Music

Twitter is convinced the Illuminati is behind U2's new album

by Tyler Munro

U2’s involvement in the Apple keynote was maybe a bit weird, but it was also totally brilliant. While Songs of Innocence isn’t immediately eligible for the charts, that it is immediately gifted to more than 500 million iTunes users makes it sure to top the Billboard 200 when it is.

But that omnipresence has teens on the internet scrambling. Like, more than usual. Because while they’re never quite sure what exactly the Illuminati is, they’re convinced they’re behind U2’s new album sneaking its way onto their phones.

While this is yet another example of people totally not understanding how the cloud works*, our perpetual need to share our theories on everything has led to some hilarious results.

Fun fact: The album is there, in your phones, and on your computers, as an option to download, because you technically own it. But unless you decide to actively engage with it, either by saving it to your devices or by streaming it, Songs of Innocence is only there as a suggestion. That isn’t a conspiracy, it’s advertising.

The cloud is not actually a cloud of information. Crazy, right? It’s not a metaphysical marvel of intangible 1s and 0s floating around, waiting to be picked out, but rather a series of servers on a grid. It’s a metaphor, you doofuses.