U2's Album "Songs of Innocence" Download Offered For Free On iTunes And Beats Music

At Apple's launching event on Tuesday, the company announced the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, the iOS 8, Apple Pay and its new device, the Apple Watch. After the introduction of the Apple Watch, U2 made an appearance for the first time again in Apple's event since Steve Jobs unveiled the U2 iPod in 2006.

The company and the band announced that U2's new album, the "Songs of Innocence" can be downloaded on iTunes, and it will also be available on Apple's iTunes Radio and Beats Music. U2 made a surprise performance on its new single "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)" which is the band's tribute to the Ramones' frontman. Apple CEO Tim Cook and U2 leader teased the crowd and announced about the download. CEO Tim Cook stated that this will be the largest album release ever because every iTunes store user can download the album. Users coming from 119 countries will be able to download the album for free, and it will also be available for free on iTunes Radio and Beats Music. Apple claims that a half billion of people can avail the new album in its iTunes library. This offer stands until October 13 across all Apple platforms.

Previous rumours suggested that the new album could be bundled with the new iPhone models, but instead, U2 and the company announced that the new album "Songs of Innocence" will be downloaded for free on iTunes for all of its users. However, according to CNET, users reported issues about the download on the social networking sites like Twitter. According to the reports, users experience difficulty in downloading the album because Apple did not respond quickly. Instead it routed the users to a message that seek comments.

Apple and U2 are reportedly to have a close relationship where a special edition of an iPod was released back in 2004. The back of the iPod had a facsimile of the band member's signatures and another special edition of the iPod was also introduced in 2006 where red iPod nanos were released to support and grow funds against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. CNET also adds that Apple's newest employee, Jimmy lovine used to be U2's handler at the Universal Music Group before it shifted to Beats.