itunes holdouts

There are still a few artists that have refused to release their music on itunes, such as AC/DC, Garth Brooks, Kid Rock, Def Leppard, and Bob Seger. I have always wondered why these artists have not allowed their music to be sold on itunes and in case you were wondering too I have the answers.

Garth Brooks
Brooks walked away from his career near the height of his fame, so the fact he doesn't allow iTunes to sell his catalog isn't surprising. "They truly think that they're saving music," Brooks said in 2009. "My hat's off to them. I looked at them right across the table with all the love in the world and told them they were killing it. And until we get variable pricing, until we get album-only (downloads), then they are not a true retailer for my stuff, and you won't see my stuff on there — with all the love in the world. That's nothing that they haven't heard, either."

Bob Seger
Seger's early catalog isn't even available on CD. "We would love to have our catalogs included on iTunes," his manger Punch Andrews told Rolling Stone in 2008. "But the record labels have chosen to disregard the provisions of their record contracts, which never contemplated this form of song licensing." There are rumors he's finally going to release his first four albums on CD sometime next year, but they will probably only be available in physical stores.

Def Leppard
Def Leppard's dispute with iTunes is more about money than artistic principles. "We signed our deal with Universal back in 1979; this obviously wasn't part of the deal," singer Joe Elliott told Blender in July. "Once a deal is in place that pays a royalty that we believe is fair, we'll have music for sale on iTunes. We're trying to be civil about it, and we're hoping our label and ex-label work together so that our fans can buy our music online."

AC/DC
The Australian hard rock gods don't even have a greatest hits CD, so allowing their songs to be on iTunes would be a big stretch. "Maybe I'm just being old-fashioned, but this iTunes, God bless 'em, it's going to kill music if they're not careful," AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson told Reuters in 2008. "It's a...monster, this thing. It just worries me. And I'm sure they're just doing it all in the interest of making as much...cash as possible. Let's put it this way, it's certainly not for the...love, let's get that out of the way, right away."

Kid Rock
Kid Rock managed to score a gigantic hit in 2008 with "All Summer Long" despite the track (along with all of his major-label albums) not being on iTunes. He thinks it forced fans to buy the album, making him even more money. "I have trouble with the way iTunes says everybody's music's worth the same price," Rock said earlier this year. "I don't think that's right, there's music it out there that's not worth a penny. They should be giving it away, or they should be making the artist pay people to listen to it. There's other stuff that's worth a little more. That's the great thing about America, we're not scared to pay what something's worth."



Ok I get it now. Def Leppard and Bog Seger are so old they didn't even forsee CD's, let alone the internet, and AC/DC is somehow even older. They remind me of grandparents that don't really get what the internet is so they assume it's black magic. How can itunes kill music Mr. Johnson? Please elaborate with a point beyond that of which the love isn't there, like it is in a Coconuts or Sam Goody.

I suppose you could answer my question with Garth Brooks' statement. A fair enough reason to be opposed to itunes. That's how artists make their money, selling the whole album and not just a few songs at a time. But you know how you could get people to buy your whole CD Garth? Don't include bad songs. Nothing pisses people off more than when they spend their money and get an awful product. And that is exactly what a 15-song album with 2 good songs on it is. You're old Garth.

But Kid Rock makes a very good point. He should be paying me to listen to his music because as he said, Americans aren't afraid to pay what something is worth. Pay up cowboy.