U2: A Song Of Innocence & Backlash with Andy Daly and Izzy Roland | 79

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the fall of 2014, half a billion Apple iTunes users woke up to find U2's latest album downloaded to their devices. The band thought they were democratizing music, instead, U2’s attempt to force-feed their music to the masses turned into a PR nightmare complete with deletion tutorials, customer revolts, and the most expensive 'unsubscribe' button in music history.

Izzy Roland (Dimension 20, The Sex Lives of College Girls) and Andy Daly (The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) join Misha to reminisce about simpler times, when Big Tech and do-gooders got along.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Picture this. You're lounging on your couch, ready to indulge in another hilariously disastrous
0:05.8	episode of The Big Flop, but then, bam, an ad. Don't let that be you. With Wondery Plus,
0:14.6	you can enjoy The Big Flop a whole week early and completely ad-free. It's like having a fast pass to the front row of the VIP section.
0:24.4	Upgrade your listening experience and join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts.
0:30.7	Your uninterrupted flop fix awaits.
0:33.2	Thank you. Way back in 2014, in 2014, the biggest rock band in the world sent a free album to half a billion iTunes users.
0:51.7	Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
0:57.5	But lots of folks felt icky about having their playlists messed with. That's right. Today on the big flop, we're talking about U2 and the album
1:04.5	that had millions of people saying, I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
1:11.8	The delete button.
1:16.4	Apple slipped U2's new album, Songs of Innocence,
1:20.2	into your iTunes account, and boy, did some people get mad.
1:22.9	Don't worry, you haven't been hit with a U2 virus.
1:27.4	Apple is telling users how to delete the U2 album that gave away for free.
1:31.5	Bono could not be reached for comment as he is currently in Africa helping the needy.
1:38.5	We are on a sinking ship.
1:44.7	With the new Lloyd's app, you can do it all.
1:47.3	You can freeze your card if you misplace it.
1:49.2	Whilst you search behind the sofa.
1:50.3	Blame the dog.
1:51.1	Run upstairs.
1:51.7	Run downstairs.
	...

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