One of the final hold-outs against making their work available through iTunes, Australian hard rock band AC/DC has finally made the jump to the world’s favourite digital music store.
AC/DC had 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?"
Apple marked the end of long-running legal action with The Beatles’ company Apple Corps in 2010 with the ‘Fab Four’ making their iTunes debut.
IDG News Service
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers