Apple just released U2’s new album, free to all iTunes users, onstage at the Flint Center in Cupertino this morning at the end of Apple Event.
After the two hour event, which unveiled both the new iPhone 6 models and the highly anticipated Apple Watch, Tim Cook introduced “one of the best artists of all time.”
U2 took the stage at the Flint Center in California and rocked the crowd of tech and fashion journalists. Then the two celebrities, one tech and one rock, released the new U2 album Songs of Innocence exclusively to iTunes through October 13 of this year.
Cook introduced the band with a quick nod to Apple’s history with iTunes. “We’ve built a very deep relationship with the music industry and the artists that make it up,” he said.
U2, Cook said, is one of the most respected bands today, winning more grammy awards than any other rock band in history. But that’s not all, he said.
“They’ve also focused on human rights causes and the advancement of the human race,” said Cook. Then the Dublin-based rock band ran through a set with the new single.
Tim Cook got up and called the song they played an incredible single, and then said that we’d all like to hear a whole album. “We’re the blood in your machines,” said Bono.
Tim and Bono went back and forth with some truly stilted conversation until they finally got to the money shot: releasing the new album, exclusively to iTunes users through October 13.
Songs of Innocence is available now in iTunes for free (as soon as it propagates across the internet, that is).
