Apple and U2 Working on a New Digital Music Format

Apple might have won a lot of detractors for placing U2's newest album, Songs of Innocence, in the iTunes accounts of its users - so much so that the company actually had to release a tool to help people remove the album - but the collaboration between the two might go further than just this.

The details are far from clear yet, but in an interview with Time magazine, U2 lead singer Bono talks about how a new format would lead to resurgence in buying music, instead of free legal streaming or illegal downloads.

Right now, the music industry in the US is still trying to find its footing again, and most of the money that comes to musicians comes from live performances. But, as Bono states in the interview with Time, this is just a small number of musicians.

"Songwriters aren't touring people," Bono said in the interview. "Cole Porter wouldn't have sold T-shirts. Cole Porter wasn't coming to a stadium near you."

Bono told Time that he hopes that a new digital music format will prove to be irresistibly exciting to music fans. This is actually in line with something that the band has been hoping to accomplish for a while now, as noted by Apple Insider:

U2 has long collaborated with Apple on consumer-facing products like the U2-edition iPod and Product (Red) accessories, but the group was reportedly rebuffed for more in-depth partnerships under late Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Bono indicated as much in 2009 when the group signed a deal with Canadian smartphone makers BlackBerry.

"I'm very excited about this," he said at the time. "Research In Motion is going to give us what Apple wouldn't - access to their labs and their people so we can do something really spectacular."

Under Tim Cook, Apple has been much more visibly open to picking up talent and ideas from outside the company and this new partnership with U2 could be a reflection of that fact. Hopefully, new details will emerge about exactly what the collaboration is working on soon.

And it's worth noting that while a large number of people have been very vocally upset about the U2 album on their devices, a fairly sizeable chunk of iPhone users have been listening to Songs of Innocence as well. Apple told Time that 38 million people have downloaded or streamed the album.