Like Rock 'n' Roll, iTunes will probably never die. However, it may suffer from a big kick in it's cyber balls very soon from several major bands, especially AC/DC. Indeed, the success of Black Ice, might push iTunes further down a very slippery financial slope.
In today's London Telegraph, Brian Boyd follows up on last week's article from the Irish Times about AC/DC taking on Apple's billion dollar baby with a report on how other bands may soon be persuaded to join AC/DC on the other side of the digital divide against iTunes.
Angus Young certainly has a lot to say on the importance of selling albums vs. selling singles, the staple of Apple's iTunes money diet.
"We don't make singles, we make albums," says guitarist Angus Young. "Way back in the Seventies, we drew these figures on the back of an envelope for our record company.
"We showed them how much they earned from us if we sold one million singles and how much they earned if we sold one million albums. The difference was staggering.
"That was to get them off our back because we only very grudgingly release singles. Our real reason is that we honestly believe the songs on any of our albums belong together.
So, for AC/DC, art and money go hand in hand and who can blame the band for that stance?After all, how many great musicians have ended up penniless in their old age after being screwed by the big record companies that made tons of money off their backs?
In a larger sense, iTunes is just another record company interested only in its profitability, not the welfare of individual artists who work for them. For much more on this developing story, please continue reading here.
3 comments:
Jon,
Sounds to me like it is also a microcosm of our entire capitalist based economic society. Look in the work place across the country. Different gig, same type of operation. No?
Marc
Way to go, AC/DC! Finally somebody who's not afraid of the "big guys"! Somehow, I'm thinking that Bon Scott would have been very pleased by AC/DC's decision not to release on iTunes. Angus is completely right - it's the whole album, not just one or two songs. Besides, AC/DC's albums are totally worth it for ALL the songs, not just one or two. However, when Angus states " their albums are complete pieces of work that represent them at a certain time and place in their musical career and are not just a bunch of individual downloads to be cherry-picked by fans.", I beg to differ with his use of the word "fans" - real AC/DC fans will always buy the whole album. The cherry-pickers are not fans, IMHO!
Anybody else out there who'll be camping at WallyWorld at midnight on the 19th/20th? They told me they SHOULD have it available at midnight on the 20th, but it might come in on the morning shipment. Are they NUTS??? I'm supposed to wait??? So you better give them a call to make sure it came on the late delivery on the 19th and they'll unpack it by midnight.....
WAY TO GO AC/DC!! Ive been waiting for someone to spit in Apples Face. Theyre exactly right on their decision, Each AC/DC album is worth buying for ALL the songs.
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