Idolator
Aussie hard rockers AC/DC are, after years of being on the list of big digital-music holdouts, putting their catalog online. There's a catch, though: For the first eight months, the band's digital catalog is only going to be available via Verizon Wireless. Wait, did I say that there was "a" catch? I meant that there were a few:
The music won't be sold over-the-air, but instead via sideloading. In order to get to your AC/DC tracks on your phone, you'll need to go through Verizon Wireless' web-based store, download the songs, and then transfer them to your device—a process that only takes 15 steps, only works on select phones, and doesn't work on Macs at all, according to Verizon's FAQ. (The songs can also be heard on the PC.)
Only one song, "You Shook Me All Night Long," will be available as a standalone song; the rest of AC/DC's Verizon catalog is album-only. Like "Thunderstruck," but think that the rest of The Razor's Edge is kind of subpar? Too bad!
The music doesn't come dirt cheap. Albums will cost $11.99, and as the WSJ piece notes, the deluxe edition of Back In Black only costs $9.97—and The Razor's Edge is only $7.97!
Given that Back In Black is still selling briskly, watching the digital sales of AC/DC's catalog—particularly "Shook," which will likely be the beneficiary of many drunken downloads—will prove to be an interesting experiment over the next few weeks. Will people switch to Verizon solely to get their digital Angus Young fix? Or will this very-walled-garden approach result in the launch of AC/DC's digital catalog being less of a big deal than Sony BMG is hoping for?
Digital-Music Holdout AC/DC Spurns iTunes, Signs With Verizon [WSJ, reg. req.]
Comments
Here's a question that's been vexing me: Why is there no AC/DC greatest hits album? They're gonna miss the entire CD era!
@Chris N.: Nitpicky, I know, but "Who Made Who" was kind of a greatest hits album, albeit barely; they pulled the best stuff from their first four records.
People are just not interested in buying music digitally! Look we put AC/DC RIGHT ON THEIR CELL PHONES and no one bought it!
People just want to steal everything for free!
@CORTEZ625: "Who Made Who" was mostly culled from AC/DC's early/mid 80's material. Thus, the album is almost all Brian Johnston (8 out of 9 songs). Any greatest hits album would have to include copious amounts of Bon Scott.
@LAKingsin2008: "Johnson."
And yes, the soundtrack to "Maximum Overdrive" is as close as you're going to get to a bonafide "greatest hits" album.
I think "AC/DC Live" has served as a find stop-gap, though. That album has obtained "must own" status for junior high kids everywhere.
I made my own 2-CDR greatest hits. CD Bon + CD Brian. Let's just say it was much harder to prune songs from CD Bon.
Why didn't an AC/DC greatest hits come out in the 90s or so? Well, to be fair (up until 1981, especially) all of their albums are just plain worth owning. I'm sure the band thought that all their songs were greatest hits, and I don't blame them for thinking that. I mean, where would you start pruning with the Bon era stuff?
Given this, I think AC/DC is making the digital process obfuscated on purpose. Any coincidence that the CD remasters are now going for $7.99 a pop at record stores now? I'm not happy with this, but the band can get away with it, simply put. (But at least you get pics and liner notes with the CDs. Still the reason I haven't fully converted to digital store religion.)
@mackro: Good point - even what I consider to be the clunkers from the Bon era ("Can I Sit Next To You Girl", "Love At First Feel") have a great playfulness to them that became trite once the 80s-cock rock AC/DC took over. I think all the Bon albums are worth owning in their entirety.
"back in black" is a pretty great album.
but in general, the difference is that Bon was being funny on purpose.
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