Apple makes it easy to remove U2's free album from iTunes

Apple has released a tool that lets people boot U2 off their iTunes after a cacophony of complaints about not wanting the Irish rock band's automatically downloaded free album.

U2 performed at an Apple event to unveil its new iPhones and smartwatch last week, and free copies of the band's new Songs of Innocence album were instantly delivered to the more than 500 million iTunes accounts around the world.

The gift hit a sour note for iTunes users, who took to social media to complain about precious iPhone storage space being taken up by a digital album they didn't want and couldn't figure out how to get rid of.

"If you would like U2's Songs of Innocence removed from your iTunes music library and iTunes purchases, you can choose to have it removed," Apple said at a freshly launched SOI Removal web page that let people delete the album with a click of an icon.

While it was already possible to delete the album, Apple's tool does it in just one step. Apple warned that once the album was removed, it could not be retrieved for free.

"I managed to delete U2 off my iPhone. It's a beautiful day," one Twitter user said in a message playing off a verse from one of the band's hit songs.