Hard rockers rejoice – those of you whom are fans of Australian band AC/DC will be pleased to know that the music can finally be downloaded on the iTunes Store. As well as all of the individual albums, the entire catalog can be downloaded as a box set for $99, or for those real hardcore fans, a special package – featuring various live and special tracks – can be had for an additional $50.
Digital music has revolutionized the way all of us listen to music. Whether we download, rent or listen to online radio, the vast majority of us utilize the web as a medium of enjoying our favorite artists and discovering new ones in the process. Unfortunately, the boom in digital downloads has acquainted us with something we’re perhaps not as thrilled with – the wonderful world of licensing agreements. For every track you download (legally, that is), every song you listen to on Spotify or Last FM, a licensing deal is in place allowing the retailer to sell or stream to you, but if that artist / their record label didn’t want this to happen, you’d have to go out and buy it yourself.
AC/DC has staved off allowing its music to be purchased on iTunes in order to preserve the album format. But just as legendary British band The Beatles did a couple of years ago, AC/DC has finally caved in to the Digital Age in which we now live.
It’s certainly a good move from the band, and although I would still like to see Apple offer a more varied offering of audio formats and bitrates besides 256kbps AAC, having AC/DC on board renders today a very good day for digital music and its industry.
With contemporary artists, using the web as a source of getting content to fans is seen as a given, but as witnessed here, some of the older bands used to traditional music store methods have had to be dragged in, kicking and screaming. Nowadays, musicians have a simple ultimatum of making money from legal downloading mediums like iTunes, or simply lose out to Internet piracy.
Thankfully, AC/DC will now see some money for their hard work, and if you’re a fan, you can grab any of their stuff right now using the iTunes app on your PC, Mac, or iOS device.
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