Way back when I was a kid, if someone gave us a 45, a small two sided vinyl record with one song on each side, we would thank them. If we liked the songs, we would play the record until it wore out...If we didn't like the song, we'd give it to someone else.
I remember winning a contest on a nationally syndicated radio show when I was in my early teens. The prize was six cassette tales, I had no clue which cassettes were being sent but they were free and who complained about free music? When I got the package, it contained six cassettes including Debbie Gibson's Anything Is Possible, New Kids On The Block's No More Games, Prince's Diamonds and Pearls, Martika's Kitchen by Martika, Black Box's Dreamland and Kathy Troccoli's Pure Attraction album. All of the tapes came with a stamp on the cover which read, "For Promotional Use Only-Not For Sale." I didn't care for a few of the tapes but they were free and I came to enjoy most of the songs that I didn't already know.
When Napster, Limewire and all the music stealing sites popped their heads out of the weeds, you really didn't hear people complaining until users on the sites were sent cease and desist notices. Oh my goodness, whatever will we do? Pay for the music...just like before. Then came sites that offered "sound-a-like" artists, those seriously pissed people off because they would pay for subscriptions not realizing the songs weren't by the original artists or sometimes just karaoke versions until they downloaded them.
Amazon, iTunes and a few other sites became the go to download sites for music...where people honestly pay for their music. Promos and free songs are occasionally available through the sites but usually by emerging or lessor known artists as a way to kick start their popularity. A few popular artists threw out a downloadable albums for free. Google Play recently gave it's users free downloads of Katy Perry's Prism album, of course it has been out for a while though...However, this gave many people the opportunity to add it to their collection for free and no one complained.
September 2014, iTunes invested MILLIONS of dollars in a gift to it's users...ALL of it's users of iPhones, iPods, iPads and pretty much any iTunes connected device. This gift set off a shit storm for sure. I was actually excited to find a free album on my iPod but I guess my feeling was not universal. I saw everything from people threatening to sue Apple to people asking "What's a U2?" to others complaining the album's in their cloud. Has society become so ungrateful that they can't graciously accept a gift? Whether it's their taste in music or not, it's free. I have a feeling these are the same people that throw tantrums on their birthdays or Christmas day when they realize they didn't get EXACTLY what they wanted. I really don't get how people can complain about something they get for free. If you don't like a radio station, do you sit and listen to it anyway? No, you turn it. If you are reading a book that you don't like, do you continue reading it? No, you put it down. So what do you do if you don't like an album? Delete it and move the fuck on.
I gave the album a spin and enjoyed it. It's not what I expected from U2 but it's definitely a nicely produced album in my opinion. Had I not received the album for free, I probably would never had listened to it but I'm glad I did. I have thousands of CD's in my music collection and this gift was a welcome addition.
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