U2 have slowly begun an apology tour for the surprise, free iTunes release of their new album, Songs of Innocence. First, they made it easier for listeners to delete the album; then,Bono expressed regret for the way it just showed up on people's computers. Now, more criticism has come U2's way. The Black Keys' Patrick Carney has disparaged U2's release strategy, saying it "devalued their music completely," in an interview with The Seattle Times (via Billboard).
He added, "[It] sends a huge mixed message to bands... that are just struggling to get by. I think that they were thinking it’s super generous of them to do something like that."
Carney also reiterated the Black Keys' anti-streaming service stance. (The band's two most recent albums, Turn Blue and El Camino, are still not available on streaming services like Spotify.) "My whole thing about music is: if somebody’s making money then the artist should be getting a fair cut of it," he said. "The owner of Spotify is worth something like 3 billion dollars…he’s richer than Paul McCartney and he’s 30 and he’s never written a song."
Watch the Black Keys' video for "Fever":
