Irish rockers U2 have released their first album in five years, the band have made the album available for free download on iTunes as Apple unveiled its latest smartphones.
At a special launch event in California, the band played a single from the new album, ‘Songs of Innocence,’ whilst Apple announced it had made the album available for free download to half a billion iTunes customers worldwide.
Lead singer Bono described the album, the band’s first since ‘No Line on the Horizon’ in 2009, as deeply personal and dubbed the this latest release “instant gratification.” “From the very beginning U2 have always wanted our music to reach as many people as possible, the clue is in our name I suppose – so today is kind of mind-blowing to us,”.
He went onto say: “The most personal album we’ve written could be shared with half a billion people – by hitting send. “If only songwriting was that easy.”