Songs of Innocence by U2
Shares rank 5 of 10 albums by recommenders
Free album people got at no charge, though critics call it forced onto devices, hard to remove, and a consent violation.
Free album people got at no charge, though critics call it forced onto devices, hard to remove, and a consent violation.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 14
- approval share
- 26%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Free album at no charge
“the free U2 album they automatically added to everyone's iTunes account at no charge”
Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Turn off and restrict access to Apple Intelligence features on Mac” “Apple giving them a free U2 album that ate up limited device storage space”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Forced onto devices without consent
“Remember U2 Songs of Innocence album offe^forcibly downloaded on every iTunes library?”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Turn off Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 and get its disk space back” “The questioning of Apple's approach to consent all started with Tim Cook and that damn "Songs of Innocence" U2 album.”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “I said no and Apple said yes” “They were not only messing with our libraries, they were claiming we wanted it and were in fact U2 fans.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “How did Windows 95 get permission to put the Weezer video Buddy Holly on the CD?” - Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid”
- Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Stop the Apple Music app from launching”
- Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “How did Windows 95 get permission to put the Weezer video Buddy Holly on the CD?”
Hard or impossible to remove
“The only real issue with it was the inability to remove it which they later rectified.”
Comment from 26 Apr 2026 in “Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day” “it's still not possible to remove it”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “How did Windows 95 get permission to put the Weezer video Buddy Holly on the CD?” “It just would not go away.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “How did Windows 95 get permission to put the Weezer video Buddy Holly on the CD?” Obnoxious and intrusive to users
“this “gift” as you call it would get in the way all the time”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “How did Windows 95 get permission to put the Weezer video Buddy Holly on the CD?” “a U2 album is like having broken glass sown under your skin”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “GrapheneOS has been ported to Android 17 and official releases are coming soon” “I would've found it obnoxious too”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “How did Windows 95 get permission to put the Weezer video Buddy Holly on the CD?” - Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “How did Windows 95 get permission to put the Weezer video Buddy Holly on the CD?”
Other albums people recommend
The four most recommended other albums, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ambient 1: Music for Airports by Brian Eno | 10 | 1 | 91% | 1 | — | — |
| In Rainbows by Radiohead | 7 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| OK Computer by Radiohead | 6 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Doom soundtrack by Bobby Prince | 6 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| Songs of Innocence by U2This page | 5 | 14 | 26% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Remember U2 Songs of Innocence album offe^forcibly downloaded on every iTunes library?”
“The questioning of Apple's approach to consent all started with Tim Cook and that damn "Songs of Innocence" U2 album.”
“The free U2 album looks like the work of a tastemaker by comparison.”
“the free U2 album they automatically added to everyone's iTunes account at no charge”
“a U2 album is like having broken glass sown under your skin”
“they forced the U2 albums on to everyone's device for ReasonsTM”
“they forced the U2 album onto devices, then after backlash removed it”
“Apple giving them a free U2 album that ate up limited device storage space”
“It's a truly terrible idea in practice.”
“The only real issue with it was the inability to remove it which they later rectified.”
“thought it was pretty good”
“that awful free U2 album that they automatically added to everyone's iTunes library”
“Would it still have been a violation of consent? Sure, yeah it would.”
“it's still not possible to remove it”
“this “gift” as you call it would get in the way all the time”
“They were not only messing with our libraries, they were claiming we wanted it and were in fact U2 fans.”
“It was automatically put on all my devices in iTunes.”
“It just would not go away.”
“It was incredibly obnoxious.”
“I would've found it obnoxious too”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.