Well today we're going to figure out how U2 went from being considered untouchable rock legends to annoying music spammers with just one poorly conceived PR move. Now some quick rock and roll facts for my younger besties. U2, fronted by Bono, aka the dad of that cute actress on Bad Sisters, is one of the most successful music acts ever. Recently, Rolling Stone, if you consider 15 years ago recent, ranked

U2 the 22nd out of 100 greatest bands of all time, nestled right in between Otis Redding and Bruce Springsteen. Well, Bono himself is a well-known activist whose work includes convincing George W. Bush to send a billion dollars in aid to Africa, saving 17 million lives over two decades, according to state.gov. We love that. Love that. And I'm not gonna mention that that program

has just been shut down. That's not a topic for us to discuss today. My immediate thought. Now it's gone. Bono, we need you back. Well, on that note, let's dive right in. So our story begins in the mid aughts, just a couple of years before

the very first iPhone is released. Now streaming is just beginning with services like Pandora. YouTube is still a year away, but the iPod launched in 2001 and it's a mega hit. And iTunes, its default media player, is quickly becoming everyone's preferred way to organize their precious MP3s.

What was your first MP3 player? Oh, I definitely had an iPod. I might have just had the Nano, but that was like 100 songs as opposed to a CD, which was previously what I would, you could put, I don't know, 20 songs on a CD. I had a big chunky iPod. Like one of those, I think I had one of the first ones

that were just like heavy, dense, like really satisfying clicks and swirls. It was beloved, I loved it. Yeah, see, I feel like this came out right as I got into high school. And I think me growing up with like gigapets and Tamagotchis, this was like our first thing that was like kind of like a status symbol. Like, what iPod do you have?

Or do you have like a knockoff MP3 player? You know? A Zune. Oh, forgot about those. Thank you very much. They weren't around for long. I think the knockoff MP3 players were exactly as good. As is usually the case. Hard to see at the time.

But, I mean, at the turn of the millennium, so many people still owned physical media. They just rip songs from their CDs or they download them from peer-to-peer services like Napster, or they just get them from friends. I ruined a family computer or two with Napster. Lime wire. Lime wire, that was it. I actually just went through my Apple Music library and deleted all of the sort of like half songs that I had attempted to download for free off of things like Napster. I don't

think any of them fully downloaded his songs. LAUGHS Yeah, well, that music pirating, it was a crisis for the music industry. Like, nobody wants to pay for music they can steal easily. But then things start turning around, and the internet music biz goes legit. Because Napster got sued. Fun fact, Metallica, of all things, is the first band to sue them and after a few more lawsuits Napster was forced to liquidate. Wow. I automatically just associate Napster with Justin Timberlake just because of the social network. So I'm like, I hear that and I'm like, Justin, you're messed up. But you know folks they

still like the idea of digital media. They need to fill up those MP3 players. So Apple spots an opening and launches the iTunes Music Store in 2003. Now people can just buy one track for a flat fee of 99 cents instead of an entire album they might not want. So with this new convenience, people start buying the music they download. 2003 is also when those iconic iPod silhouette ads are launched.

Could you describe the picture for the people who are listeners only to the pod? We're seeing a pop art sort of, you know, silhouette, big colors, people really grooving, getting dance. They are happy with what they are listening to. We're seeing four very different styles of dance. But all sort of arm out. It's not always easy to capture in a still image that someone is dancing, but I get that.

Maybe not the woman in the upper left. She looks like she might be stopping traffic or telling somebody to get away from her. But everybody else is for sure dancing. And yeah, you just see them as black outlines against a color, except that their iPods and their hands are bright white and the cord running to their ears is bright white. Very striking. I can hear the ting-tings. Right?

Yeah. Same. Shut up and let me go. Well, we better hope that these little advertisements worked because it cost Apple tens of millions of dollars. How so? I don't know. Literally how?

These things never make sense to me. I could make that ad with construction paper. I know.'t know. Literally how? These things never make sense to me. I could make that ad with construction paper. I know. I know. And we're talking about 2003 money, not even 2025 money. Zero dollars. I know. I mean, they're essentially spending more

on advertising for a music player than record labels are for actual music. So it's real crazy. Well, I remember it. It was impactful. Brought me right back. There must have been such great catering at the photo shoot for those four dancers. Oh, oh, caviar.

