Is It iWay to Hell for Music Site As AC/DC Start Bands Revolt?
By Fiona Gray
THE reputation of iTunes as the world’s top digital music seller could be left in tatters if bands follow through with threats to pull out of the online store.
International stars including rock act AC/DC have said 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 few tracks.
When AC/DC’s comeback offering Black Ice is released on October 20 it could be a blow for iTunes if it cannot sell the album, tipped as 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.
ITunes could also come under threat from other online music providers who are already abiding by performers’ wishes to "lock" albums or charge customers more for popular tracks.
ITunes was launched in 2003 and has become the world’s biggest music retailer selling more than five billion tracks.
The company 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 track. Angus Young, lead guitarist with AC/DC, whose back catalogue is not on iTunes, told a newspaper: "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."
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."
Young added that two very well known rock acts, which he did not name, were thinking of leaving iTunes.
With the rise of other music download sites, bands may start looking at alternative options.
Firms such as online retailer Play.com have 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 Scottish National Orchestra have to buy the album for GBP 5.95, rather than paying 79p for that one track.
In some other cases the site charges more for an album’s most popular tracks.
Digital entertainment retailer eMusic.com takes a different approach by offering a set number of downloads for a monthly subscription, encouraging people to buy tracks they might not normally bother with.
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 earlier this year, when it removed Shine, the latest album by 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 meekly returned the album to the online store.
"Bands only ever released singles to radio stations to get people to buy the album, and now they are scared they won’t be making the same profits."
Somerville added that iTunes was far enough ahead of other sites to stay at the top of the industry 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.
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