back to article Certain people rejoice! AC/DC finally available on iTunes

Thumping rockers AC/DC have been remastered for iTunes putting the seminal rocknroll tracks in a digital music store for the first time. AC/DC music has never been sold digitally before record label Columbia cut a deal with Apple, and now all 16 albums are on the store plus two specially packaged digital collections. Apple …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    $99.99 - or $149.99

    using the usual exchange rate that would be...£99.99 or £149.99 ?

    1. I like noodles

      £150? A touch too much

    2. Steve Todd
      Stop

      Since you ask

      £79.99 or £99.99

  2. Tom 38
    Thumb Up

    DUN DER DER DUN DER DER DUN

    tnanilialianan DER DUN DER DUN DER DUN DER DUN

    (Back in Black, ASCII rendering)

    1. Toothpick
      Happy

      Re: DUN DER DER DUN DER DER DUN

      Angus. Angus

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Alternatively....

    ...buy a complete set of CDs and rip em yourself.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Alternatively....

      Yeah, about 75p each from the local petrol station, next to Wham!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Alternatively....

      Can't, because my new iMac doesn't have an optical drive!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Alternatively....

        ha ha ha haaaa..

        Form...meet...Function.

  4. TRT Silver badge

    You see *THERE'S* the problem with digital downloading...

    If this was a physical vinyl box set, for that price they'd have included a couple of sachets of bike oil to rub through your hair for that really authentic experience. ;)

  5. MJI Silver badge

    Compressed Rock music

    I do not like it, does not compress well at all

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Compressed Rock music

      On iTunes it will be ALAC (Apple's version of FLAC) so therefore lossless.

      I find 192Kbps CBR fine for most rock, but some requires more. Now that storage space (at least for those who can upgrade it) is cheap, I've started ripping at higher bitrates.

      1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

        Re: Compressed Rock music

        Unless they've decided to break with the norm for this one release, they're not lossless. iTunes purchases are 256kbit AAC variable bitrate without DRM.

        My "online" music purchases consist of online CD purchases that I rip to lossless audio... I also convert these to 192k MP3 VBR to listen on my phone or in the car. I've never paid good money for compressed downloads (and that doesn't mean that I've just taken them for nothing, btw...)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: iTunes purchases are 256kbit AAC variable bitrate

          Thanks, didn't know!

    2. MJI Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: Compressed Rock music

      haha I've been downvoted by a philistine.

  6. Len
    Unhappy

    Disappointed...

    Disappointed that I haven't seen any of the cheesy puns around this story use the obvious “iWay to sell” headline.

    1. nichomach

      Disappointed...?

      I'm thunderstruck!

      1. Isendel Steel
        Coat

        Re: Disappointed...?

        wonder if they'll have a Big Ball(s) to launch it ?

        1. Nick G
          Devil

          Re: Disappointed...?

          Oh... you're all such Riff Raff...

  7. Bakunin
    Devil

    Remastered for iTunes

    By remastered, do they mean the current trend of making it louder with less definition?

    (I'd recommend Highway to Hell)

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Remastered for iTunes

      Yes I'm also worried that the melody in many of the more choral pieces will lose the subtle undertone of harmony ....

      It's ****ing AC/DC !

  8. dogged
    Meh

    Hmm. Crossover between iTunes hipsters and AC/DC fans ... probably minimal.

    1. Wyrdness
      FAIL

      Most people don't fit to your simplistic stereotypes.

      One of the biggest AC/DC fans I've known is a very clean-cut ex-public schoolboy.

      1. dogged

        I also went to a public school and have every AC/DC album. On CD and some still on vinyl. However, I wouldn't touch iTunes with yours, mate. It's like crabs for computers.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        yes but that's more to do with an old man dressed as a schoolboy more than anything else. It brings back memories of the dorm for him.

  9. EddieD

    Meh...

    Still got the vinyl copies of Powerage, Let There be Rock, If you want blood (you got it) [probably one of the finest live albums ever], and Highway to Hell.

    Sod the remasters heavily compressed and quantised, I'm sticking to 70s rock the way it should be - analog.

    And, there's hardly a click or a pop or whirr on these records, even after being played for 30 years.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Meh...

      ... and it's so much nicer travelling to london on horseback and why bother with electricity - bah humbug. Some people are 'romantic' about analog / vinyl records - why not just record the vinyl version using a lossless 'digital' format instead then play it back through your valve amp ;)

      1. Tom 38
        Thumb Up

        Re: Meh...

        Vinyl sounds a million times better than MP3s, assuming you have a kick ass hifi, awesome pickups, your vinyl is kept perfectly upright in a non humid environment with very little temperature fluctuation, there's no dust around, the floor is stable, you've shaved the cat and don't mind flipping over the LP after 22 minutes…

        Personally, I can't tell a difference between CD and high bitrate OGG. Spotify streams me 320kb/s OGG, works for me.