Caviar, yeah. So it's now 2004, and Apple teams up with the world's biggest rock band, U2, to launch a special branded black and red iPod. Do you remember those? Mm-hmm. I do. The Edge happy to be there.

He looks like he is contractually obligated to hold up that iPad so we can see it. Do you remember what they called this iPod? No. It's called the U2 iPod. Ooh. Ah. Oh, I do recall that when you bought it, it came loaded with all of their albums, didn't you? Yes.

That's wild. So, this is when we are treated to or assaulted with, depending on your opinion of U2, with their song Vertigo. The ad that features the song shows the band and random dancers in silhouette as well. Now, although the band and especially Bono are a little more visible than the anonymous dancers, how else would you know it's you too? It looks like Bono, but I feel like if I didn't know it was Bono already, it might just be like, what a great microphone ad. might just be like, what a great mic for phone ad. I do think Bono has a pretty distinctive profile.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. The glasses. The glasses give it away for sure. Well, this collab is interesting because until this point, you two had refused to advertise for anybody. So why do you think they finally caved and said, yeah, fine, we'll go over to Apple?

It seemed to me like a new idea of, like, commercials will promote your songs. And I think you two kind of needed that at that time. Sure. Another thing I remember about this, I remember when Bruce Springsteen inducted you two into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he dwelled on this ad a bit during his speech, and he joked about the fact that you two into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he dwelled on this ad a bit during his speech

and he joked about the fact that you two took zero dollars to become the spokesperson for the iPod, which was an interesting take on selling out. It's like we're selling out, but not for any money. But for nothing. We're just supporting a corporation. Oh my God. But for nothing. We're just supporting a corporation. Oh my God. How many...

How many people are out there that are looking at us and being like, see, working for free does give you exposure. It gives you exposure. And 22 years later, they will talk about how stupid it was. Yeah. Yeah. Well, also, at this time, Bono was kind of obsessed with the iPod. He thinks it's a work of art. Like, literally. And the feeling is mutual because, another fun fact, for a while, the symbol for the artist's section on the iTunes

is a bit of clip art based on Bono's face. It's that iconic profile. Oh. Yep. Wow. Yeah. Didn't know that was him at the time. Sure do know now. Sure do know now. Yeah. That is what artists look like. All of them. Yeah. That's all of them. Yeah. Of course, like we said, it could also be the opportunities start to dwindle when you're an aging rock star and you just wanted to, you know, maintain some relevance.

But this Apple promotion is YouTube's first dip into the scary, deep corporate waters. And it works out for everybody. Capitalism does pay. Yeah. Yeah. The album YouTube promotes with this new iPod, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, sits at number one on the Billboard 200 for weeks. And the song Vertigo becomes the band's biggest selling digital single.

And all of that despite that not being a good album. All I remember from that song is Uno Dos Tres Catorce. I could not tell you another note. Yeah, they might have been sitting there listening back to the album that they had just recorded saying, okay, people are not going to buy this based on the quality. We got to force them. We have to find some other way. Now Apple, on the other hand, is in its peak era.

By 2007, iTunes controls over 70% of the legal music download business, and now folks can even listen on their shiny new iPhones. So this is the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership between U2 and Apple, right? Sure. For a while. Bono and Steve Jobs, they were close friends and do some philanthropic work together until things go sour. Now, we don't know exactly what caused the fight, but Bono, according to his own words, has a temper tantrum and says, go fuck yourself to Jobs. I didn't know there was tea. Bono and Steve Jobs.

Yeah, they were best buds, and then they weren't. Need that movie. Maybe they did, like, they threw their birthday parties on the same weekend or something like that. That's legitimate. It could have been a yacht parking dispute at the Marina. Steve wouldn't give a billion dollars to Africa. Something like that.

Like George Bush. There we go. There we go. Well, after this little confrontation, Bono does the unthinkable and goes to Blackberry instead of Apple to get sponsorship for YouTube's 2009 360 tour. I'm shocked. It's like remember when the Can You Hear Me Now guy went to Sprint?

Right. I do. Huge. Yeah, that was insane. Iconic. Still think about it. If a good time sounds like, or Golden Hour tastes like, and getting back to yourself feels like, you've got a sense of New Brunswick. So now that U2 is shivering in the bitter cold, their 12th and newest album, No Line

on the Horizon, it doesn't do so hot. By U2 standards, anyway. It peaks at number one, but sales are nowhere near as high as expected. Maybe it's because U2 no longer has Apple's incredible PR machine to move product. Or maybe it's because audiences are finding the new album difficult. Some might even say impenetrable. That. You could not penetrate that album. I can confirm.

