U2’s Larry Mullen writes open letter to U2.com members

Larry Mullen has written an open letter to U2.com members, which arrived in our mailbox today just in time for our morning coffee break:

Dear (insert U2.com member name here),

This is not something that I would normally do, but I feel that I have to do something to redress this situation.

There was a mess up in the way the tickets were distributed through U2.com for the Vertigo pre-sale. Some of it was beyond our control, but some of it wasn’t.

I am now in the process of figuring out a way of distributing the tickets for our intended return to North America in the fall. The only fair way of doing this, is to give U2 Propaganda members, who are now U2.com members, priority in the queue.

After that, people will be given priority in the order in which they joined.

Many people who joined U2.com and didn’t get tickets are understandably angry. They now have the option to get a full refund of their subscription fee.

The idea that our long-time U2 fans and scalpers competed for U2 tickets through our own website is appalling to me. I want to apologise to you who have suffered that.

If your U2.com pre-sale experience has left you disappointed, I hope this will go some way towards reassuring you of our total commitment to our audience.

Slainte
Larry.

By the way, a note to those so-called U2 fans who are quick to accuse U2 of unseemly behaviour, I’ve only got two words for you…

This letter was also published on U2.com.

Thanks, Larry. It’s good to get a statement from a bandmember and truly encouraging to hear you’re looking into this matter personally. Fair play to ya. Don’t be too hard on fans who question, rather than follow blindly. They’re the ones that are prepared to show up even when the going gets tough. Those who love the most, hurt the most, you must know that. Good health to yourself, too and we’ll be seeing you on the road.

Bono and Edge Team Up With Jobs

Bono and The Edge were in San Jose, California, today to help Apple announce:

  • A special 20GB black U2 iPod that will retail for $349US featuring all four band members’ signatures.
  • A digital box set of all of U2’s albums as well as over 25 rare and unreleased tracks. The box set will retail for $149US. U2.com says that those tracks will include material from Hasta La Vista, Baby! and Melon, the Propaganda-only fan club CDs. The total is said to be “over 400 tracks” — which is a lot more than just all the albums. Hopefully there’ll be more on this soon.
  • The iTunes music store is now available in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, in addition to the UK, US, Germany and France. (No Ireland?)
  • A iPod Photo for sharing your iPhoto library with friends and family who aren’t already sick of your photos. Price: $499US (40GB); $599US (60GB).
  • Bono on CNBC, discussing the release: “Music and technology have always been neighbours. Today they moved into the same house.”

Update:Watch the video stream of the event.

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