This stunt is really very Madonna of them.
She is not afraid of drawing hate, and lord knows she's made missteps and pissed the masses off, but she also WILL be talked about. You will NOT ignore her.
Perhaps that's the calculus here.
Of course, the cynic in me says that they got to a point where they didn't think the album would make any impact (or feared it wasn't any good) and this was a way to get people to at least have to think about U2 for a moment, which is a victory when you're competing for attention, and perhaps send people back to the old albums, meaning the new music only exists to support the old.
Who knows. I don't think even them.
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I agree. This whole thing about - OMG!! STAY OFF TWITTER - PEOPLE ARE PISSED!!! Is so hilarious. Twitter and any comments section of any area of the internet are about 1 thing. Trying to prove to anyone who will listen how witty you are with a nasty one liner. It will blow over in a week, and they will be furious about something else. Maybe taco bell will offer them a free taco with drink purchase.
Anyway, the point is this. We can safely say there are around 1 million U2 fans in the U.S. - And maybe around 2 to 300 thousand really strong U2 fans, that would purchase their album right away.
They sent this out to 500 million people. Lets say 1/3 of that is in the U.S. - that's 160 million people. Believe me, U2 and Guy O. KNEW that they were gonna get blasted by about 158 million people in the U.S.
But womanfish, 160 minus 158 is 2 million. You said there are only 1 million fans in the US?!!?
That's right, U2 and Guy O, ALSO knew that they would most likely pick up another million people to at least give the album a good listen and most likely appreciate it for what it is. A really good free album. Maybe an older person that gets reacquainted with the band again. Or maybe even a young person, totally unfamiliar with the band that hear something that strikes a chord with them.
An aging band acquiring a million new listeners, maybe concert-goers, is unheard of in this day and age. But U2 just did it.
p.s. - sorry I am just referring to US numbers here. Just that I am more familiar with them. U2 is actually much more popular in other parts of the world. So forgive me.