Fans have only three ways to buy AC/DC's Black Ice album: Wal-Mart, its sister chain Sam's Club or ACDC.com. But that hasn't stopped the CD from selling like gangbusters, with over a million copies sold in its first two weeks domestically.
Columbia Records says it has shipped over 5.3 million copies of the album worldwide to date, making this the number one album in Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Argentina, Canada and Spain in addition to the US
It could pick up even more momentum, now that AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack is on sale for most console platforms, with the Nintendo Wii version to be released in a couple weeks.
Black Ice cannot be purchased from iTunes or any other digital music store, and, again, is available only as a CD at Wal-Mart or the band's website, which makes the roaring success of AC/DC's first album in eight years all the more surprising. Nearly 63 percent of Listening Post readers thought the Wal-Mart exclusive was a bad idea. But according to Columbia, Black Ice could wind up as the most popular rock album of the year.
The band's embrace of the Rock Band videogame could be a big part of the band's revival. Its "Let There Be Rock" was included in Rock Band 2, and the band was first to include an entire album in either Rock Band or Guitar Hero.
Its back catalog has sold 5.1 million copies worldwide this year –
more than any other band including the Beatles, according to Columbia.
When the Beatles version of Rock Band comes out next year, maybe they'll take back the lead.
For now, AC/DC's plan to cozy up to game developers while sticking withthe CD for distributing music appears to be paying off. (The fact thatits music jibes so well with the hard-rocking aesthetic of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band can't hurt either.)
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