One track, Cedars of Lebanon, is sung from the POV of a war correspondent. Good. Another song called Stand Up Comedy takes 16 months to produce and despite its name, is not a funny song. Lyrics include, the DNA lottery may have left you smart, but can you stand up to beauty, dictator of the heart? Wow. An AI sentence. What if AI was totally built on U2 lyrics? That's why it's like, what? Here's another lyric.

Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady. What could it mean? I'll be honest, I didn't realize I was even doing that. Well, Bono, instead of looking inward, he blames the kids, saying they're too inundated with pop music to recognize real art when it slaps them in the face. Now of course, that kind of attitude is never helpful. It's just evidence that Bono is now officially an old. Now, pop music has always been a concern, but U2 had been able to sell plenty of records before, despite the existence of, I don't know, Madonna,

or Elton John, or Prince. So, Bono eventually relents and admits the album doesn't have a good single to anchor it, so they'll just have to try harder next time. Also, again, the album, it did fine, like compared to previous albums, it just didn't reach the same heights. I remember a period in U2 history

where there were boy bands that were quite successful, and Bono, one of his little lines, he said, -"They are the boys, we are the men." -"Oh." That didn't work. No, no, it didn't, but anyway. Back are the boys, we are the men. Oh. That didn't work. No. No, it didn't. But anyway, back to the drawing board they go.

It takes five years for you two to make another album. Now, one of the reasons for the delay is actually the topic of another episode of The Big Flop. In fact, the very first episode I ever recorded. Bono was tied up working on the most dangerous musical known to humanity, aka Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark. Sorry.

Turn Off the Dark. Turn Off the Bites. Yes. So if you are a newer listener, please go back to Spider-Man Hits All the Wrong Notes with Guy Branum and Jessica McKenna. It's a big flop classic. I listened to that one and yeah, that was a pretty big flop. That's, I didn't realize it came right before Songs of Innocence. U2 was on, what's the opposite of a role? Yeah. Like clunking, like a cube going down a hill. Yeah, not a great time So in addition to writing the strange musical that injures half a dozen cast members and stunt people

You too also goes on a two-year long tour Writes music for movies and ads and announces random projects like a dance album Now it's clear they're stalling. A classic perfectionist move. It seems like they're nervous their next album won't hold up to their bigger releases or that nobody will want it at all. That was a pretty heavy duty piece of procrastination. It's sort of understandable. U2 is in a tricky situation. They're not sure how to stay relevant in a changing musical landscape. The thing they themselves help promote with their iPod,

digital music, has become a behemoth. It seems to shake up the music industry every couple of months. So what do people want? 30 years after U2 first came onto the scene, should the band make something poppy and catchy for dance enthusiasts, something more experimental to please all those ambient

noise lovers, they could theoretically release anything. Except U2 is a rock band, the natural progression from punk bands like the Ramones. Wait, could that be the answer? An homage to the bands that inspired them? We're on onto something. While the band continues to agonize over their precious, very important work, U2's longtime manager, Paul McGinnis, leaves the band. Now, by this point, he's 64 and feels a little long in the tooth for the job.

Despite his age insecurity, and even though McGinnis isn't technically a rock star, he is considered by many as the fifth member of U2. He was a huge part of this band. Including by their bankers. As a long time U2 watcher, I can tell you that U2 did a very smart thing by every dollar they make gets divided evenly amongst the band members. So every dollar you two made, Paul McGuiness made as much as Bono. So he was a fifth member of the band in many ways and he was their manager from before they had a record label. Like he was the guy. Right from the beginning for sure. God damn. Yeah. I mean, he helped them make many of their important decisions and now they need

him more than ever. So what are they going to do? Well, they obviously need to hire another manager. And what could go wrong? With former manager Paul McGuinness going off to start his own production company, good for him, U2 is suddenly in need of new representation. They settle on a guy named Guy. Guy Ossiri. So as far as music managers go, Guy is a powerhouse, real force to be reckoned with. His clients include Madonna, Alanis Morissette, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paul McCartney, and The Weeknd, just to drop a few names.

