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So asks Joe Bosso over at musicradar.com. I certainly respect AC/DC’s place in rock history, but I’ve never been much of a fan, so I didn’t even know they were boycotting iTunes. Apparently, though, that’s the case. States lead guitarist Angus Young, “Our real reason is that 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.“

Well, except that you could set it up so that albums have to purchased in their entirety, but whatever. This argument has been made by many people since the inception of iTunes (you’re in league with Kid Rock, Angus…how does that make you feel?), and I’m not certain it makes a whole lot of sense. I have no scientific proof for any of this beyond what I’ve noticed with friends and colleagues who use iTunes, but it seems to me that iTunes doesn’t change the listening experience for music fans. People who are inclined to only listen to hits don’t listen to full albums to begin with. Think about it…if you only like three songs on an album, are you going to listen to 12 just get to those three? No. You’ll skip. Or, you’ll copy three you like to a disc or your iPod and be done with it. On the other hand, people would buy an entire CD will still purchase the entire album from iTunes.

One can make the argument, of course, that by forcing people to buy a whole album, these listeners may find something else in there they like. This is absolutely true (my favorite Queen songs, for example, are “ ‘39” and “Doing Alright,“ which I certainly wouldn’t know if I just stuck with their singles). But the flip side is that people who want just a few songs may end up not purchasing anything (or downloading them illegally), killing all possible proceeds, keeping the music off their playlist and out of their head.

Plus, AC/DC, if you only want people to hear albums as a cohesive whole, why the Maximum Overdrive soundtrack CD? Contractual obligation?

In his article, Joe asserts that “Classic will always sell - that’s why they’re classics.“ I agree with him, so I don’t understand Young’s logic. I can’t imagine he has such little faith in their catalog that he expects people will not buy the full albums. It’s AC/DC. It’s AOR. The medium used to sell the record doesn’t magically change the quality of the product, so does Young just assume that their non-hits aren’t good enough to buy? Don’t sell yourself short, Angus. You’ll do just fine. I mean, it’s not as if you’d be a small indie band on iTunes in need of exposure.

But considering I’m a bigger fan of iTunes than I am of AC/DC, maybe I’m not the guy to make this argument. For a more thorough analysis and more comments from Angus, read Joe’s article.

Via [musicradar.com]

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