U2 has released their first new album in five years, Songs of Innocence, on iTunes for free on Tuesday, September 9 - which is also the day that Apple's new iPhone 6 was unveiled.
As previously reported, the Irish foursome played the first single off of the album, "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)" at the end of the Apple event on Tuesday in Cupertino, California.
But as we all know, nothing in life is free, despite the 11-song album and digital booklet being offered at no cost on iTunes. Bono told Time, "We were paid [...] I don't believe in free music. Music's a sacrament."
The singer and frontman of U2 also told Time that he believes the music charts are broken, hence the release of the album digitally.
Digital music has taken over the music industry, and Bono is firm on believing that an artist's reach and success can be determined by how much they're actually listened to- whether it be through physical CDs and records, digital music, or streaming, with the latter two having become more and more prevalent and popular in the last few years.
It's true- digital distribution has definitely thrived and expanded many opportunities for artists, and new ways of accessing music digitally seem to be constantly arising, one of the most recent being the beta launch of Garth Brooks' GhostTunes.com, that's being marketed as an alternative to iTunes.
Whatever the case, the release of Songs of Innocence for free to iTunes users is definitely a nice surprise.
Bono, however, will not disclose how much Apple paid the band to release the album on iTunes.
Image Credit: Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com.