News about my favorite things. Will try to post the good and bad things that happened in my life. You can comment my posts in Portuguese and English. Thanks. PS: You can check my links: Linktree, Bluesky & Mastodon
Cui Bono? 26 old U2 albums re-enter the iTunes charts
The band was paid €100 million by Apple to allow their new much to go out for free
(left to right) The Edge, Bono, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr of U2. Fifteen back catalogue U2 albums have re-entered the Irish iTunes albums download charts. File Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
Fifteen back catalogue U2 albums have re-entered the Irish iTunes albums download charts.
The highest re-entry is at number five for the “Joshua Tree” album.
In the world’s biggest music territory, the US, 26 old U2 albums (studio albums, live albums, compilations and extended plays) have re-entered the iTunes charts and a similar pattern is emerging globally.
At this rate, Apple are well on course to recoup the estimated $100 million they paid to U2 and the band’s record label, Universal, to allow the new U2 album go out free to their 500 million customers.
It’s win-win for Apple and U2.
The tech company make money every time a U2 album is downloaded as do the band.
In U2’s case, they enjoy one of the highest ever royalty rates on their sales – meaning they get a far bigger percentage of the retail prize than even Michael Jackson or The Beatles had.
Bono confirmed to The Irish Times last week that the band had been paid by Apple.
In essence, this means even if the band do not sell a single copy of the physical release of the album next month, they will still have made a substantial profit from “Songs of Innocence”.
In addition, Apple have committed to a substantial marketing campaign, which will use the album’s first single “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) to soundtrack a global television advertising campaign for its new iPhones and Apple Watch.
A person familiar with the talks says the campaign will cost upwards of $100 million.
U2 are set to release another TWO albums over the next 18 months, their best friend has revealed.
Close confidant Dave Fanning said he believes Songs Of Innocence is the first in a three-part series of albums in which they explore the 70s, 80s and 90s.
It comes after the Dublin rockers released their last record – their first in five years – for free to half a billion iTunes users with Apple paying the bill.
And Dave, who got the first play of the record on 2FM, said: “I think this is the first of three U2 albums.
More to come: Dave knows U2 aren’t finished | VIPIRELAND.COM
“I’m guessing that, because every single track on Songs Of Innocence is about the 1970s.
“I think there will be more ‘Songs of…’ dealing with later decades, and the life experience of U2, right up to the present day.”
Last year Bono said they were “working on three albums”, adding: “We haven’t decided what order to put them out.”
And Dave, 58, said that given the length of time between albums there is no reason they won’t have the material.
More material: Dave knows this won’t be the end for U2 | VIPIRELAND.COM
“I think U2 have loads of songs. There will be more albums. I’d say U2 will drop a few albums in the next eighteen months,” he told the Irish Sun.
“The theme is almost a mid-life crisis for Bono but he hasn’t tried anything ground breaking. What he has done is gone back to the start which is brilliant. The songs are very personal to Bono.”
U2 surprised the world today by releasing Songs of Innocence, their first album in five years, as a gift from Apple, available for free immediately to anyone with iTunes. The band made the announcement with Apple CEO Tim Cook at a Cupertino press conference for the new iPhone 6, capping the event with a performance of the album's first single, "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)." After a standing ovation, Cook said, "Wasn't that the most incredible single you ever heard? We would love a whole album of that."
"The question is now, how do we get it to as many people as possible, because that's what our band is all about," Bono said. "I do believe you have over half a billion subscribers to iTunes, so — could you get this to them?" "If we gave it away for free," Cook replied. And five seconds later, the album was unleashed in the largest album release of all time.
"We wanted to make a very personal album," Bono told Rolling Stone's Gus Wenner the day before the press conference in an exclusive interview. "Let's try to figure out why we wanted to be in a band, the relationships around the band, our friendships, our lovers, our family. The whole album is first journeys — first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually. And that's hard. But we went there."
The band worked on Innocence for two years with producer Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton), then brought in additional help: Flood, their collaborator since 1987's The Joshua Tree, plus Adele producers Paul Epworth and Ryan Tedder. "I think having them around really helped," says Bono, "Some of the music out there now that people call pop, it's not pop – it's just truly great. And we wanted to have the discipline of the Beatles or the Stones in the Sixties, when you had real songs. There's nowhere to hide in them: clear thoughts, clear melodies."
To begin, the band went back to its roots: Bono says the group listened to the music they loved in the Seventies, from punk rock to Bowie, glam rock, early electronica and Joy Division. The album kicks off with "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)," a loping pop song laced with distinctly punk-ish power chords. "I found my voice through Joey Ramone," says Bono, "because I wasn't the obvious punk-rock singer, or even rock singer. I sang like a girl — which I'm into now, but when I was 17 or 18, I wasn't sure. And I heard Joey Ramone, who sang like a girl, and that was my way in."
The driving, reggae-tinged "This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now," is a tribute to the Clash, with slinky guitars from the Edge that nod to Sandinista!. "After we saw the Clash, it was a sort of blueprint for U2," says Bono. "We knew we couldn't possibly hope to be as cool, and that's proven to be true, but we did think we could get behind a sort of social justice agenda."
There is also an intensely personal song about Bono's mother, Iris Hewson, who died when he was 14. "Forty years ago, my mother fell at her own father's funeral, and I never spoke with her again," he says. "Rage always follows grief, and I had a lot of it, and I still have, but I channeled it into music and I still do. I have very few memories of my mother, and I put a few of them in a song called 'Iris.'"
