Bono has apologised for giving U2’s album away for free.

The group triggered a backlash from angry iTunes users who were given their ‘Songs of Innocence’ LP as a free download and the frontman admits the decision was driven in part by “megalomania” and the desire for as many people as possible to hear the songs.

During a Facebook Q&A session Bono was asked: “Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to people’s playlists ever again? It’s really rude.”

He replied: “Oops, I’m sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea and we got carried away with ourselves – artists are prone to that kind of thing.

“Drop of megalomania, twitch of generosity, dash of self-promotion and deep fear that these songs that we’ve poured our life into over the last few years mightn’t be heard.

“There’s a lot of noise out there. I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it.”

Bono’s bandmate The Edge recently admitted he had “doubts” before they agreed to make the album available to Apple users.

He said: “I absolutely had my doubts about it before we did it, and after, but it was the right thing to do. It was an opportunity that will only ever come around once for anybody. I don’t think anybody would want to do it again.”