Whether you loved or hated U2's surprise album release with Apple, the band and the tech giant are teaming up again for another secret project. This time, they're really hoping to reignite the music industry.
U2 plans on releasing a companion album to Songs of Innocence, called Songs of Experience, in another collaboration with Apple. The band is working with the company to create "an audiovisual interactive format for music that can't be pirated," Bono told TIME. U2's lead singer also revealed that album artwork and photography will be major components of this new release, and users "can play with the lyrics and get behind the songs when you're sitting on the subway with your iPad or on these big flat screens."
Bono told TIME that the project is about 18 months away from being completed. "I think Songs of Experience will be released in a new format. And I think it's going to get very exciting for the music business," he said.
It's interesting that U2 and Apple would continue to collaborate given the intense backlash the release of Songs of Innocence received when it was revealed during Apple's much-hyped product launch event on Sept. 9. Many didn't like that the album was automatically added to the libraries and purchased histories of all 500 million iTunes customers at once for free. The criticism was so strong that Apple released a special "Remove" tool to delete the album from users' purchased histories on Sept. 15.
You would think that a big move like this from a band that is so famous and popular really would have gone over so much better. However, people have really turned against U2, even more so than Apple. It has now joined the ranks of bands people love to hate, such as Nickelback, Coldplay and Weezer.
Even though the partnership seems like a PR disaster on the parts of U2 and Apple, in some ways, the deal didn't work out so badly. Apple reportedly "pledged $100 million to a marketing campaign," according to the TIME article. The stunt also boosted sales of U2's previous albums as they entered the iTunes charts around the world.
And perhaps getting some time and distance away from the Songs of Innocence release will help whatever U2 has planned for its next album. A strong visual component is ambitious, and one wonders if that will be enough to entice consumers.
Beyonce found success with her surprise self-titled visual album when it dropped in December 2013, but one could argue it was the allure of an entire album from the singer suddenly becoming available that made it go to No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart rather than its unique visual component. I downloaded Beyonce's album from iTunes pretty immediately upon its release, mostly just to have her new music. The music videos were definitely a nice touch, don't get me wrong, but I maybe watched them a few times when I first got the album and then never again. My experience with her visual album could be singular to me, but I'm not confident that a future "audiovisual interactive format" from U2 and Apple, which sounds like a similar scenario to Beyonce's latest album, will be that appealing to consumers.
Still, you can't really blame U2 or Apple for trying. With the music business in the sorry state that it's in, it's hard out there for artists and pay-for-streaming services alike. Will whatever seemingly innovative move U2 and Apple pull next work and, dare I say it, save the music business? Maybe or maybe not, but it's a risk they have to take.
