ProduceYou

British publication The Telegraph recently ran a story on the new AC/DC album and it’s conspicuous absence from the iTunes store. While the article provided some cool insight into the psychology of the band, it was laughably wrong on several points.  Consider this a public service in exposing poor journalism…

The author, who appears to be anonymous with no noticeable credit given anywhere on the site, first gives us this little gem:

“If AC/DC’s Black Ice performs, it could have serious long-term consequences for the pre-eminent position of iTunes as a music retailer.”

This is a stretch of the imagination.  iTunes has pushed 5 billion tracks since 2003, without the help of many top selling artists or must have albums.  The impact of AC/DC’s new album on the service will be negligible.

The article continues:

“Because iTunes steadfastly refuses to “lock” any album..”

False.  iTunes has consistently made deals with movie studios and other entities to lock soundtracks.  These deals seem to fluctuate with certain albums locking then unlocking, but you can see a current example for yourself by examining the album: Deadwood - Music from the HBO Original Series or the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack.  If the author had bothered to do minimal research they would have discovered the same.  However, this isn’t the most glaring error.  The author then goes on to state:

“Though the Beatles’ back catalogue is still not available on iTunes, this will be the first time in the music store’s short history that it will be deprived of a major current release.”

WRONG!  The Eagles Long Road Out Of Eden, one of last year’s most anticipated and biggest selling albums, was sold as a Walmart exclusive and denied iTunes placement.   There have been further examples from this year including Kid Rock’s Rock’n'Roll Jesus.

The article meanders on with another one of these

“The release of Black Ice will be a major blow for iTunes’ claim to be the world’s biggest music retailer..”

Which we’ve already covered, but then we learn

“a more significant threat to the company takes place when the mobile phone company Nokia begin to sell their new “Comes With Music” phone in UK stores.”

Instead of rehashing why this is an ignorant, pandering comment, I’ll leave it to the good folks at ArsTechnica who walked through Nokia’s service in a recent column.

So there you have it - another ridiculous article from the Telegraph lacking any true substance and packed with hyperbole and blatantly wrong information..  The lesson here?  We could all stand to be a lot pickier about what we read each day, and a lot more critical.  The time of hype and spin is over for the music industry - anyone who wants to succeed needs to cut through to the meat of the issues and make good, intelligent decisions based on the data.

Links
The Telegraph Article
Nokia’s Comes With Music won’t worry Apple… yet