So if anyone can turn U2 around, it is Ossiri. That's a big if, though. By this point, it's been half a decade since U2 released an album and they're still shook by the disappointing performance of the last album. But they do have a bunch of songs that are sort of done. So Osirii and Bono have a little sit down to brainstorm their plan. Maybe what they have can't be sold, their core fandom is diminished and they don't know who to market to anymore. They can keep writing music forever and never get the album right or maybe they can just give what they have away. And then at least

they might find some new fans or as Bono puts it, new ears, new eyes, new hearts. Okay, chill out my guy. Friday night lights. Where was that in the process of writing lyrics for No Line on the Horizon? Literally. Can you relate? Have you ever given away free work to net some new followers or fans? All the time.

I've given away free work for nothing. Yeah, we're like, we're creatives. On my iPhone, I group together all of my social media apps under the heading of unpaid labor. I definitely relate. It's beautiful. It's a very fun idea, gift people free music, how egalitarian, how bono. You just have to figure out how to miraculously deliver an album's worth of music to millions of people at the same time without them expecting it. Obviously, it would have to be digital, but there is no music label that has the infrastructure to do this. There is only one company with

the clout, the cool, and the technology to pull it off. Yes, it's Microsoft. They released it on a thousand person wide teams meeting. Yeah, no one wants your teams meeting, Bill Gates. Just drop an album. Why does it have to be like innovative? Of course, we're kidding. They did go with Apple, but will Apple want to do it? The good news is that Bono and Steve Jobs have reconciled over their birthday parties. The bad news is that Steve Jobs has by this point

been dead for three years. Oh. It's easy to reconcile with a dead person, I guess. There we go. Yeah, the deceased, they are also notoriously hard to contact. So the real question is, will Apple's new CEO, Tim Cook, go for it? Of course he will. The U2 iPod was a massive success, and Tim Cook's still looking to prove himself

as the new head of the world's most innovative consumer tech company. What better way to do this than oversee the largest album release of all time? The timing also actually couldn't be better. It's been exactly 10 years since U2 helped Apple promote the iPod and the iTunes Store. So now U2 can help promote the new and improved iCloud, which can conveniently sync data across multiple devices. Using iCloud, Apple can automatically drop a little something extra into people's computers, iPhones, and iPads. So all that's left is announcing this big giveaway.

At Apple's highly anticipated September 2014 keynote, Tim Cook cooks. He unveils the iPhone 6. Well, after all the tech innovations fervor, it's time for the guest of honor to entertain the crowd. U2 performs a song called The Miracle of Jilly Ramone. The crowd, they eat it up. And Tim Cook reappears on stage to say something totally unscripted and not at all transparent. Wasn't that the most incredible single you've ever heard? We would love a whole album of that. How convenient.

The band responds. It just so happens you two has finished a whole album about a week ago. From there, Bono and Tim engage in some awkward banter that goes on way too long, and at one point Bono calls Tim Cook Zen Master of Hard and Software. He has a way with words? It takes over three minutes to get to the big announcement, but it feels like three hours.

And then finally, you know, let's watch the moment together. Yes, please. You two, let me just get this straight. You two's new album, Songs of Innocence, is going out for free to a half a billion people in the next five seconds. Five, four, three, two, one. That's instant gratification. Beautiful. Did that really happen?

It did just happen. Yeah. It did just happen. Yeah. It was so romantic. It's adorable. There would have been no way to get those two guys together for a rehearsal. So I don't know. You know, it's nobody's fault. It did serve an impromptu improv set.

Yeah, a little bit. I could never, if you had put any person on screen and said, that's Tim Cook, I would have been like, okay. I could have never told you what that man looked like. But for the listeners only, the most awkward part of that exchange is when Tim Cook and Bono, they just slightly go and touch their fingers together. They do a little creation of man. Yeah.

They had an ET of man. Yeah. They had an ET phone. Yeah. Like Tim Cook wanted, this is the biggest album release in history. Songs of Innocence appears in 500 million iTunes libraries. U2's previous album sold just over 1 million copies. So this is certainly an improvement. And how wonderful that Apple can just leave something in your account without you requesting it. It's such a power move. I mean, treat. Seriously, is this a magnanimous gesture or an invasion of privacy? I remember when it happened and I received it as the gift it was meant to be because

I always bought you two albums at that time. Even if I didn't like it, I always bought it and checked it out. And so this was like a time saver and a money saver. And I was thrilled, but it was not long before I realized that I was in the minority. It seemed like a lot of people were really mad. And I guess it took up space on your device. Is that correct? Yeah, and this is iPhone 6 space.

