U2's iTunes giveaway 'Songs of Innocence' breaks records, revives back catalog

As part of the announcement bonanaza that was last week's Apple Event which gave us two iPhone 6's, Apple Pay and the Apple Watch, Apple also gave every iTunes subscriber instant access to U2's new album 'Songs of Innocence,'. This free download broke some records to the tune of 2 million downloads which grants the album 'double-platinum' status, a big deal in term of distribution. A nice halo effect of this freebie is that it reanimated U2's back-catalog and so people have been rediscovering their classic songs as well. 

How significant is this halo effect, Re/Code has noted that 'In addition to the strong download performance for Songs of Innocence, some 17 of the group's 27 previous albums have made their way into the iTunes top 100 chart. That's something that would never happen in real world record sales and charts, but hey, good for Bono and the lads. Have you downloaded U2's latest album or did it automagically appear on your iTunes library? What do you think of the new album? Let us know below.