--- description: The members of U2 discuss how the free iTunes release of "Songs of Innocence" came about title: Exclusive: Bono and U2 on Why They Released a Free Album on iTunes image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8331f7e3a15768b4/6986a3eccd684810cc096827/bono_1280.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Exclusive: Bono and U2 on Why They Released a Free Album on iTunes  by [Diane Tsai](/author/diane-tsai/)  ## Diane Tsai Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 18, 2014 11:00 AM CUT  Bono talks to TIME about U2's latest album release through iTunes Bono talks to TIME about U2's latest album release through iTunesTIME  by [Diane Tsai](/author/diane-tsai/)  ## Diane Tsai Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 18, 2014 11:00 AM CUT Bono doesn’t view his songs as children—they’re more like parents. “They tell you what to do, they tell you how to behave,” the U2 singer told TIME. “These songs, we worked quite hard on them over the years, and we really didn’t want—_they_ really didn’t want them to be ignored.” The best way to get the world’s attention? Give the album, for free, to all [500 million iTunes users](http://www.apple.com/U2/ "undefined"). The unique release of their latest album, Songs of Innocence, was announced at [Apple’s event](http://time.com/3313272/heres-the-apple-products-launch-in-under-2-minutes/ "undefined") on Sept. 9. In the video above, the members of U2 explain how the first album release of its kind came about. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3394701/u2-free-itunes-album/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3394701/u2-free-itunes-album/"},"headline":"Exclusive: Bono and U2 on Why They Released a Free Album on iTunes","datePublished":"2014-09-18T11:00:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:15:20.611Z","description":"The band members tell TIME how they came up with the release of \"Songs of Innocence\"","url":"https://time.com/3394701/u2-free-itunes-album/","keywords":["Apple","Music","Technology","iTunes","Bono","U2","Album"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8331f7e3a15768b4/6986a3eccd684810cc096827/bono_1280.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Diane Tsai","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/diane-tsai/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8331f7e3a15768b4/6986a3eccd684810cc096827/bono_1280.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bono U2","caption":"Bono talks to TIME about U2's latest album release through iTunes","creditText":"TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3394701/u2-free-itunes-album/","name":"Exclusive: Bono and U2 on Why They Released a Free Album on iTunes"}}]}] ```