U2 have announced details of their new album, a North American tour and a new initiative “to keep tickets out of the hands of scalpers and bots,” according to the band’s official website.
The band’s fourteenth studio album Songs of Experience is due for release on 1 December on CD, deluxe CD, double blue vinyl LP, super deluxe multi-format box set and download, as well as through the usual streaming outlets. The standard CD contains thirteen new tracks (including new single You’re The Best Thing About Me), rising to sixteen on the vinyl and seventeen on the deluxe CD, while the box set includes both the vinyl and deluxe CD formats plus a poster and what is intriguingly described as a “Songs of Experience newspaper”.
All formats are available to order now, with three tracks available for immediate download upon ordering. Fans in the UK and Europe who pre-order the album will receive a code for the ticket presale for the European leg of the band’s 2018 tour; conversely, in the US and Canada, a copy of the album is included with each ticket purchased for the tour. In an attempt to thwart ticket touts, U2 have teamed up with Ticketmaster to offer presale tickets to verified U2.com subscribers. The scheme requires buyers to have a Ticketmaster account, a u2.com account and a valid mobile phone number; more details are available at the band’s official website.
So far fifteen North American dates have been announced for the eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE tour, beginning in May 2018. UK and European dates are expected to follow soon.
