Is Sony attempting to squash the leak of AC/DC`s Black Ice album but flooding the bit torrent sites with fake files?
Acca Dacca fans attempting to download pre-release files of songs from the album are being dished up with long downloads and false tracks.The strategy is indeed bizarre for 2008.
On one hand, the download of a bit torrent file could be illegal. (A lot of record companies and artists use the technology for promotion). On the other hand, it is widely recognised as “the new airplay”.
The point is that the big companies have to learn to live in the 21st century. Applying 1985 business models today do not work.
It makes no sense to piss off an artist’s fan base by frustrating the fan.
If people want to hear a new album, they will hear it regardless of internal policies and politics.
We have seen an obsolete roll-out of the AC/DC event to date, with an attempt to control the media over the release of information. In Australia for instance, an official release about the `Black Ice` album was held back by 24 hours to allow a radio network to think that they had “an exclusive”. The news was already all over the internet well before the radio announcement even went to air.
It is bizarre that even with the bitch-slap the industry was given with Napster that there are still labels that still think they can control the audience and the media. Those days are over.
The AC/DC project is an interesting one. The band is not only not on iTunes but it is vocal about its reasons why.
The fans, however, are digitally driven, so there is a disconnect between the band and the fans that needs to be better managed.
Whatever happens between the band, the label and the fan, the `Black Ice` album will be the year’s biggest release regardless.
AC/DC is perceived as a fans band. How they play the new few weeks could go two ways. Fans will either embrace them as heroes, or despise them as a corporate machine. That call will fall with how Sony treats the fans, which right now, appears with contempt.
