It seemed like a good idea at the time: Give every iTunes user a free copy of U2’s newest album Songs of Innocence, and have it magically appear in their iTunes libraries without any explanation.
Wait. Never mind. That’s a terrible idea. Especially that last part.
Having perhaps realized the error in its ways (or that people were confused and complaining), Apple has published a new article to its support site that explains how you can remove Songs of Innocence from your iTunes account.
To make it happen, go to itunes.com/soi-remove, click Remove Album, then sign in to your iTunes account. Lo and behold, Apple will remove Songs of Innocence from your iTunes account, which in turn will keep it from appearing in your iTunes library. If you’ve already downloaded it, you will have to remove the songs from your library manually.
I’m all for offering free music, but there’s a difference between offering a freebie on the iTunes Store and force-feeding a free album to millions of users. Hopefully Apple learned what not to do after this brouhaha.
