POLL: If Apple's U2 Album Giveaway Was Optional, Would You Have Downloaded It?

Tyler’s thoughts resonated with most of us. Concluding its unveiling of the Apple Watch and the newest generation of iPhones, the Silicon Valley giant exclusively launched U2’s surprise new album, Songs of Innocence, via a free download to all users of the iTunes Music Store. Interestingly, Apple has experienced major backlash up to this point, which begs the question, “why?” Quite a few reasons can be listed here, namely, with streaming services flourishing all around, the era of downloads are over. In addition, as legendary as the Irish collective is, the band is arguably past its prime. Yet again, Songs of Innocence marks a free product. Users of any platform do not appreciate to have info pushed them — with the exception of newsletters perhaps. Some have complained about the lack of optionality in Apple’s generous gesture, arguing that the company’s marketing strategy was a breach of privacy. Don’t get us wrong, automated downloads are great for the things you actually want to download, like security or app updates for instance. But an entire album? Some may argue that making the giveaway optional could have altered the response to “the largest album release ever.” Therefore, we leave it up to you, would you have downloaded Songs of Innocence if the giveaway was optional? Submit your vote in today’s poll below and feel free to elaborate in the comment section.

[poll id="17"]