U2 most listened artist on iOS devices after album release stunt

U2 most listened artist on iOS devices after album release stunt

It may have annoyed millions of people by appearing in their iTunes collection out of the blue, and Apple may not be repeating the experiment in quite the same way in the future, but thanks to the blanket release of “Songs of Innocence” U2 have found themselves to be far and away the most listened-to artist on iTunes-enabled devices in January 2015. 

This is according to a report published by the firm Kantar which highlights that U2 outdid Taylor Swift almost 2 to 1, with the Irish band listened to by 231 million users and Taylor by just 116 million. 

The figures show that 23% of all music users using iTunes listened to at least one U2 track. 

This is obviously pretty good news for the band, especially after the backlash caused by the release: a lot of people were not “best pleased” with seeing the album appear in their collection and took to social media to complain loudly.

Bono stated: 

“This is fantastic news. If these figures suggest that these songs still matter to people, then we’re knocked out. That’s all any songwriter wants.”

The Edge echoed this sentiment: 

“It’s nice to know that 5 months on so many people have discovered Songs of Innocence. In the end we just wanted people to hear the album. We took a big risk but today we can say that the experiment worked.”

So, did the experiment really work? Or are all these people being force-fed U2 because they like shuffle mode and can’t be bothered to use the tool Apple provided to remove the album from their collection? I guess we’ll never know. 

 

(Andrea Leonelli)