AC/DC's Black Ice downloaded illegally 400,000 times

Physical CD hits stores Oct. 20

Joe Bosso, Mon 13 Oct 2008, 2:38 pm UTC

It's going Gold...illegally

AC/DC's new album, Black Ice, won't be released for another week. But it's already a smash - as an illegal download.

The album was leaked onto YouTube and BitTorrent on Oct. 7. While Sony's legal eagles quickly swooped in and succesfully pulled the record from YouTube, the files have remained on BitTorrent - where, according to TorrentFreak.com, they've racked up 400,000 downloads.

AC/DC maintain a complete refusal to allow their music to be sold online, because they believe that their music should be sold in album form only, whereas Apple forces bands to offer sales of each single from the album individually. AC/DC cite album sales figures that have actually increased in the last five years as proof that their refusal to offer digital sales works for them. In 2007 they sold 1.3 million albums in the US alone.

AC/DC may have the last laugh

While it was reported last week that Sony flooded BitTorrent with bogus AC/DC songs in an attempt tothwart users' attempts to download the album, there is evidence that that needn't bother. Some studies have found that downloaders are more likely to buy the official release having sampled an illegal copy, than those who have never heard the music previously. And since AC/DC limits its album sales to physical copies only, this could still be a boon to retailers.

At the same time, with 400,000 downloads, this underscores what MusicRadar has known all along: that listeners want access to AC/DC's music on iTunes and other digital sites.

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User comments (1)

Reverendspam

Sun 26 Oct 2008, 5:39 pm UTC

I respectfully disagree to the statement that listeners want AC/DC on iTunes. Who in the world wants to cut up AC/DC albums and one off each song? I am 44 years old and have not bought an album in 10 years because digital music sounds terrible and I do not like all the threats of lawsuits regarding digital rights and proprietary software.So I retaliated by not buying any albus and listen to the CD's and albums I bought over 10 years ago. Finally this album is produced which is worthy of making me pull my wallet out and buy it.
The album is very well produced and complete. It is obvious a lot of thought went into it's production and that professional muscians and engineers made it instead of corporate suits and puyppets. I applaud this band for selling albums and not one off songs to services such as iTunes. Albums were meant to be listened to all the way through or else why make an album?
What is great is that both my children and myself can listen to this album all the way through and bond by throwing the "devil horns" in the air while banging our heads. Try to do that with B. Spears or Mad-Donna. I'm creating a new generation of "rockers" and album purchasers. Listen up record companies!
I'll support any artist that makes music that is worthy of keeping in my personal library which will be listened to over and over.

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