Apple Sets Up Page To Allow U2 Album Deletion From iTunes

Apple has responded to criticism regarding the involuntary inclusion in consumers' iTunes libraries of U2's latest album, Songs Of Innocence, by setting up a dedicated webpage to expediate the process of removing it from their devices.

The new LP was automatically added to more than 500 million iTunes accounts around the world, and — in the case where said users had such settings enabled — auto-downloaded to their devices, as U2 (pretty pretentiously, it must be said) crowed on about the "historic" "gift".

While the response to the stunt has largely ranged from mild annoyance to misguided overreaction (and, yes, even some enthusiasm, probably), Apple has seen fit to erect the SOI Removal site to provide a solution for consumers who wish to delete the album from their devices - an option that previously was not available, despite U2 manager Guy Oseray telling people that's what they should do if they did not want it (which went down about as well as you would expect).

"Once the album has been removed from your account, it will no longer be available for you to redownload as a previous purchase," Apple explains on the site.

But, just in case you change your mind, Apple says, "you will need to get it again. The album is free to everyone until October 13, 2014 and will be available for purchase after that date."