Bono is known for doing a lot of things, and second-guessing himself is not one of them. The Irishman is the lead singer of one of the most popular bands of all time, and is a leader in the philanthropic world. But recently, Bono's been pretty public about his regrets.
In an excerpt from his upcoming book, Bono revealed that it was his idea to put U2's 2014 album, Songs Of Innocence, onto everyone's iTunes libraries without their consent. The excerpt, published in The Guardian, details Bono's reaction to the public's anger at the move.
Bono recalled reading people's responses to the album the morning of. "The free U2 album is overpriced," one social media user wrote. "Woke up this morning to find Bono in my kitchen, drinking my coffee, wearing my dressing gown, reading my paper," joked another.
"At first, I thought this was just an internet squall, but quickly realized we’d bumped into a serious discussion about big tech," Bono wrote in his memoir. "I take full responsibility."
"If just getting our music to people who like our music was the idea, that was a good idea," he explained. "But if the idea was getting our music to people who might not have had a remote interest in our music, maybe there might be some pushback."
In the end, Bono realized the situation fell into the latter scenario. The blame, he felt, lay on his shoulders. "Not Guy O, not Edge, not Adam, not Larry, not Tim Cook, not Eddy Cue," he wrote. "I’d thought if we could just put our music within reach of people, they might choose to reach out toward it. Not quite."
[via]