So not a lot. So for Apple users in 2014, it definitely depends on who you ask, how they felt about it. Reports vary, but it seems Apple pays you, too, anywhere from $50 to $100 million for the privilege... My? ...of giving the album away.

So they certainly thought it was a good gift. A pay bump from the last gig they did for Apple. Absolutely. There's something about it, from U2's perspective, that they got paid upfront one time for however many people were going to experience their album. So U2 donated their blood, sweat and tears to the project so they really hope that people see it as a gift.

Now, on the same day as Apple's keynote, U2 posts a letter to their official website called Remember Us. In it, Songs of Innocence is referred to by Bono as our new baby. So Andy, could you please read paragraph one of the following and Izzy, could you please read paragraph two? Feel free to do your best Bono impressions if you're called to do so. Oh, great. All right. Here we go. Summoning the Irishness. Oh. Country fans, hip hop aficionados from East LA,

electro poppers from Seoul, Bangra fans from New Delhi, high lifers from Accra. Might just be tempted to check us out even for a moment. What a mind blowing, head scratching, 21st century situation. Over 500 million people. That's a billion ears. We really went there.

It's a very, very personal album. Apologies if that gets excruciating. Actually, I take it back. No apologies if it gets excruciating. Actually I take it back. No apologies if it gets excruciating. What's the point being in U2 if you can't go there? There is no end to love, Bono. Ugh, it was like Bono was here with us.

Ugh, so good. Yeah, you're welcome. So some fans who would have bought the latest U2 album, they get free music. That's great. But how many of those half a billion people receiving this gift were actually fans of them to begin with? Because for non-fans, this means U YouTube songs can randomly play on their devices in shuffle mode.

And some people see that as much more than a minor annoyance. To quote a critic at Pitchfork, this indisputably queasy approach to the surprise release Gambit might be the most interesting element about the band's latest album. The critic says it's less interesting than junk mail. It's just a blank message. My god. Harsh. Pitch for a gold go for it. For sure. At The Guardian, they write, while songs of innocence is more succinct, glossy and nimble than recent U2 outings, there is very little of the rawness, directness, or spontaneity of youth to it, and precious little innocence.

Get em. The tech savvy Apple users who either hear about the announcement from the keynote or at least know how their computers work just try to delete the album, but something is off. Songs of Innocence is mysteriously categorized as a past purchase, which means every time users delete it, the album just reappears if they have automatic downloads on. Just when you think it's finally gone, there it is again. That dramatic black and white album cover of two shirtless guys taunting you. It's like the lowest stakes psychological horror movie ever.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's why people really get mad at this situation is because it was impossible to get rid of. I don't even remember that. I was like so sacred with my library too. See, I was definitely in the minor annoyance category. I was like so sacred with my library too. See, I was definitely in the minor annoyance category. I never even attempted to get rid of it. I would just skip.

But yeah, apparently it's a big thing. We'll get into it. So U2's Unwelcome album is blasting through Bluetooth speakers, in-car stereos, at parties, and almost everyone is miffed. Most folks don't want to hear how amazed Bono was when he first heard the Ramones or The Clash play. They just want their specific, curated music to be neatly arranged on their devices. Was that not the expensive and exclusive tech utopia Apple had promised them? Of course, Apple's customer support is immediately flooded with panicked and angry phone calls. And those reps at the Genius Bar? They have to field some pretty dumb questions. Let's listen to an account from an actual former Apple employee who was

working during the U2 fiasco. Incredible. People would walk right into the store and they would come in in a huff and like, I think somebody hacked my account and I'd be like, oh, okay, why do you think that? There's this album here that I did not purchase. And then we would have to say like, no, this is actually a free gift on behalf of, you know, Bono and YouTube and Apple and people's reactions then would vary from grateful that it wasn't a hacker to agitated that they have to get rid of it but if

anybody was happy to receive the U2 album I did not encounter them nobody told me that. Well in fairness who's gonna show up at the Genius Bar to say hey just want to let you know I love the new U2 album. I'm so glad it's there. I tried to get rid of it one time and it came back and I was thrilled to see it again. Just want to tell you, great work. Thanks a lot. I went, oh no, I accidentally deleted the whole album.

