As CD sales continue to decline it's become harder and harder for brick and mortar retailers to compete with iTunes. In fact just this year Apple's online music store became the largest US music retailer. One of the few bands whose music isn't available on iTunes, AC/DC, will reportedly be selling their next CD exclusively through Wal-Mart this fall.
Although there's certainly interest in AC/DC's popular catalog of titles among online retailers, currently only Verizon is authorized to sell downloads of their music. Even if that weren't the case it's unlikely iTunes would be interested. That's because the band has so far resisted selling individual tracks, preferring to require that entire albums be downloaded instead.
While it may seem somewhat old fashioned for a band to avoid iTunes, depending on the terms of the deal it might not be as crazy as it sounds. Previously Wal-Mart has made exclusive deals to distribute music from artists like Journey and The Eagles, allowing them to bypass labels entirely and deal directly with the retailer.
It will certainly be interesting to see whether the lack of legal downloads has any impact on CD sales. Their last CD, 'Stiff Upper Lip,' sold 930,000 copies, but was released in 2000 when online music services were still in their infancy. Subsequent years have seen both an increase in legal music downloads and a steady decline in CD sales.
While it may seem somewhat old fashioned for a band to avoid iTunes, depending on the terms of the deal it might not be as crazy as it sounds. Previously Wal-Mart has made exclusive deals to distribute music from artists like Journey and The Eagles, allowing them to bypass labels entirely and deal directly with the retailer.
It will certainly be interesting to see whether the lack of legal downloads has any impact on CD sales. Their last CD, 'Stiff Upper Lip,' sold 930,000 copies, but was released in 2000 when online music services were still in their infancy. Subsequent years have seen both an increase in legal music downloads and a steady decline in CD sales.