    2. Elmer Phud

      Re: Meh...

      'If you want blood (you got it) [probably one of the finest live albums ever]'

      Hmm, better than Live at Leeds?

      1. EddieD

        Re: Meh...

        It's a close thing, but I'm more of an AC/DC fan than a Who fan (I never saw the Who, but I did see AC/DC with Bon Scott, so I'm probably a wee bitty biased :)

        1. Peter 48

          Re: Meh...

          I've actually always preferred Brian Johnson's vocals. They just seem more balanced and gruffer.

          1. I like noodles

            Re: Meh...

            Not a fan of Brian Johnson.

            Bon Scott sang with that kinda sneer in his voice (like he has on the cover of Highway To Hell). I don't think Brian Johnson is able to do justice to lots of that older material, songs like The Jack need that kinda sneering.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Meh...

              @noodles: Scott definitely had something to his voice that made him stand out. I love his work but got bored of AC/DC pretty quickly into Johnsons career. It is a personal preference but the songs didnt seem to have the sleazy rocker sound that made "the jack" and "whole lotta rosie" (or pretty much the whole highway to hell album). Not saying that Brian isnt talented.

              And I will weigh into the vinyl debate that MP3 and cd is much easier to transport but the sound of a vinyl record does make a difference. I am always on the lookout to pick up more and have always had a record player.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Meh...

        "Hmm, better than Live at Leeds?"

        No room in there for UFOs Strangers In The Night? MSGs One Night at Budokan? Or, (and I don't give two hoots if there's overdubbing) the mighty Priest's Unleashed In The East?

        1. EddieD

          Re: Meh...

          And I probably should have added "Made in Japan"...

          Never a huge MSG fan, but Strangers in the Night is just awesome.

        2. MJI Silver badge

          My favourite live LP

          Gary Moore Rocking every night live in japan

          £8 import LP in the 1980s

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Devil

          Re: Meh...

          Maiden's "Live After Death" - end of 'best live album in the world, ever' discussion ;-)

          <-- Devil, 'cos it's the closest I can find to an Eddie icon.

          1. MJI Silver badge

            Re: Meh...

            Actually it is a red car!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's a long way to the shop

    If you want a chiko roll* !!!

    Anthem of my childhood.

    * god awful fast food made from lips anus and too much cabbage.

  11. M_W

    Loudness War

    Yep, confirmed. They've been Loudness War mastered, or 'Mastered for iTunes' if you like.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Re: Loudness War

      Or, as I prefer to describe it, utterly butchered.

      A dirty deed, indeed.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Loudness War

        > A dirty deed, indeed.

        Done dirt cheap, I imagine.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Headmaster

    Really? Seriously?

    AC/DC music has never been sold digitally before

    Did three decades of Compact Discs pass them by?

    1. I like noodles

      Re: Really? Seriously?

      No, it most certainly has been sold on CD. I assume they really meant "sold as digital downloads" before.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Really? Seriously?

        "No, it most certainly has been sold on CD. I assume they really meant "sold as digital downloads" before."

        Yes, we- including the original poster- know that's what was meant, it just doesn't make it any less annoying or wrong. Considering that one of the main selling points of the CD was that it was DIGITAL F*****G AUDIO, it's rather grating that everyone assumes that digital = download and vice versa.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google Music please.

    As I don't use anything that's been touched by Apple.

    1. deains
      Alert

      Re: Google Music please.

      Best put that computer mouse down then.

  14. chriswakey
    WTF?

    $99.99 - $149.99 to rent music and never own it?

    Bugger that.

    1. Nick Pettefar

      Moron!

      There's no DRM! You download it and - it's yours! Forever! Unless the bitrot fairy comes a-calling... (Make a backup, OK.)

  15. Ben Rosenthal

    16 albums, or one album 16 times, who can tell?

  16. Sorry, "Sorry that handle is already taken" is already taken.
    Devil

    "If you can't manage a beer-soaked stadium full of stamping rockers"......

    ....Don't listen to AC/DC.

    Simple. :-)

    Satan avatar because it's the nearest I could find to the maloik. \,,/ >.< \,,/

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My 3 year old son will be happy; he loves AC/DC, and now he has a chance of talking his mommy in to getting it for her iPhone. Obviously I'm not very influential in my family...

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    So, if you want us to download Whole Lotta Rosie...

    ...just how fat a pipe do we need?

    1. Nunyabiznes

      Re: So, if you want us to download Whole Lotta Rosie...

      About 56 in/hips I believe.

  19. MJI Silver badge

    Seen them twice, 1 good, 1 OK

    I prefer Brian Johnson vocals as well. Back in Black is my favourite of theres

    Second time I saw them they were blown off stage by their support act.

    1st rule of rock.

    NEVER have Van Halen as a support act, especially when playing a mix of their first album and 1984.

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