What am I going to do? Help me get that album back. Oh, thank God. Yeah, you're right. People are more likely to complain than they are to come in to praise. But those who are too lazy to actually go to stores to complain, they just do it online. Twitter is flooded with angry tweets. Stuff like, "'My disdain for the band U2 is making me contemplate switching to a Samsung Galaxy

phone.'" Oh my gosh. Could you imagine? And, hey, I already get notifications about my storage being full. I can't delete your album and clearly no one else can. Please provide a tutorial. That would have been a good use of Bono's time to like get on YouTube with a tutorial on how to delete their album. He would have made it entertaining, I'm sure.

So Apple, they don't want any trouble. On September 15th, less than a week after the album's release, the company posts a tutorial on how to remove songs of innocence from your iTunes music library and purchases. Customers must go to iTunes.com backslash SOI dash remove and follow some easy instructions. There's even a little picture of the U2 LP next to a delete button. Seems simple enough, but this is the first time an album has needed a custom deletion tool created specially for irritated ingrates. That is worse than what just happened to Drake at the Super Bowl.

Somebody had to write code to help people not hear your album. That is diabolical. Painful. Yeah. Painful. So hopefully you too, Tim Cook and all of Apple has learned their lesson. That lesson, of course, is never do anything nice. Unfortunately, the damage is already done and the tech opinion

articles have already been assigned. The hot takes, they are imminent. Reporters at Slate seem concerned that corporate prerogative is now in control of what albums we own. Okay, the drama. The Washington Post and Wired refer to the album as junk mail and spam. Actually, I'll retract that. Wired calls it worse than spam and devious. Consider just the time wasted on finding and deleting it almost 500 million times. Is the company completely oblivious to the idea that users of its technology products come in shapes other than those who would be interested in a pop rock band popular among older white

males? Is it a valid point or is it an overreaction? I think it kind of sounds like it was fun to pile on this. It was just, there was nothing to be lost by piling on YouTube at this moment. And Apple, so it's just free punches, everybody. Everybody gets a free punch. Wired digs in and asks its readers whether or not they would confidently let Apple write files of their choosing onto your hardware. And they conclude, songs of innocence

is not a well-intentioned gift from a dorky uncle with poor taste. It is another example of how Big Brother can intrude on our lives. It's like, hey, sometimes you feel like, oh, people are inactive, you know, people will just let anything happen. And this is a great way to prove that if you inconvenience people, they will destroy your career. I think that last commentator might have gone a little too far in suggesting that this album was a harbinger of the complete takeover of our digital lives. It kind of was just an album. Okay, to each their own.

Well, because, I mean, because it's like serious question, don't tech companies like Apple already write files onto our phones? They know where you are. I mean, like, yeah, they have your data. They load apps onto our things all the time. They include things with updates all of the time. Yeah.

You know? It's just like, oh, you got songs you didn't want. Yeah. Orwellian. But those like, oh, you got songs you didn't want. Yeah. Orwellian. But those songs are going to be turned into propaganda. It's like it was already Orwellian. Yeah, that's true.

So where is U2's big shot manager Guy Osseri in all this? Eating humble pie? No. In an interview with Mashable, Ossri coolly responds to the controversy and claims it went just like how he wanted it to. Go good. Yeah. He says, if someone doesn't like it, then great. That's okay. Delete it. We just want to share it with as many people as possible. Why do you think their manager would be happy

about this. You can't like to accept an L of that scale when you've just taken over for the fifth member of U2, quote unquote, like that would take such a big person to be able to be like, wow, big fuck up on my part. I know I just got here and right out of the gate blew it big time. Big ol' oopsie. Big ol' oopsie over here. Sorry.

Well, actually, he doesn't have much to be sorry for because... He got them, what, $150 million? Well, there's that. But even though most of the half a billion iTunes recipients are either pissed off or simply just don't care about Songs of Innocence, a couple of million people really dig it. And the ones that do, they start downloading

U2's back catalog. Wow. 26 of U2's previous titles move into the iTunes top 200 albums rankings. Before the release, there were zero. Wow. Okay. So it actually was really good for them. So U2 and Apple, they took a hit to their reputation, like I'm saying, and Apple's lower tier support staff, they got most of the complaints.

