Apple Silences U2 Haters with Online Album Removal Tool

Apple generously coughed up a reported $100 million to deliver the latest U2 album free to more than 500 million iTunes customers, but over the last week an increasing number of music fans have whined on social media about getting a raw deal.

Apple today posted a support document for iTunes customers unhappy with automatically receiving the free U2 album "Songs of Innocence," which is available free to everyone until October 13.

For many, it's hard to imagine people complaining about getting something for free — especially when the aforementioned "purchase" resides in the cloud, and would actually only wind up on a user's device should they actually choose to download those tracks.

Apparently tired of ungrateful customers complaining about the lavish gesture, Apple is now offering iTunes users an option to purge the offending music from their library — not only delete the tracks from a device, but banish Bono and his bandmates from the cloud as well.

The trick involves visiting a webpage set up specifically to remove the album: Click the "Remove Album" link, sign in with your iTunes Apple ID and password, and the sultry sounds of Irish rock will be gone for good, leaving only a confirmation message in its wake.

One word of warning: Apple states that removing "Songs of Innocence" from your iTunes account will permanently delete the album, making it unable to be downloaded as a previous purchase like everything else. The only recourse in that event would be to wait until October 13, at which point you can rectify the situation by actually paying cold, hard cash to buy the album.

How long until the class action lawsuit kicks off claiming Apple caused undue emotional distress by forcing them to download a free U2 album? (We're joking...we hope....)

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(Image courtesy of Billboard)