iTunes has scored another interesting win as the English rock band Black Sabbath and its publisher have finally relented and agreed to make the band’s 1970s albums available on iTunes.
Although Black Sabbath’s later material was available on Apple’s online content store, this is the first time their 1970s work came to iTunes, including Paranoid and Masters of Reality albums.
Apple was also able to secure limited exclusivity as iTunes will get to sell the band’s first eight studio albums, along with three compilations, during a short window of time before the albums hit other streaming services…
The New York Times postulates that a dispute between Black Sabbath and its publisher, Warner Music, may have caused such a long delay in bringing their first eight studio albums to iTunes.
It had “been a long time trying to explain to fans why the music wasn’t available,” said Black Sabbath’s guitarist Tony Iommi. The article also states that Black Sabbath’s music should come to competing streaming services in about a week.
Use this direct link to access the newly added albums through iTunes.
Apple often plays the iTunes exclusivity card to its advantage.
After Beyoncé’s fifth self-named album launched as an iTunes-exclusive a month ago, Target was so enraged that it actually refused to sell the album out of fear that digital rush would harm physical sales.
Although the successful collaboration between Beyoncé and Apple – she sold 828,773 downloads on iTunes during the first three days – gave hope to the proponents of digital music downloads, a Nielsen SoundScan survey has revealed that digital music sales declined in 2013, for the first time since the iTunes Store’s inception a decade ago.