Sharon Osbourne went on a Twitter rant this week, raging against U2’s free iTunes album, Songs of Innocence, and calling out the band on the marketing stunt.

Sharon Osbourne Rants On Twitter

Osbourne took to Twitter to express her anger at the new U2 album, which was released to iTunes users for free as a gift to add on to the announcement of the new iPhone 6 and Apple Watch. Many fans were not pleased when they opened iTunes and found U2’s Songs of Innocence waiting to be downloaded from the iCloud, and backlash forced Apple to release instructions on how to delete the album from the iCloud.

Osbourne took offense at U2’s seemingly magnanimous gesture, which cost Apple about $100 million, tweeting, “U2 you are business moguls not musicians anymore. No wonder you have to give your mediocre music away for free cause no one wants to buy it. Guys nothing is for free, how much you making? PS, btw you are just a bunch of middle age political groupies.”

Osbourne explained her twitter rant on The Talk, saying that, though she regards U2 as one of the best rock bands in the world, she believes their ‘free’ album is a manipulation of the industry, and is nothing more than a bit of fancy marketing that allows the band to call themselves pioneers.

“Their music isn’t relevant, and doesn’t sell like it used to…U2 have to be number one at everything they do. Now, instead of releasing an album and it softly goes into number one, then it falls – they don’t like that. So, they want to be the biggest and best in the world – give it away for free, whether you want it or not,” Osbourne said.

Osbourne went on to call the automatic download an invasion of her “private, entertainment space.”

Osbourne Accuses U2 Of Hurting Young Musicians

Finally, Osbourne affirmed her belief that U2’s free album could be detrimental to struggling artists trying to make a living in the music industry, accusing the band of “[setting] the precedent that music is disposable. It’s just another piece of software, and it’s nothing, you should give it away for free.”

“Sorry, guys…there’s a whole new breed of artists coming up that need that money to survive, to be able to continue to create. We’re not all billionaires, we’re not all in your world,” Osbourne concluded.

Bono alluded to the issue of ‘free’ music in a post on the official U2 website. “To celebrate the ten year anniversary of our iPod commercial, they bought it as a gift to give to all their music customers. Free, but paid for. Because if no-one’s paying anything for it, we’re not sure ‘free’ music is really that free. It usually comes at a cost to the art form and the artist…which has big implications, not for us n U2, but for future musicians and their music…all the songs that have yet to be written by the talents of the future…who need to make a living to write them,” Bono wrote on Sept. 9.

While Bono appears to be aware of the potential consequences to releasing a huge album for free to iTunes customers, it’s unclear what the famous musician is really trying to say about how his album will affect a new generation of musicians.

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.