Veteran Irish rockers U2 pulled off the largest album release in history at Tuesday’s Apple Inc. event to launch new products (see page 27), after making its latest record available for free on Apple’s iTunes online stores to half a billion iTunes users.

The Grammy Award-winning band performed its latest single The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) at the Cupertino, California event, at which Apple unveiled two new iPhones, a smart watch and a mobile payments system.

U2 released its new 11-track Songs of Innocence live on stage with Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook. The album immediately appeared in iTunes users’ music libraries. However, the giveaway to more than 500 million iTunes users will not count towards official music sales figures because it was distributed for free.

The band will release Songs of Innocence and a deluxe version featuring four new tracks and acoustic performances to the rest of the world on October 14.

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