U2 faced such a backlash over its free album that the band apologised, but the Irish superstars claimed vindication Tuesday as research showed its music dominated iTunes listening. U2's "Songs of Innocence" was automatically sent to the world's half billion iTunes customers as a promotion for the new iPhone 6, leading to so many complaints that Apple set up a special webpage on how to delete the album.
But research company Kantar Group said that 23 percent of iTunes users in January 2015 listened to at least one U2 track - far more than second-placed Taylor Swift at 11 percent.
U2 on Tuesday seized on the survey, saying the figures showed that the band's strategy had been proven right.
"This is fantastic news," lead singer Bono said in a statement.
"If these figures suggest that these songs still matter to people, then we're knocked out. That's all any songwriter wants," he said.
Guitarist The Edge added: "We took a big risk but today we can say that the experiment worked."
Kantar based its survey on an initial sample size of 2,510. It said that virtually all of the people who listened to U2 last month heard a track from "Songs of Innocence."