Was Apple Inc’s decision to share U2’s album for free for all iTunes users a good or bad thing? According to the many complaints, it would see that it has been taken extremely negatively. However, the timing could have something to do with that.
It was only weeks before this that failures in iCloud security were found. Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and a number of other female celebrities were shocked to see their nude photos online. These were photos that were stored on their own phones and computers, through the iCloud. A hacker had gotten in and stolen hundreds of photos from the celebrities in an attempt to embarrass them.
The issue for many is that adding the album like this has been an invasion of privacy. It shows the power that Apple Inc. has to access someone’s account, and then add or remove music. There is almost a Nineteen Eighty-Four element to it for George Orwell fans.
Some people also complain that the music is taking up space on their iCloud. There is a limited amount available for free, and then users need to pay for more. People only want to pay for more if they have music, photos or videos on there that they want access to. There is no guarantee that users want access to U2’s album. It seems that has been where a lot of the complaints have come from about the whole situation.
So, was Apple Inc.’s decision to share U2’s new album for free a good or bad thing? It was certainly a good thing in the sense that the company was rewarding those who have iTunes accounts. However, the execution of it was done in a negative way.
What would have been better would have been for the tech giant to offer a free download to all iTunes users. This could have had a cut-off date, such as October 13, which is the cut-off date for the free U2 album. From there, users would have been allowed to download an album of their choice.
But this was a sign of the partnership between U2 and Apple Inc., so maybe the better thing to do would be to offer U2’s album for free and leave it to the users to choose whether to download it or not. That would have meant only those interested in the music would have gotten their hands on it, and there would have been no complaints about invasion of privacy.
If the iPhone creators really wanted to drop the album straight into iTunes, then some warning may have been appreciated. Either that, or making it clear how a user could then delete the album would have been a better way of handling it. Instead, users had to contact the company to find out how to delete or hide the album, instead of putting up with it taking up space. It has only been recently that a one-click tool was created to remove it permanently.
The idea behind for Apple Inc. to offer U2’s album for free was a good thing, but the execution of it was done in a bad way. These are lessons that the tech giant will need to take away for the next time it tries something similar.
Opinion by Alexandria Ingham
Sources:
Photo credit: CC-2.5 Wikipedia Brown
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19 Responses
Apple just proved to the world that they can do whatever they want with your iPhone and there’s not a thing you can do about it.
That’s what makes this scary.
The Biggest Band in all of history just gave a free album to everyone, Why all the fuss? If u don’t want it delete it. Why does everything have to be made into a big deal these days, whether good or bad.? People just have to have something to complain about, it’s so ludicrous!! I personally appreciate the gesture! Thanks Bono & all of U2 Band, You Guys always have and always will forever ROCK!!
Biggest band in all of history? Is that MEANT to be a joke? puleeez.
Ditto… his tongue must have been firmly in his check!! They have not had a great album in over 25 years.
Ever heard the saying “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”?
My thoughts exactly! All hail the Bono, the King of Ireland.
“Some people also complain that the music is taking up space on their iCloud.”
I don’t think any purchased items take up space in iCloud. Apple already has a copy on file so there would be no reason to make a 100 million more copies or to use up space on a user’s account.
U2 isn’t a stunning girl, though. More of a hooker sticking her tongue down your throat when you are drunk. I would be annoyed. Bono is a twat. Yea, I know he raises money for Africa. Still, a twat.
…and facebook is any better? if you don’t like it then you should not have any of these accounts. Stop using social media then.
Evil bastards!!! Who do they think they are giving people a free U2 album!!!
Thought 1: Music from the iTunes store doesn’t consume space under your iCloud cap.
Thought 2: Of course Apple has access to your iTunes account. You’d hate it if they didn’t.
Thought 3: This ability to inject a free album into your iTunes account has exactly no relevance to the recent iCloud problem.
Yeah! I once had this girl— a stunning girl— force herself on me. The NERVE!!! That’s the FIRST and last time I go to that bar!
I put on my tin foil helmet and the U2 album stayed in the alien mind control beam storage unit
There is a actually a lot more going on here than Apple being nice by giving away a free album. It has to do with stifling innovation and competition by a practice known as “market dumping”. Read here why we, as consumers, should be very concerned about this practice taking hold across several industries… http://linkd.in/ZhTxEw
Every Halloween the old neighbors gave out large wireless candy bars. This year those people gave us free candy apples! We told them; U2 will pay for this, this will be a bloody Sunday. We threw their apples back into their 8 front windows. Next year those geezers won’t give us anything… We’ll teach them.
i’m not a u2 fan but really people? wetting your beds over a free download? just hide the blasted thing. and if you had automatic downloads enabled, well it serves you right ….
Why are people upset over a free U2 album? If they don’t like it then delete it and don’t listen.
If you’re going to offer a free album, make it optional. Don’t consume my internet bandwidth and (non-expandable) storage space with an album that (a) I wouldn’t even bother torrenting and (b) that requires a special tool (no Bono comments please) to remove it from my device.
I am glad Apple came up with a deletion method. I don’t care for they way it was forced on folks. I was playing music in my vehicle on shuffle and a U2 song came on, this causing it to download the album. Which ate up a large portion of my limited data I have a month. Not cool Apple, no I have to wait till next month for it to reset.