Bits & Bytes

A collection of the latest U2 news and announcements posted by our staff.

@U2 Originals: January 2012

Here at @U2, one of the things we're most proud of is the original content we provide, created exclusively by our staff. In case you missed any of it in January, the highlights are posted here:

Kelley Eskridge and Iidaliisa Partanen kicked off the month by revealing the answers to the December Question of the Month, which asked fans, "What message would you write to the band on a holiday card?"

In our weekly Off the Record column, Matt McGee paid congratulations to producer Steve Lillywhite, who recently became a Commander of the British Empire, while Becky Myers looked forward to a solid concert year for many beloved acts. Sherry Lawrence lamented an unauthorized book about U2, and Aaron J. Sams discussed his continued addiction to collecting U2 items. Arlan Hess closed out the month by declaring U2 lyrics as poetry.

Our popular "Like a Song" series continued with an essay about "A Sort of Homecoming" by Ian Ryan. And in our new series "Like a Video," Tim Neufeld wrote about "Until the End of the World" as it was performed on the night of the predicted (but obviously not realized) rapture.  The "U2 Lists" piece for this month was authored by Tassoula E. Kokkoris, who discussed her Top 5 Bono Howls.

Matt McGee also put together @U2 in 2011: Top News Articles, Song Lyrics and More.

To leave feedback on any of these @U2 originals, please visit our forum.

The Edge Contributing to WholeWorldBand Project

If you've ever wanted to perform with The Edge, you may have a chance to do that pretty soon -- at least in the virtual sense. According to Hot Press, Edge is one of several artists contributing a performance to a new music app called WholeWorldBand. And, if I'm reading this correctly, musicians like you can also contribute to WholeWorldBand and then combine your performances with The Edge's ... or any others.

Musicians and music fans from all over the world will be able to contribute and combine a selection of video performances, including their own, from the WholeWorldBand library to create their own favourite band line-up.  And they will also have the opportunity to earn money from their performance.

It's going to be previewed next month at The Music Show in Dublin, and then the app will be available in March. One of the people behind WholeWorldApp is Kevin Godley, former musician who has also directed several U2 videos including "Numb," "Sweetest Thing" and others.

U2, McGuinness at No. 27 on Billboard Power 100 List

From the "for what it's worth" department: U2/Paul McGuinness are ranked 27th on the first-ever Billboard Power 100 -- the magazine's list of the most powerful/influential figures in the music industry. That number may seem low, but the list is made up mostly of behind-the-scenes industry people and not many artists. U2/McGuinnness is actually the second-highest ranked artist behind Jay-Z/Beyoncé at No. 13.

The full Power 100 list is here if you're interested, or you can skip straight to the brief write-up about U2/McGuinness here.

McGuinness Slams Google at MIDEM

This one's sure to spread like wildfire on the web in the coming days, so we'll report it here briefly even though it's not directly U2-related. The band's manager, Paul McGuinness, spoke at the MIDEM music industry conference in Cannes today and the topic was, as it's been in past year, online piracy and the role of tech companies in piracy. McGuinness slammed Google for drumming up opposition to two recent anti-piracy bills in the U.S. Congress, and for not doing enough to clean up its search results:

"It amazes me that Google has not done the right thing. The experience of people when they go on Google and look for U2 music or PJ Harvey music is a shopping list of illegal opportunities to get their music. They have done nothing meaningful to discourage that."

If you want to learn more about what McGuinness is talking about and what he said at MIDEM, here are a few news links that should help:

MusicAlly: U2 manager Paul McGuinness lambasts Google’s anti-SOPA lobbying
Billboard: U2 Manager Paul McGuinness On Spotify, Piracy & Tech: His Five Best @MIDEM Quotes
Music Week: MIDEM: U2 manager slams Google's anti-SOPA actions and piracy search listings

U2.com Offers Members 'Even Better' Download from U22

U2.com members that have already renewed their membership for 2012 can login now and find a little treat: a live version of "Even Better Than The Real Thing" from U22 that can be downloaded from your profile/account page.

To access the download, login to your U2.com account and click the ACCOUNT INFO button at the top of the page. If you don't see a link to download the track, that means you haven't resubbed for 2012 yet. (Like me, for example. My subscription is set to expire in March and I have yet to renew; ergo, I do not see the download link.)

If you don't see the download link, you're probably also not in line to get a copy of U22 when it's finished. I'm not 100% positive on that, but it seems logical. You'll need to renew for another year to get the 2-CD live set of songs from the U2 360 tour.

We're on Google+, too

Just a quick heads up to any of our readers who use Google+. We've finally gotten around to creating an @U2 page there, so feel free to connect with us and say hello. We'll use Google+ the same way we do our Twitter and Facebook accounts -- to share U2 news, essays, and have conversations with our fellow fans. Here's our page:

https://plus.google.com/108071700926185224735

Poll Results: Your Favorite U2 Christmas Song

One of our poll questions during the month of December asked @U2 readers to choose their favorite U2 Christmas song -- either "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" from 1987, or "I Believe In Father Christmas" from 2008. With just under 2,400 fans voting, the results are in and clear: Your favorite is "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" by about a 2-to-1 margin. The graphic below has the full details.

Be sure to vote in our new poll question on atu2.com, which asks for your grade on the U22 song list.