U2 releases a “Wave of Sorrow” on Facebook

As we have previously reported, U2 will be releasing their reissue of The Joshua Tree on Nov. 20, but those of you who are just itching to get a piece of the new material they have added to the deluxe edition of this classic album are in luck. The Irishmen have teamed up with iLike on Facebook to pre-release “Wave of Sorrow,” a track that the group recorded for the album’s release 20 years ago, but never finished until now.

iLike is a Facebook widget that launched this year. Members of the online social network can add the application and search through a mammoth database of music, posting favorite songs to their Facebook pages. iLike also allows fans to receive notifications concerning news, tour date, and events surrounding their favorite artists.

U2’s special track was released on this system with messages being sent to over 1.2 million fans to notify them of the songs availability, along with an exclusive video of Bono discussing the origins of the old/new tune. The rest of the campaign was done without any sort of publicity to see how the public would pick up on this new form of music distribution.

Well, if the fact that we are now reporting on “Wave of Sorrow” means anything, then I would venture to say that this experiment has been successful. With U2 having paved the way, it will be interesting to see if any other bands will take advantage of this direct communication with their fans and how this new electronic method of spreading music will fare in the long run.

Related links
U2.com
"Wave of Sorrow" on Facebook
YouTube: Bono's commentary on "Wave of Sorrow"

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