The last time U2 offered up an album exclusive, things didn’t go great. Apple reportedly paid $100 million for exclusive rights to Songs of Innocence, the Irish arena rock band’s first record in half a decade — and irritated countless iTunes users in the process by forcing it onto their iPhones and iPads.
Probably no surprise, then, that the two seem to have parted ways. The longtime partnership between the two appears to be on the outs, as Amazon announced its own exclusive tied into the band’s new Songs of Experience.
Things are a bit less…forceful this time out. The new record is debuting as a “first-of-its-kind broadcast for Amazon Music.” The “U2 Experience” is essentially a radio show that users can listen to trough their Amazon Echo and other Alexa enabled devices.
The whole thing will be available as a one-time broadcast in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Austria on Thursday the 30th. The broadcast will include interviews with the band, where they say insightful things about the new record like, “I think it’s an album of just classic songs, great melodies great hooks, great lyrics.”
Tough to say which side opted to call off the longstanding love affair between the band and Apple that included a U2-branded iPod along the way. Perhaps it was a mutual parting of the ways. Whatever the case, last time out, Bono ended up apologizing for the whole thing in the most Bono way imaginable.
“Oops, I’m sorry about that,” the singer said during a press conference. “I had this beautiful idea and we kind of got carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, dash of self-promotion and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years mightn’t be heard. There’s a lot of noise out there. I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it.”
This time, it seems, things will be a little less…over the top. Not listening to the band’s new record simply means never having to say, “Alexa, play ‘The U2 Experience’.”
