It is the fourth track from their thirteenth studio album, Songs of Innocence, and was released as its third single on 11 May 2015.

The music video for the song is a short film featuring Woody Harrelson and his daughter Zoe.

Chris Milk and his company Vrse produced a 360-degree virtual reality video for "Song for Someone" that was released in October 2015.

[3] The bus was equipped with Oculus Rift headsets and Beats Solos headphones for fans to use to view the video.

Production on the project began two months before Apple Music's launch and saw filming take place in 11 countries.