Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons
license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary
on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the
entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/


   How to Get Your Free U2 Album

   Josh Centers

   This is an article that shouldn't exist. When Apple announced that it
   was paying the band [1]U2 so every iTunes customer could download U2's
   new album 'Songs of Innocence' for free until 13 October 2014 (when the
   album officially goes on sale), how you obtained it should have been
   obvious.

   Unfortunately, very little is obvious in iTunes these days, and we've
   been seeing questions from a lot of Apple users who still haven't
   figured out how to get the album.

   First, the album may already be in your iTunes library. Search your
   iTunes library for U2 or 'Songs of Innocence' to see if it's already
   there. If it is (with a cloud icon in the corner), you can play it from
   the cloud (if you subscribe to iTunes Match), or click the cloud icon
   to download it.

   [2][tn_U2-in-your-library.jpg]

   If it isn't, go to Preferences > Store and see if Show iTunes in the
   Cloud Purchases is enabled. If not, enable it and try again. You might
   also have to quit and restart iTunes before the album shows up.

   [3][tn_iTunes-in-the-Cloud-preference.jpg]

   If that doesn't work, enter the iTunes Store (most easily done if the
   sidebar is showing: View > Show Sidebar), click the Music link in the
   top dark grey navigation bar next to the house icon, and click
   Purchased in the right-hand sidebar. 'Songs of Innocence' should be the
   first album listed. Click the cloud icon with the downward-pointing
   arrow in the album's upper-right corner to begin downloading it.
   (There's also a promotional banner you can click on to download it.)

   On iOS, the album should, in theory, be in the iTunes Store app, under
   the More tab, in Purchased > Music > U2. However, for me, it wasn't.
   Fortunately, I stumbled across a promotional banner for the album in
   the Music tab. Tap the Free box, then tap it again when it becomes Get
   Album.

   [4]Image

   You can also listen to the album via the Apple-owned Beats Music (for
   more on Beats Music, see '[5]FunBITS: What Sets Beats Music Apart,' 16
   May 2014).

   Thanks to Apple for buying us all (500 million people with iTunes
   accounts!) this album, but I hope Apple's next big event features an
   overhaul of iTunes that makes this stuff intuitive again.

References

   1. http://www.u2.com/
   2. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-09/U2-in-your-library.png
   3. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-09/iTunes-in-the-Cloud-preference.png
   4. http://tidbits.com/resources/2014-09/U2-iOS.png
   5. http://tidbits.com/article/14759

.