The most joyous track on Songs of Innocence is "California (There Is No End to Love)," which unexpectedly nods to the Beach Boys in its intro. "It's like the sun itself," says Bono. "It's about our first trip to Los Angeles." The darkest track, meanwhile, is "Raised by Wolves," which tells of a deadly car bombing in Dublin. "It was a real incident that happened in our country where three car bombs were set to go off at the same time in Dublin on a Friday night, 5:30," says Bono, "On any other Friday I would have been at this record shop, just down the corner, but I cycled to school that day."
At times Songs of Innocence feels almost like a concept album about Bono's early years – there's even a track named after the street where the singer grew up, "Cedarwood Road." "It has a lyrical cohesion that I think is unique amongst U2 albums," says Bono, "I don't want it to be a concept album, but the songs come from a place. Edge laughed and said this is our Quadrophenia. We could be so lucky."
UPDATE: Apple has released a statement to Rolling Stone sharing the number of people who have listened to Songs of Innocence in the first week. "We wanted to thank our customers and share our love of music by gifting them Songs of Innocence," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "Just six days after its release on iTunes, a record-breaking 33 million people have already listened to the album."
A letter from Bono, on the arrival 'of our new baby' - Songs of Innocence.
'Hello, bonjour, ciao, hola, hallo, zdravo, dobar dan, Dia duit, hæ, hej,hei, cześć, olá, ćao, namaste, sawatdee, jambo, pozdravi, Γεια σου, привіт, שלום, مرحبا, こんにちは, , سلام, 你好, Привет….
Remember us? Pleased to announce myself, Edge, Adam and Larry have finally given birth to our new baby… Songs of Innocence. It’s been a while. We wanted to get it right for you/us. We just finished it last week and thanks to Apple and iTunes it’s with you today. That’s already amazing to me as it normally takes a few months to turn this stuff around.
Part of the DNA of this band has always been the desire to get our music to as many people as possible. In the next 24 hours, over a half a billion people are going to have Songs of Innocence… should they choose to check it out. That is so exciting. People who haven’t heard our music, or weren’t remotely interested, might play us for the first time because we’re in their library. Country fans, hip hop afficionados from east LA, electro poppers from Seoul, Bhangra fans from New Delhi, Highlifers in Accra… might JUST be tempted to check us out, even for a moment. What a mind blowing, head scratching, 21st century situation. Over 500 million people… that’s a billion ears. And for the people out there who have no interest in checking us out, look at it this way… the
blood, sweat and tears of some Irish guys are in your junk mail.
You’ll have noticed the album is free to U2.com’ers from the band. It’s also free to everyone on iTunes thanks to Apple. To celebrate the ten year anniversary of our iPod commercial, they bought it as a gift to give to all their music customers. Free, but paid for. Because if no-one's paying anything for it, we’re not sure “free” music is really that free. It usually comes at a cost to the art form and the artist… which has big implications, not for us in U2, but for future musicians and their music... all the songs that have yet to be written by the talents of the future… who need to make a living to write them.
We’re collaborating with Apple on some cool stuff over the next couple of years, innovations that will transform the way music is listened to and viewed. We’ll keep you posted. If you like Songs of Innocence, stay with us for Songs of Experience. It should be ready soon enough… although I know I’ve said that before…
I hope after listening to our new long player a few times, you’ll understand why it took so long. We really went there… it’s a very, very personal album. Apologies if that gets excruciating… actually, I take that back. No apologies if it gets excruciating. What’s the point in being in U2 if you can’t go there?
There is no end to LOVE.'
BONO
Simply go to the Music app on your iOS device, or to your iTunes music library on your Mac or PC, and find 'Songs of Innocence' under the artist or album tab. The new album is in iCloud, just tap the track listing to start listening or tap the cloud icon to download.
Songs of Innocence is set for worldwide release on October 13th. Today Apple are giving it to half a billion iTunes Store customers.
Not got an iTunes account? Create one here - the album will automatically appear in your library.
U2.com slipped into the studio a few days back where the band played us the new tracks and we were blown away. A kind of musical autobiography, the eleven new songs chart their earliest influences from 70s rock and punk to early 80s electronica and soul... and reveal how music changed everything. As Bono sings in the lead song, 'The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)' 'I woke up when the miracle occurred/ Heard a song that made some sense out of the world...'
Exploring themes of home and family, relationships and discovery, detailed liner notes fill out the picture with resonant stories, like one of the first gigs the teenage band got into.
'The 4 members of U2 went to see the Ramones playing in the state cinema in Dublin without thinking about how we were going to get in. we had no tickets and no money.. My best friend Guggi had a ticket and he snuck us through a side exit he pried open. The world stopped long enough for us to get on it. Even though we only saw half the show, it became one of the great nights of our life....'
Songs of Innocence was recorded in Dublin, London, New York and Los Angeles and is produced by Danger Mouse, along with Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, Declan Gaffney and Flood. The album closes with 'The Troubles' featuring the distinctive vocals of Swedish indie singer-songwriter Lykke Li.
Here's the eleven tracks: The Miracle (of Joey Ramone), Every Breaking Wave, California (There Is No End To Love), Song For Someone, Iris (Hold Me Close), Volcano, Raised By Wolves, Cedarwood Road, Sleep Like A Baby Tonight, This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now, The Troubles.
On October 13th the physical release of Songs of Innocence comes with a 24-page booklet. A deluxe, gatefold double album, contains an acoustic session of songs from the album and four additional tracks: Lucifer's Hands, The Crystal Ballroom, The Troubles (Alternative version) and Sleep Like a Baby Tonight (Alternative Perspective Mix by Tchad Blake)
The album will also be available as a gatefold, double white-vinyl LP with an exclusive remix of "The Crystal Ballroom".
When you've given it a listen, get right back here and review Songs of Innocence for us in the comments below.
