The band's first new material in five years had a potential download audience of 500,000,000 people but has only accessed a fraction of that with 'Songs of Innocence'
If any band was to shift 2 million units of a new album in a week it would generally be seen as a massive success. That's how many people 'own' the new U2 album 'Songs of Innocence' since it was released to iTunes for free a week ago, in what Apple described as the biggest album release of all time.
Except it hasn't gone entirely smoothly, either for the band or Apple themselves. In fact, Apple recently released a tool to allow its users to delete the album from their collection in one swift click.
Both parties came under criticism from some quarters for what was seen as meddling in their users' carefully curated music collections, in a move which was described by the likes of Bombay Bicycle Club as "invasive". Even Paul Brady got in on the act, slamming U2 for the move. Never has the phrase "you couldn't give it away" seemed more appropriate.
U2, though, will likely be laughing all the way to the bank. Reports online have suggested that they earned as much as $100 million for this unconventional release, significantly more than what they would have gathered if they had released the record by more traditional means - especially when you consider that many of U2's other albums are also now charting on iTunes because of the publicity generated by Team Bono.
What's more, we suspect that this brouhaha would be entirely marginalised if 'Songs of Innocence' was actually any good. Instead, they gave us the musical equivalent of a new pair of socks under the Christmas tree.
