Following U2’s controversial free album release, which landed in half a billion iTunes back in September, the band has managed to land itself in the top ten.
Their 13th studio album, titled Songs of Innocence, debuted at No. 9 in its first week on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, with over 28,000 units sold, according to sales figures. Despite being offered for free (between September 9th – October 14th), 96 percent of the units sold were actual physical CDs, justifying their below average figures.
Billboard doesn’t rank albums that cost below $3.49, which is why it took until this week to properly chart U2’s recent work.
U2’s last record that failed to land in the top ten was their 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire at number thirteen. No Line On The Horizon, their last album, successfully sold almost 500,000 copies in it’s first week back in 2009, and landed in the top spot.
There were so many complaints in regards to Song of Innocence, that Apple had to set up an online tutorial to help those who were trying to get the songs removed from their libraries.
During last week’s Facebook Q&A, Bono was bluntly asked, “Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to peoples playlists ever again? It’s really rude.” The 54-year-old rocker apologetically replied by saying, “Oops. I’m sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea. We got carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania. Touch of generosity. Dash of self promotion.”
U2’s album was outperformed by country duo Florida Georgia Line, who managed to land at the top spot at this week’s Billboard 200 chart. The group’s second album Anything Goes sold approximately 200,000 copies in its first week.
Other new debuts in the top 10 include artists Jason Aldean, Bob Seger, Pink and Dallas Green from City and Colour, The Game, Hoodie Allen, as well as Jessie J.
