As popular as U2 are, a lot of people hate them. Apple didn’t consider this when installing the band’s new album to 500 million iTunes accounts without consent.

It was all part of a marketing stunt by the tech company, but many customers got pretty irritated when they couldn’t remove Bono and crew’s latest offering from their library.

Some users – such as Graham Norton – found it vaguely sinister that Apple were able to access their devices without permission. Others joked about it. One tweet by @uvray_ read: “WARNING: DO NOT click on links offering free downloads of the new U2 album. They lead to free downloads of the new U2 album.”

Due to all the complaints, Apple then had to set up a special feature to help delete the album.

While the publicity stunt may have backfired for Apple, U2 are laughing all the way to the bank, because according to the New York Times:

To release U2’s album free, Apple paid the band and Universal an unspecified fee as a blanket royalty and committed to a marketing campaign for the band worth up to $100 million, according to several people briefed on the deal.

Check out the full story on International Business Times.