Australian hard-core rock band AC/DC has finally made its record collection available on iTunes, perhaps heralding the final end of the digital format CD's business superiority for even the largest of rock bands.
AC/DC has consistently refused to issue its music in digital format, citing Apple's refusal to sell whole albums rather than individual songs and also a general mistrust of digital media. AC/DC front man Brian Johnson just isn't a fan, said: "Maybe I'm just being old-fashioned, but this iTunes, God bless 'em, it's going to kill music if they're not careful."
He added: "It's a...monster, this thing," he said. "It just worries me. And I'm sure they're just doing it all in the interest of making as much...cash as possible. Let's put it this way, it's certainly not for the...love, let's get that out of the way, right away," he said.
Not having a presence on iTunes has not hurt the band financially over recent years. It's most recent album, Black Ice, was released in 2008 and AC/DC has sold over 6.5 million copies. Making it Columbia Records biggest ever selling album. According to Wikipedia "On 4 November 2009 AC/DC were announced as the Business Review Weekly top Australian earner (entertainment) for 2009 with earnings of $105 million."
It would seem that the modern world has finally caught up with the band, and that it may now finally believe that it will make more money from being on iTunes than asking its fans to purchase physical CDs. One commenter of website Reddit tellingly says "The Beatles and all my other music that I grew up with has always been on my computer and then my MP3 player. Were some people unable to do this?"
AC/DC tracks are now available on iTunes for the standard price of 99p each, with albums between £6.99 and £19.99. There are also a two boxsets available: The Studio Collection for £79.99 and Complete Set for £99.99 Click here to open iTunes and view the AC/DC page.
The Beatles also finally started selling its music on iTunes in 2010, with Apple famously promoting the band on its home website and with iTunes collections.
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Comments received
kai65 said on Mon, 19 Nov 2012
And the world breathes a huge sigh of relief….
fredsmith said on Thu, 22 Nov 2012
Happy happy. Joy joy.
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