The Complete U2 is a digital box set by Irish rock band U2. It was released on 23 November 2004 exclusively through the iTunes Store by Apple Inc. in partnership with Island and Interscope Records. The collection has been described as the first major digital-only box set by a recording artist, comprising 446 tracks spanning 1978âÂÂ2004, including albums, singles, live recordings, rarities and previously unreleased material.
Announced alongside the iPod U2 Special Edition, the set was positioned by Apple as the online music industryâÂÂs first âÂÂDigital Box Set.â At launch it contained 446 tracks organized in 67 digital âÂÂgroupingsâ corresponding to U2âÂÂs albums, singles and EPs; in iTunes each grouping was labelled The Complete U2. Four titles were exclusive to the set: Unreleased & Rare, Live from Boston 1981, Live from the Point Depot and the Early Demos EP.
A 48-page digital booklet (PDF) accompanied the set, featuring artwork, track listings and liner notesâÂÂessays by Bill Flanagan for previously released albums and notes by the Edge for the exclusive content. Design was handled by Dublin firm Four5One Creative, long-time U2 collaborators. (The booklet credits Four5One and Flanagan.)
At release the U.S. price was US$149.99; purchasers of the U2 iPod received a US$50 coupon toward the set. Files were delivered as 128 kbps AAC (.m4a). When Apple expanded its iTunes Plus offering, prior purchasers could upgrade their copies to 256 kbps for a fee, although the box set itself was no longer sold by that time.
Although marketed as âÂÂcomplete,â the package necessarily repeated many tracks across albums, singles and compilations (for example, âÂÂOneâ appears in its album, single and compilation groupings). Several items in U2âÂÂs wider discography were not included.
Contemporary documentation and fan reports noted a number of metadata and audio issues at launch, some later corrected in store updates, others persisting:
Subsequent 256 kbps iTunes Plus upgrades in 2009 introduced further mismatches in some territories (for example, substitution of mixes and mislabelled tracks), with corrections varying by region.
On 20 December 2007 the set was removed from the iTunes Store worldwide and has not been reissued as a complete package since; existing owners later gained access to iTunes Plus upgrades.
The following albums are only officially available as part of this set:
Unreleased & Rare compiles previously unreleased and hard-to-find tracks, many originating from the All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb sessions; some edits and remixes from singles and compilations are also included.
Live from Boston 1981 was recorded at the Paradise Rock Club on during the Boy Tour. Several performances had previously appeared as B-sides or bonus tracks on various singles.
Live from the Point Depot documented U2âÂÂs New Year's Eve performance at DublinâÂÂs Point Depot in 1989, officially released here after years of circulation as a bootleg recording.
Early Demos contains three studio demos produced by Barry Devlin and recorded at Keystone Studios in November 1978. Two tracks (âÂÂStreet Missionâ and âÂÂThe FoolâÂÂ) are otherwise unavailable on U2 studio albums; âÂÂShadows and Tall Treesâ later appeared on Boy (1980).