Since I am not and never have been an Apple customer, I'm not affected by their REALLY DUMB idea to put the new U2 album on EVERYONE's iTunes/iPhone account. (You can read all about it many places, including this link to CBS News.) Having the album pop up in your music mix is annoying to many. It would be to me. The REALLY DUMB part is that apparently you can't get rid of the darned thing from your cloud storage. The other dumb part is that it downloads to your iPhone automatically if you have automatic updates turned on or if you elected to automatically download your music purchases. So you're listening to your tunes which are entirely opera and classical music (for example) and all of a sudden you're hearing U2? Not good.
Apple fanboys are defending this move. I dare say if evil Microsoft pulled the same stunt, these same people would be howling. A lot of the discussion seems to focus on whether or not U2's music is worthy (irrelevant), if you deserve this download if you're "dumb enough" to have automatic updates turned on (also mostly irrelevant - this isn't a software update), or how difficult/easy it is to "just ignore" the album in your account (again, mostly irrelevant). The issue is, does or should Apple have the right to put ANYTHING in your personal data area, especially something you can't get rid of? To me the answer is crystal clear: NO. This isn't a marketing message (e.g., spam) that you can route to your spam folder and then delete. It isn't a phone solicitation that you can block. This is a permanent (for now) intrusion into your personal space.
So, does Apple have the legal right to do this? They probably do. Would i want to do business with a company that views their customers this way? Absolutely not. We're ready to upgrade our dumb cell phones to smart ones. As I stated at the beginning, I've never bought an Apple product. I've been looking at the various Android phones, but I might have considered the iPhone as an alternative. Not anymore.
(Oh wait. I just remembered we have bought iTunes gift cards in the past as presents. That won't happen again anytime soon. Good job, Apple!)