By XUANCHEN FAN

U2’s new album has been posted on the iTunes store for free download. The new album “Sounds of Innocence” is free to the more than 500 million iTunes customers in 119 countries.

U2’s new album (Source: from Pitchfork)

Maybe it is surprising, but more people are willing to buy the new edition CD after downloading the new album online.

At the beginning, iTunes was free to download music. Then musicians begin to sue Apple, saying that people are freely downloading the music and no one is willing to buy their edition or even deluxe edition CD.

However, given the situation with U2’s new album, artists should reconsider the methods of selling albums. People realized that the free download music and the edition CD are different. The latter one possesses the possibility of increasing in value and has collection value.

Moreover, the deluxe edition CD’s acoustic quality is much better. Music we are able to  download for free possesses poorer acoustic quality. It is like a sales strategy to encourage consumers to listen to better quality music.

The free download music is also a sale strategy that can help more people get to know the band. Taking U2 as an example, U2 is a famous band around America and Europe. Nonetheless, this iTunes free download experience enable more Asian know this band.

Listen to the U2’s new album at http://www.apple.com/U2/.