Bono hits at ‘haters’ of iTunes album launch

U2 lead singer Bono has labelled as "haters" the people who criticised the band online for the way their first album in five years was given away for free.

Songs of Innocence was gifted to an estimated 500m users of Apple’s iTunes in a reported $100m (€78m) deal that coincided with the launch of the technology giant’s latest devices almost a fortnight ago.

In a world exclusive, pre-recorded interview with RTÉ 2FM’s Dave Fanning, the first DJ to play the album in full when it was released earlier this month, Bono said there has been some “real deliberate misunderstanding” of their relationship with Apple.