Apple Caved and Gave iTunes Users a Way to Delete Their Free U2 Album

DELETE. DELETE.
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iTunes users were none too happy to find that Apple’s free gift U2 album was inserted into their music library without their permission. “What if I’m at a judgmental hipster party and U2 comes on shuffle?! I’ll be humiliated!” They cried. So, Apple has introduced a way to permanently delete the album from your iTunes account if simply hiding it just isn’t enough for you.

Last week, Billboard reported that the album had only been downloaded by 200,000 of the 500,000,000 iTunes accounts it had been gifted to. However, Apple devices stream users’ music libraries from the cloud when they’re not present on a device, so many users wound up having it inserted into their lineup of songs anyway. The only way to get rid of it without turning off streaming altogether was to manually hide the album through iTunes.

But that just wasn’t enough, so to please fans, Apple went so far as to create a dedicated webpage for the sole purpose of getting rid of U2’s Songs of Innocence. (Don’t worry about Bono’s ego. He’s probably doing OK with the reported $100 million Apple paid to give out the album.) All you do is click and enter your Apple ID and password, and the album will be permanently removed from your account.

If you think you’ve made a mistake, the album is still free on iTunes until October 13 of this year, but after that, you’ll have to pay for it if you decide you want it back. If you’re on the fence, it’s better just to hide it for now (instructions here).

(via Gizmodo, image via Apple)

Previously in Apple

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Dan Van Winkle
Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct Geekosystem (RIP), and then at The Mary Sue starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at Smash Bros.