U2 and Apple Working on New Digital Music Format

Following the surprise release of their new album, Songs of Innocence, U2 have embarked on another business venture with Apple, Time reports. The band and technology company are partnering to design a new digital music format that “will prove so irresistibly exciting to music fans that it will tempt them again into buying music—whole albums as well as individual tracks,” according to Time.

The point is to make money for artists who don’t necessarily benefit from performing live the way U2 might. “Songwriters aren’t touring people,” Bono told Time. “Cole Porter wouldn’t have sold T-shirts. Cole Porter wasn’t coming to a stadium near you.”

The band also acknowledged the immediate blowback to the free iTunes release of Songs of Innocence, which forced Apple to make a dedicated site where unwanting listeners could delete the album from their computers. “It’s like everyone’s vomiting whatever their first impression is,” said bassist Adam Clayton.

That said: Apple claims that as of today, the album has been accessed 38 million times. (That includes streaming and downloading.) 

Time also reports that U2 has a “whole new album and a world tour” in the works, plus “an acoustic version of Songs of Innocence and bonus tracks.”

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