5 ms·

My jaw is still dropped from 2014 when Apple forced their music of choice onto every iPhone in the world and wouldn't let you delete it. http://www.wired.com/2

by cryptoz 11y ago

My jaw is still dropped from 2014 when Apple forced their music of choice onto every iPhone in the world and wouldn't let you delete it. http://www.wired.com/2014/09/apples-devious-u2-album-giveaway-even-worse-spam/ http://www.wired.com/2014/09/apples-devious-u2-album-giveawa...

threeseed 11y ago
You can delete it from your library and it was a pretty honest mistake on their part. They "purchased" the U2 album on behalf of the users but they clearly forgot that the default was to download that album automatically in the background.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
  I doubt they forgot that. It was a clever marketing stunt: drop the album into the library of every iTunes user. And it worked. They probably anticipated some backlash.
- smt88 11y ago
  > they clearly forgot Forgetting is something individuals do. It's not something done by massive companies with thousands of employees, including large PR and legal teams. This decision would have been part of whatever contract was signed with U2.
  - Karunamon 11y ago
    Come now - this would mean that companies never make stupid mistakes. They do. Often.
    - smt88 11y ago
      Yes, they do, but mistakes are often bad decisions, not simple forgetfulness. Dozens of people working on a deal over the course of many months don't "forget" a core feature of the way their most important product works. They might make a bad decision, but they don't all suddenly come down with amnesia about how their own devices work.
      - lostlogin 11y ago
        They really do. The dishwasher draw jams every. Damn. Time. The coffee machine I'm currently using should be binned, as every feature is terrible. Spotify navigation on iOS consists of me hitting back, back, back, back back, back, back, back each time I open it. The fridge has coloured leds inside that look like a 90s Night club and are on when the fridge is closed. This is from the last 10 minutes. Companies basically suck at making things good.
    - reustle 11y ago
      They definitely do but for every iOS user to simultaneously start downloading the same U2 album, they must have added tons of extra redundancy in place for the servers not to go down. That would have been a huge unexpected amount of requests for a single album if they had actually "forgotten" about it.
      - feld 11y ago
        How big is an MP3 album? 20MB? Maybe 30MB? That's nothing. Their global CDN can handle that without sweating.

by cryptoz 11y ago

threeseed 11y ago

You can delete it from your library and it was a pretty honest mistake on their part. They "purchased" the U2 album on behalf of the users but they clearly forgot that the default was to download that album automatically in the background.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
I doubt they forgot that. It was a clever marketing stunt: drop the album into the library of every iTunes user. And it worked. They probably anticipated some backlash.
smt88 11y ago
> they clearly forgot Forgetting is something individuals do. It's not something done by massive companies with thousands of employees, including large PR and legal teams. This decision would have been part of whatever contract was signed with U2.
- Karunamon 11y ago
  Come now - this would mean that companies never make stupid mistakes. They do. Often.
  - smt88 11y ago
    Yes, they do, but mistakes are often bad decisions, not simple forgetfulness. Dozens of people working on a deal over the course of many months don't "forget" a core feature of the way their most important product works. They might make a bad decision, but they don't all suddenly come down with amnesia about how their own devices work.
    - lostlogin 11y ago
      They really do. The dishwasher draw jams every. Damn. Time. The coffee machine I'm currently using should be binned, as every feature is terrible. Spotify navigation on iOS consists of me hitting back, back, back, back back, back, back, back each time I open it. The fridge has coloured leds inside that look like a 90s Night club and are on when the fridge is closed. This is from the last 10 minutes. Companies basically suck at making things good.
  - reustle 11y ago
    They definitely do but for every iOS user to simultaneously start downloading the same U2 album, they must have added tons of extra redundancy in place for the servers not to go down. That would have been a huge unexpected amount of requests for a single album if they had actually "forgotten" about it.
    - feld 11y ago
      How big is an MP3 album? 20MB? Maybe 30MB? That's nothing. Their global CDN can handle that without sweating.