But rest assured, Apple corporate, they didn't lose much, and Bono can keep himself in designer sunglasses for thousands of years. In fact, if the rumors are true and U2 really did get paid $100 million by Apple, then they made way more money from the deal than they would have if they simply sold the album like normal. Like, worst case, they broke even. Best case, they made out like bandits. You would just assume that both Apple and U YouTube, entities with decades of experience, powerful industry connections, and more money than we could count, would be able to easily avoid such a blunder. Bono eventually walks

back, his opinion on the album being a wonderful gift to the world. A month after the iTunes release, he sits down with NPR and gives a totally bizarre analogy that does not hold water or I guess milk. Quote, we wanted to deliver a pint of milk to people's front porches, but in a few cases, it ended up in their fridge, on their cereal. People were like, I'm dairy free. I don't think milk men deliver milk for free. I don't know, so yeah, whatever that means.

Also, that's not a good way to make yourself sound young and relevant and hip with what's going on. You know how everybody gets glass bottles of milk delivered to their door every day? Bit of an old reference. Well, Songs of Innocence ends up as U2's first album in 30 years, not to break the top five on the Billboard charts.

So let's do a little, where are they now? U2 has made only two studio albums since Songs of Innocence, both billed as companion pieces. In 2017, they released Songs of Experience, and in 2023, they released Songs of Surrender. Both debuted at number one and did way better than their predecessor. So good for them. As of today, the iTunes removal tool for Songs of Innocence no longer exists.

But please don't accost Apple Store employees, everybody. If you don't want Songs of Innocence inost Apple Store employees, everybody. If you don't want Songs of Innocence in your Apple Music Library, you can call customer service and have it removed. May the odds be ever in your favor. Tim Cook, he is no longer giving away free music. These days he's giving away stuff like million dollar donations to Trump's inaugural fund. Profound. Bono, meanwhile, was recently awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom from outgoing President Joe Biden. Here's an excerpt from his Atlantic article about the experience. Andy, if you want to read it. You don't want my impression again?

I still have a fondness for symbolic or poetic acts. A fist in the air, a shout, an indelible image, but for more than two decades, I've opted for more activism and less symbolism. I threw a punch, I wanted to actually land. What does he mean by that? I never know what he's talking about. Yeah, this has not helped my belief in Bono in terms of a guy who says coherent things.

So here on The Big Flop, we try to be positive people and on a high. So are there any silver linings that you can think of that came about from you two and their gift to the world? Andy seems like a big fan. Yeah, yeah. One thing I know about this is that it's so damaged their public reputation that they

were willing to do strange things to try and recoup some public affection. And one of them was that they were willing to appear on Scott Aukerman and Adam Scott's podcast Are You Talking You to to me? It's just a way of just shaking it up and getting out there and seeming more human and more normal and more fun and regular people. So if they had not done this terrible PR debacle in 2014, they would not have appeared on My Friends podcast in 2020 or whenever that was. Here's to you too on Comedy Bang Bang tour. Exactly.

I will say, I don't know if it relates to the debacle or not, but in Dublin, there's a place called the Little Museum. That is a wonderful place. It's a great museum and it's like four floors and each floor is dedicated to a different chapter of like Ireland's history. And the fourth floor is just you two. Wow.

So I was thinking, I mean, compared to my back catalog of flops that I've covered, this is a rare flop where nobody died or was conned out of their life savings. So it wasn't, you know, there's that. Also, some people must have really liked the album if they kept it in their accounts. And nobody died that we know of.

Yeah, I mean, it could have driven somebody mad. Okay. So now that you both know about the biggest album release in history, would you consider this a baby flop, a big flop, or a mega flop? I actually think, even in the context of U2 flops, it's a baby flop. Yeah. I say baby. Yeah, they have a missteps frequently and

Yeah, this this one was was one but they also made a bundle of money. It's one of those where it's like you don't necessarily Associate it's like that's all you associate with They them as a band or an entity, you know, it's sort of like oh, yeah that that weird thing Mm-hmm. So and. And I would hope for that. For myself and for anybody. Well, thank you so much to our chart topping guest, Andy Daly and Isabella Roland for joining us here on The Big Flop. And of course, thanks to all of you for listening and watching. If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a rating and review. And if you're joining us on our YouTube channel, please like and subscribe.

We'll be back next week to talk about a roided out MAGA-MANIAC whose energy drink empire blew up with a bang. It's Jack Owack and Bang Energy. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you. If you like the Big Flop, you can listen early and ad free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts.

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