We’ve been a little rough on the upcoming release of AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack, a physical disc which will contain 18 tracks from AC/DC for standalone play and/or export into the main Rock Band game. As excited as we are to play more AC/DC in our rock simulators, we’ve taken issue with a few of the design decisions. Our main complaint, of course, has been that most any Rock Band player (PS2 players notwithstanding) would be far better served by the opportunity to buy these songs via the Rock Band Music Store, instead of being forced to pay a much higher price for a physical bundle, thus losing the ability to pick and choose which AC/DC hits they’d like to buy. As it turns out, however, we may be unfairly lambasting Harmonix and MTV Games for this decision; forcing players to purchase the songs as a package may be precisely what AC/DC wants.
In an interview only last week, AC/DC’s Angus Young spoke at length to Britain’s Telegraph about the band’s refusal to sell their music through iTunes. Black Ice, AC/DC’s forthcoming album, is going on sale in a few weeks (at the same time as the Rock Band Track Pack), but is exclusively available in Wal-Mart — it will not be sold through Apple’s digital distribution behemoth. The Telegraph predicts Black Ice to be this year’s best-selling album, and while their article focuses on the possible ramifications for iTunes and digital music distribution, a few of the comments from Young point to possibile reasons behind the Track Pack decisions.
AC/DC’s main reason for keeping their music off of iTunes, claims the band, is that there is no way to sell an entire album on the online store without also allowing for the purchase of individual tracks. For AC/DC, it’s got to be all or nothing:
“Our real reason [for not selling singles] is that 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.”
It’s not a difficult leap to make, then, to assume that the decision to similarly bundle the entire AC/DC set for the Rock Band tracks was a dealbreaker. If Harmonix/MTV wanted to get AC/DC in their game (and, let’s face it, who wouldn’t?), it’s starting to look like they didn’t have a choice. A bit of similar language in the Telegraph article and today’s Variety piece on the Rock Band Track Pack further lends credence to this theory. From the Telegraph, last week:
The Australian no-nonsense rockers refuse to allow their work to be sold on iTunes because they argue that their albums are complete pieces of work that represent them at a certain time and place in their musical career and are not just a bunch of individual downloads to be cherry-picked by fans.
And, today, from Variety:
DeGooyer says that AC/DC members chose to put the “Live at Donington” songs in the game and that MTV enthusiastically agreed. “To us it hung together more than cherry picking master recordings,” he said. “It really is an experience. You put the disc in and you play through a live set.”
It’s completely possible that the phrase “cherry-picking” came up independently in each instance; it’s a common expression. Still, the sentiments are nearly identical — AC/DC seems rigidly set against allowing their songs to be sold on an individual basis. One begins to wonder how we wound up with “Let There Be Rock” in Rock Band 2, at all.
There’s a good chance we will never know the inner workings of Harmonix/MTV’s licensing agreement with AC/DC; such is the world of business. And, if AC/DC’s decision is never to divide up their albums, that’s their prerogative as artists. On the other hand, there’s a reason that “a certain percentage of people would only download two or three songs from the album.” Whether or not that’s a fair represenation of the band’s work, it’s ultimately up to the fan to decide what they want to listen to. Can AC/DC force owners of the album not to use the “next track” button? Will they be able to ensure that players of the Track Pack only play all 18 songs, back-to-back, every time they play?
It seems a little rude to force someone to order off the prix fixe menu if they don’t want a salad or dessert. Of course, we don’t have to eat there if we don’t like it — just how badly do we want the best steak in town?
November 12th, 2008 at 7:46 am
YOU ROCK
November 14th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I have to say i respect there decision full-heartidly, yea it would be nice to straight download it, but mny chains (such as the best buy i live near) are going to straight digital cards elimination cd albums, and obviously with iTunes people dont really appreciate the artist or the music itself, just a little crush they have one or 2 Songs go AC/DC