Giving away their new album has seen some abuse come in for U2.
The rockers gave their new LP 'Songs Of Innocence' for free to every user of iTunes, but have now been criticised by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) as being "as damaging as piracy" and alienating to fans of theirs who don't use the Apple software.
Chairman of the ERA Paul Quirk said: "This promotion is a failure on so many levels. It devalues music, it alienates the majority of people who don't use iTunes and it disappoints those who prefer to shop in physical stores since few shops had U2 stock available. Giving away music like this is as damaging to the value of music as piracy, and those who will suffer most are the artists of tomorrow. U2 have had their career, but if one of the biggest rock bands in the world are prepared to give away their new album for free, how can we really expect the public to spend £10 on an album by a newcomer?"
He also slammed it as a commercial failure because U2 only sold 60 back catalogue CDs in store and 6,047 online following the stunt.
"This vindicates our view that giving away hundreds of millions of albums simply devalues music and runs the risk of alienating the 60% of the population who are not customers of iTunes.
"If one of the justifications of this stunt is that it would drive sales of U2's catalogue through the market as a whole, then so far at least it has been a dismal failure."
Apple have now released a tool which allows users to remove the album with just one click.
A spokesperson for the company said: "Some customers asked for the ability to delete 'Songs Of Innocence' from their library, so we set up itunes.com/soi-remove to let them easily do so. Any customer that needs additional help should contact AppleCare."
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