AC/DC album news – the physical revolution?
Monday, November 10th, 2008From Guns n Roses to AC/DC! Yes, we really are keeping up with the times! It’s funny how these, ahem, ‘mature’ bands are leading the way with their music strategies.
Anywho, I thought I’d report on the Young Brothers and co, because they recently took a stand against iTunes. They believed that an album should not be able to be broken down and purchased as individual tracks. Something that Apple is very sure should be able to happen, and something that I am sitting on the fence about. If you are going to make a ‘proper’ album (and I wouldn’t do it any other way), then the songs really should come as a package. There’s the mixture of styles, tempos and the interludes and the way it all moulds together to make an album something a bit more special than a compilation. There’s also the fact that many albums I have bought and immediately assumed ‘I don’t like track 3’, only for it to evolve with me and a couple of years later I realise that my favourites are the unknown and once disliked tracks. If, however, you are a current major label pop starlet and you are going to throw together 2 hits and a bunch of fillers in order to get something out in time for Christmas and your album would normally become the staple of car-boot sales around the country, then I can see the appeal of shortening the pain and just purchasing the two tracks. Although, to be honest, you could shorten the pain for all involved by not recording a bunch of rubbish in the first place (that rant is going to continue in a new blog post, I can tell you…).
So, AC/DC’s ‘Black Ice’ album would not be available on iTunes for the above reason. The result? Over 780,000 sales in it’s first week in the US. That’s also thanks to an exclusivity deal with Wal-Mart and strong promotion on their part. I the UK, they outsold Kaiser Chiefs two to one, and I believe that sales hit around the 120,000 mark. Ultimately, they hit the number one spot in an incredible 29 different countries!
Am I saying that we should all now ditch the digital revolution and just sell physical albums? Of course not. AC/DC is in a unique position and can strike up such a deal because of their strong history. Ultimately, the physical only strategy was to their greatest benefit. And I AM saying that you should explore all options to find the greatest benefit to you. Maybe that is physical releases, maybe that is an exclusive digital deal with Stompy, maybe you should give your music away. You decide, I’m just here to open you eyes 
Lee Jarvis.
