U2 were early investors in a number of tech platforms (notably Facebook and Dropbox) and were not averse to partnering with device manufacturers. (Research In Motion, makers of the BlackBerry, sponsored the band’s 360 tour back when the BlackBerry was still vaguely cool; plus they made a black and red edition of the iPod in 2004 when the iPod was absolutely the must-have device on the market.)

So they certainly were good at reading the tech markets and knowing when to make their jump. But maybe they always had astonishing prescience as, way back in May 1980, they released their second single, ‘11 O’Clock Tick Tock’ which predicted the arrival of TikTok 36 years later. Maybe. Possibly. Perhaps.

Anyway… they have barged into the TikTok party far, far behind most other acts (even John Lennon and George Harrison are on there and they’ve been dead for years). It’s all to draw attention to the launch of their new single, ‘Your Song Saved My Life’.

TikTok got the first play of the song (albeit in clip form) on 2nd November, a day ahead of its full release. U2 set about trying to populate their TikTok feed – posting a little compilation of their biggest hits in one video, one clip promoting their first three albums, another one pushing ‘Your Song Saved My Life’ and yet another one pushing their next three albums.

Within the first week, the band’s account had only reached 16.8k followers, possibly suggesting two things: their core audience is not on TikTok yet so they will have to wait for them to sign up; TikTok’s core audience is not that interested in U2 and so there will be an uphill struggle to make the teens who power the platform care about a band their parents or even grandparents probably liked.

Maybe they are hoping for a little Fleetwood Mac-style viral activity on the app. Bono on roller skates drinking a can of Lilt and miming to ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’, maybe?

(Side note: when we checked, the U2 account was not following a single account, thereby making a mockery of the title of their fourth single, from October 1980, ‘I Will Follow’.)

It all makes a pleasant change from the band’s galumphing attempt to ride the digital zeitgeist in 2014 when they pumped their Songs Of Innocence album into everyone’s iTunes collections – whether they wanted it or not.