U2’s Apple album “experienced” by 81m, downloaded by 26m

U2’s experimental marketing strategy with Apple yielded better-than-expected results, says Apple’s Senior VP of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue.

Of the 500 million global customers sent Songs Of Innocence on September 9 for free, 81 million (or 16%) “experienced” it through iTunes, iTunes Radio and Beats Music. A staggering 26 million (or 5%) went on to download the record – equaling or bettering U2’s biggest global selling album, The Joshua Tree.

Cue told Billboard, “To help put this into perspective, prior to this, 14 million customers had purchased music from U2 since the opening of the iTunes Store in 2003.”

It is not known if Apple’s use of the word “experienced” means their customers listened to the songs they picked all the way through or not.

No specific Australian figures for Songs Of Innocence are available.

U2 told Billboard, “Apple is a tech company fighting to get musicians paid. The idea that they wanted to make a gift to the very people that actually purchase music is both beautiful and poetic, and for that we are very grateful.”

The marketing campaign concerned some sectors of the music industry, that giveaways could devalue music in some customers’ eyes. It upset retailers as the campaign was exclusively through one retailer for the first month.

To calm the latter down, the CD deluxe version, out this week, features 10 additional tracks not on the iTunes version. These include six acoustic versions and four new tracks. Billboard estimates that based on pre-orders, the deluxe version will sell an extra 70,000 copies in the US alone.

U2 were paid US$100 million by Apple as part of the launch of its iPhone 6. The band will get further royalties from their back catalogue re-entering the charts on the back of Songs Of Innocence. Billboard estimated that U2’s record label Interscope/ Universal Music may have netted US$52 million for exclusive rights or, alternatively, opted for about US$5 million upfront.

The iPhone 6 sold 10 million in its first three days, and could have hit the 20 million mark last week. Apple’s target is 70 to 80 million by the end of 2014.

In Australia, U2 have the most amount of chart topping albums (11), according to ARIA in 2013. Their biggest seller here is Best Of 1980— 1990 (8 x platinum), followed by Achtung Baby (6 platinum) with The Joshua Tree and All That You Can Leave Behind with five Platinum each.