Whose Not Digital?

edited November 2010 in General
This is just an idle musing upon the fact that some groups, some parts of some groups repertoires, do not seem to be available as digital downloads. Following the passing of Ronnie James Dio, I came to notice that Ozzy-era Black Sabbath isn't available digitally which seems odd. AC/DC doesn't seem available at all digitally, and I just noticed today that the early Kinks era doesn't seem to be available either, that is pre-Muswell Hillbillies Kinks. This was inspired by the recent watching of Pirate Radio which led me to hunt up my Kinks compilations, and the idle thought that maybe the UMG drop might bring some earlier Kinks albums along - my crack card binges have led me to download every Kinks album I could find over yonder I didn't have already - but to my surprise the early albums aren't listed as MP3 available when I went to see what label they're on.
Desperate to ponder anything but more eMu agita I wonder does anyone have any ideas on these situations, or other notable bands/eras still bound to the earthly sphere of vinyl, tape and disc.

Wow, just as an aside I see 7digital has both the rather massive Kinks The RCA Years and The Arista Years going for $9.99 each. Both are a big, I say big, hunk of Kinks, at 101 and 99 tracks.

Comments

  • Big Black is a big one. Steve Albini's a bit of a recluse that way.

    Craig
  • I just noticed the lack of digital Kinks today too - thinking that would be something I'd look forward to from Universal - then I noticed it was on Reprise and missing.

    There are some things which are available on emusic which are hard to find digitally elsewhere:

    e.g. 1: Byrds Fifth Dimension snuck onto the site at some point, but it's not digitially available on amazon.
  • The Beatles.
  • Zappa acutally was at eMusic for a while. AC/DC has an exclusive contract with Virgin? for downloads to phones only or something stupid.
    Led Zeppelin was a big holdout - they finally signed up with itunes, guess their expensive habits caugh up with them. Motley Crue as well.
    Kid Rock is Rhapsody-only in the USA, last I looked.
    What a freaking mess the music industry is.
  • I love Zeppelin, but you know what? They annoy the shit out of me with their money-grubbing ways. Oh, we won't let Wayne's World play a few freakin' notes of "Stairway to Heaven" on TV, but here Cadillac, let us shill for your cars every 30 seconds.

    I'm not anti-commercialization of music, I just hate it when bands pretend that their music is above that and then sell it to the highest bidder anyway.
  • BigD, thanks for the tip on the Kinks boxes at 7Digital. I got the Arista box, which includes several albums I had on vinyl and never replaced. I listened to that live record a LOT back in the day.

    As for Zeppelin, I think they held out for a while but eventually came around. Remember, Wayne's World came out close to 20 years ago, in 1992. Commercial licensing of popular music was in its relative infancy back then, and it's a different world now. Besides, if Zep was just looking to cash in, don't you think they'd be on their third reunion tour by now?
  • all right...will someone settle this for me. in the video of t. rex performing "bang a gong" is one funky looking piano player...so funky it could only be elton john. am i wrong?
  • edited November 2010
    O great Wikipedia, who art so wise, canst thou answer this question for brother Brittleblood?
    On 18 March 1972, T. Rex played two shows at the Empire Pool, Wembley which were filmed by Ringo Starr and his crew for Apple Films. A large part of the second show was included on Bolan's own rock film Born to Boogie, while bits and pieces of the first show can be seen throughout the film's end-credits. Along with T. Rex and Starr, Born to Boogie also features Elton John, who jammed with the friends to create rocking studio versions of "Children of the Revolution" and "Tutti Frutti"; Elton John had appeared on TV with Bolan before, miming the piano part of "Get it On" on the 1971 Christmas edition of Top of the Pops.

    All hail Wikipedia!
  • A fair amount of Camel releases are not yet available digitally. Later King Crimson, too.
  • Since I brought them up at the start of this thread I just want to say - The Kinks f**king rule!! Just needed to get that out of my system since I've been listening to my personal favorite Kinks comps - saw Pirate Radio a couple of weeks ago - and this band still amazes me, especially going through their work chronologically; melodic, raunchy, sentimental, shocking, sophisticated, rude, they've done it all, and the songs still sound great. One of the most under-rated bands in rock history for me.
  • Yahoo news just had an article on eight significant iTunes holdouts...

    1. AC/DC
    2. The Smiths
    3. Bob Seger
    4. (Some) Black Sabbath
    5. Kid Rock
    6. Def Leppard
    7. Tool
    8. Garth Brooks

    Don't know if they're digital elsewhere. Quite honestly, don't care. But there you have it. The Final Word courtesy of Yahoo News.
    Reporting from his reading chair and surrounded by cats, jonahpwll, emusers news.
  • Yahoo news just had an article on eight significant iTunes
    Ugh. iTunes is the benchmark.
  • edited November 2010
    Yes, well, they are emusic's older less-needy brother.
  • I'd consider iTunes the benchmark, sure - don't they pay the most of any online retailers? Are there any examples of labels/artists big or not-tiny that are on multiple retailers but not iTunes? (I'm actually quite curious about that second question.)
  • Yes, well, they are emusic's older less-needy brother.

    I had to quickly take a sip of water just so I could do a spit take after reading that.
  • You're welcome.
  • edited November 2010
    Strictly speaking iTunes
    [spits]

    is the snotty-nosed kid brother.
  • edited November 2010
    snotty-nosed kid brother.
    Yeah, I was surprised when I joined emu to see they had been around longer than itunes.
    But still, itunes was the first to offer per track downloads for 99 cents. That's their claim to fame. Even though emu was around long before the itunes store, you had to sign up for a subscription. No "woo hoo I'll download this one song!" with emu.

    Oh, we won't let Wayne's World play a few freakin' notes of "Stairway to Heaven" on TV, but here Cadillac, let us shill for your cars every 30 seconds.
    I completely agree with the Zeppelin crew. Wayne's World wasn't worthy.
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