<p>If anyone’s a U2 fan or likes their music, their latest album “Songs of Innocence” is free to download for itunes customers until October 13. </p>
<p>To find in your iTunes, go to your name - probably upper right - and click on it and you’ll see Purchased. Click on that and it will take you to your Purchased in the iTunes Store page. If you see a little cloud with an arrow pointing down, click on that and the album will download to your computer or phone, etc. Actual download, not stream. There’s also on the right a couple of long buttons that should say All and Not in Library. You can play any purchased song from All.</p>
<p>Thank you! I do like U2 … I just did exactly as Lergnom suggested and it appears that 12 songs are downloading as we speak.</p>
<p>Thank you! This goes great with my collection from U2.</p>
<p>Again, typical fodder of Apple and iTunes. Obnoxious and poorly executed.</p>
<p><a href=“Apple's free U2 "gift" angers many customers - CBS News”>http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-apples-free-u2-gift-a-sign-of-things-to-come/</a></p>
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<p>I first saw news about this after seeing some folks on a techie forum grumble about having issues downloading the album because they didn’t know their way around itunes. </p>
<p>Even with the technical glitches which were mostly due to personal settings, I wouldn’t complain too much about something which is obtained free. As one commenter puts it in that article, first world problems indeed. </p>
<p>You are missing the point – just as the moron who made the comment about world problems. It is not about a technical glitch. It is about invading YOUR storage for a marketing gimmick. Next time, it might not be U2 and Bono, but some horrendous hard rock, a Richards album couple with a children book, or trailers of movies. </p>
<p>The concept that the consumer owns what he buys and decides what to store on his or her space remains foreign to some suits in Cupertino. You should NOT have to find ways to delete what THEY thought should be in your space, or battle with your cloud settings. The free crap should be at the decision of the consumer. </p>
<p>^ ^</p>
<p>That’s a bit of a stretch considering it’s pretty easy to find settings to enable/disable automatic downloading/syncing with apple devices. </p>
<p>Xiggi, I’m surprised you are vociferous in defending folks whose issues are wholly derived from their inability/unwillingness to learn the very basics on how to use Apple products they purchased. </p>
<p>Especially considering there were quite a few grumblings from folks on various techie and other forums because they wanted to download the free album and couldn’t for the same exact reasons. </p>
<p>Well, I like U2 and I’m glad to know that I could get their new album for free, and this pretty much sums up how I feel, from the article xiggi posted:</p>
<p>“So people are mad that Apple gave them a free U2 album?” wrote one Twitter user. “We are now scraping the bottom of the barrel of first-world problems.”</p>
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<p>Oh Cobrat, a few things never change. </p>
<p>My daughter just told me about this…I am cool with it ! I have a lot of storage and I do use my iTunes daily. Thanks U2 !</p>
<p>This got me back into Itunes. Very clever of them. Big U2 fan, thrilled to have it for free, definitely a first world problem to object to being given it.</p>
<p>Favorites???</p>
<p>I’m obsessively listening to “Every Breaking Wave.”</p>
<p>Thank-you cobrat!! I love U2.</p>
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<p>Not really sure but overall, the album has a nice atmospheric feel. Fifth track(Iris (Hold me Close) ) does remind me a bit of Depeche Mode’s “Route 66” song.</p>
<p>Love the homage to Joey Ramone in the first song. </p>
<p>The album doesn’t invade your storage unless you have the setting for iTunes (dumbly) set to automatic downloads of Music. You otherwise have to actively download it. If you do nothing, it will sit as a link in your iTunes Purchased link. That’s all it is: a link. So for most people what Apple did is place a link to a free album in your account. You can also click the little x and make that link disappear.</p>
<p>iTunes Match works similarly: they scan your music list and create links to what they have ready to go and upload what they don’t. </p>
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<p>That techie forum along with some others were filled with folks grumbling about the U2 free album because they either had set itunes for automatic downloads and didn’t want it or the reverse, they wanted it but couldn’t download it because they didn’t know their way around itunes to know how to download albums. </p>
<p>In short, there was some dissatisfaction from both sides of that technical aisle mostly due to settings/user ignorance issues. </p>
<p>@xiggi “or do battle with your cloud settings.” </p>
<p>Well I am still trying to figure out what my “cloud” is, so if you are doing battle with yours you are way ahead of me! 
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<p>Cobrat, for all the grandstanding, you missed the point. It is not about the problem of inability to download or the automatic download. It is all about Apple dropping SOMETHING in your purchases. Again, what precludes them to do this with commercials, shareware, teasers, or other items the USERS did not want or care for. </p>
<p>Since you know so much about settings, please enlighten the technology challenged on an easy way to DELETE the album or songs from the list of purchases. Delete … not hide! <a href=“How to remove the U2 album from your devices - CNET”>http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-hide-the-u2-album-from-your-ios-device/</a></p>
<p>Fwiw, I like U2, and it is not an issue of contents. It is an issue of imposing content on a space that should be personal. Apple could have made the similar offer by making the purchase voluntary or offering it for 1 cent. Again, typical for the vision of iTunes by Apple. </p>
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<p>I don’t really see this as any different than situations like an online vendor adding an extra book or DVD box set I didn’t request to my order. </p>
<p>Hey, I’m not going to complain about free stuff. Especially when it’s something which I can actually enjoy or if not, make some free spare cash off of by selling it off. </p>
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<p>If that’s such a serious issue, same thing I do with spam or old emails, delete/ignore them. </p>