Apple’s U2 album removal page turns 12 today
The episode showed how easily a platform can place content on a user’s account, and how hard it can be to undo.
Twelve years ago, Apple found itself dealing with an unusual problem: an album that had arrived on people’s devices without being requested.
On September 9, 2014, at the event where it introduced the iPhone 6, Apple said U2's "Songs of Innocence" would be given to every iTunes customer. The album was attached directly to accounts, and devices set to download automatically received it without any action from their owners.
Complaints followed quickly. On September 15, 2014, Apple published a web page whose only purpose was to remove the album, for users who did not want it in their libraries.
The episode is remembered less for the music than for the way it was distributed. It has become a reference point in discussions about how platforms push content onto accounts, and about consent in software that is meant to be helpful. The removal page, live twelve years ago today, remains one of the company’s more unusual support documents.