U2 release limited number of <em>Songs of Innocence</em> vinyl to secure Grammy eligibility

There’s no Apple fix for this one.

U2’s mostly-lambasted Songs of Innocence release/iTunes hijacking has taken another turn: Rolling Stone reports that the group quietly released a limited number of vinyl copies to retailers, ensuring it would be eligible for next year’s Grammy Awards.

The deadline for a release to be eligible for the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2015 is September 30. Along with the iTunes release, U2 had planned a deluxe vinyl edition to be released on October 14; it appears this limited release was engineered to allow the album to sneak in before the deadline.

“As long as the album, be it CD, vinyl or digital, is available commercially for sale to the public by our eligibility cutoff date at a nationally recognized retailer or website, then it’s eligible for consideration,” said a spokesperson for the Grammys.

The reaction to the Songs of Innocence release was so negative that Apple had to issue a special link to remove it from the libraries of dissatisfied iTunes users. That hasn’t stopped U2 from working with Apple on a digital format that “can’t be pirated.

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