Achtung freebie: U2 album gives the internet another reason to hate iTunes

Where's the drop?

Bloomberg managed to dig out some tweets from young Generation YouTube members who claimed never to have heard of U2 at all, with reader Lopan standing up for dad rock and quickly lowering the tone with his comment: "Sorry U2 was taking up valuable space you would have otherwise been using for Skrillex, you useless c***ts."

U2 fan Kenneth Baker also tried to encourage readers to give the music of his minted buddies a fair chance, commenting: "But why in the hell would you people complain about free music. Really? I suggest you give it a listen and who knows, you may discover something great you have been missing out on all this time."

The bizarre decision to use U2 in the first place is a result of Apple existing in a tech bubble of its own creation, according to reader Ryan V, who said: "Apple is dating itself. It's like Tim Cook and friends sat around and ask themselves, 'U2 is cool right?' It's not, btw. Something more classic or something new would have been better."

I won't download what you tell me

Beneath a Guardian piece about the business aspects of the deal, there was more fury. Reader Muzzy62 was aghast at seeing his music collection decimated by some old rockers, saying: "This dang album tried to download on its own yesterday! I was buying 'good' music and without me even clicking on anything U2, the album was in my purchased folder. There are a lot of free tracks on iTunes, but apparently only U2's is a must-have. Naturally I deleted them but self importance reigns for U2 again."

Rowan40 probably got nearest to the truth of the matter out of all the angry people, breaking it down like this: "Personally I think that they are both playing a clever game. U2 have recognised that the old ways of album, tour, album are over and are using this as publicity to advertise a tour. Apple likewise, the iPhone is their cash cow to attract attention to other products, probably not a watch but Apple Pay could be the next big thing."