Bono has defended U2's decision to give away their new album, Songs of Innocence, on iTunes and has claimed that "38 million" people have listened to it since it appeared online for free last week.
Speaking to Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2 last night, September 18, the U2 frontman: "That's always been the way. It was the same on our first album. That was kind of why you got into a band, to stir things up and annoy people. That's the whole punk rock thing . . . the only thing that could have gone wrong would have been being ignored."
Half a billion iTunes customers were given Songs of Innocence and Bono claimed that 38 million people had listened to the album since September 9. "If you're a songwriter, if you're in a band, that's all you can ask for. Whether they take them to their heart is something else."
Responding to the criticism of the band over the deal with Apple, he said: "Oh for God's sakes . . . Really and truly - we get people who might want to delete it but nobody has deleted more U2 songs in the last five years than U2!"
