U2 launched a million thinkpieces last week when they surprised the world with their new album Songs Of Innocence, beaming it automatically into the phones and computers of hundreds of millions of iTunes users. But they’re not done. In a new Time cover story, the band claims that they’ve been working with Apple on a whole new digital music format. According to the magazine, the new format is designed to be “so irresistibly exciting to music fans that it will tempt them again into buying music—whole albums as well as individual tracks.”

The band is staying quiet on the details of the new venture, but Bono did offer that it would be “an audiovisual interactive format for music that can’t be pirated and will bring back album artwork in the most powerful way, where you can play with the lyrics and get behind the songs when you’re sitting on the subway with your iPad or on these big flat screens. You can see photography like you’ve never seen it before.” He also says the endeavor is “about 18 months away” from going public.

So: Can digital music be saved? And do you trust U2 to be the guys who save it?