Is it iWay to hell for music site as AC/DC start bands revolt?

Published on Saturday 27 September 2008 19:55

THE position of iTunes as the world's top digital music seller could be under threat if bands which fear the death of the album start to pull out of the online store.

Veterans AC/DC have now joined a growing revolution against the retailer, saying they will not allow their latest work to be bought from iTunes because the company refuses to 'lock' the albums to stop customers cherry-picking their favourite tracks.

American singer Kid Rock, who had a huge hit this year with 'All Summer Long', was the first to refuse to allow his album, Rock N' Roll Jesus, to be sold on iTunes but still amassed career-high sales of two million records.

Now AC/DC are planning to follow suit with their comeback offering Black Ice, released next month. It will be a major commercial blow for iTunes if it cannot sell the album, which is tipped to be the year's biggest seller.

The band claims its example is encouraging other top bands to withdraw from the store, as they are angered by iTunes letting customers download big hits while ignoring other tracks. Two big-name rock acts – so far unnamed – are believed to be thinking of switching from iTunes.

Angus Young, lead guitarist with AC/DC, said: "We don't make singles, we make albums. We honestly believe the songs on any of our albums belong together.

"If we were on iTunes, we know a certain percentage of people would only download two or three songs from the album, and we don't think that represents us musically."

AC/DC insist artists will not lose out financially. Young said: "Since iTunes came into existence, we've actually increased our back catalogue sales without being on the site, and at the time we were sternly warned by our management team and our record label that the complete opposite would be the case."

iTunes launched in 2003 and has become the world's biggest music retailer, selling more than five billion tracks. It was credited with solving the crisis of illegal downloads by charging 79p per track.

However, bands are not happy with customers judging their music on one single and, with the rise of other music download sites, bands may start looking at alternative options. Online retailer Play.com has already agreed in some cases to stop the individual sale of some popular tracks.

Fans of Barber's 'Adagio for Strings', made famous by the movie Platoon, who want to hear a performance by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra have to buy the album for 5.95, rather than paying 79p for that one track. In some cases the site charges more for an album's most popular tracks.

Digital entertainment retailer eMusic.com offers a set number of downloads for a monthly subscription, encouraging customers to buy tracks they might not normally purchase.

Some music experts believe, however, that deserting iTunes could be a disaster. Music critic Colin Somerville said: "Bands would have to be nuts to want to pull out of iTunes because there is always the temptation to buy more singles once you have bought one.

"AC/DC have been away too long. They don't realise how much the music industry has changed. iTunes is very powerful and has control over sales figures."

Record label Warners discovered the power of iTunes at its expense earlier this year, when it removed Shine, the latest album by British singer Estelle, from iTunes' US store to stop fans purely downloading her hit single 'American Boy'.

As Estelle's sales plummeted and customers started buying an inferior cover of the song available on iTunes instead, the label returned the album to the online store.

Despite the threat from some top acts, Somerville says that iTunes is far enough ahead of other download websites to stay at the top for some time.

"We have a different way of buying music now, and iTunes got in with the brand very early on.

"More importantly, they got in with the iPod and they are inseparable so it's always going to hold a large sector of the market."

How the service works

iTunes is an online store owned by computing corporation Apple Inc. It contains billions of music tracks, which users can search through and download onto their home computers at a cost of about 70p per track.

Users download the iTunes software onto their personal computer, which sets up a library from which they can organise and play music.

From there customers can look for favourite tracks, flick through iTunes top buys, or look at tracks recommended by the website based on previous purchases.

Once downloaded to the computer, the tracks can be organised into playlists, burned onto CDs, or copied onto an iPod or iPhone. Customers can also choose from a wide range of podcasts, movies, television shows, music videos and video games, which can be downloaded for a fee.

Customers pay for their downloads by credit or debit card over the internet.

While there is a wide array of music to choose from, iTunes closely monitors what users do with it. There is a limit on how many times some tracks can be played, burnt onto a CD or copied onto an iPod.