U2’s Manager: “If You Don’t Like the New Album, Delete It”

Mashable: At one point after Apple’s release of Songs of Innocence, 26 other U2 titles charted simultaneously on iTunes top 200 albums rankings. Were you surprised?Oseary: I’m blown away by it. The [U218 Singles] album is top 10 in 46 countries. A day before the Apple event there was not one U2 album on the iTunes chart. Two days later, there’s 26, so that’s very exciting for me to think that new people are discovering this band and some are rediscovering it. From what I hear, a lot of people are listening to the new album, which is great.

Mashable: Apple CEO Tim Cook and Bono mentioned that the album would automatically be available to 500 million iTunes users in 119 countries. What are the download figures so far (Re/code claims it was at more than 2 million downloads as of Friday)?

Oseary: I don’t know. I don’t think anyone has the numbers yet. From what I’m hearing they’re very promising. I’m hearing it’s really good. From what I’m hearing, they’re very promising. But it’s hard to tell because somebody new may listen to it in a month. Somebody new may listen to it in a year. It’s not a hey-listen-to-it-today sort of demand. Listen to it when you want to listen to it.

Mashable: Samsung was very forward with how much it paid for Jay Z when he gave away 1 million copies of his album to Samsung Galaxy owners. Will Apple or U2 ever divulge how much money was exchanged (some reports pin the deal at $100 million)?

Oseary: No.