iTunes Has the Beatles, But It Doesn’t Have …

AC/DC and others aren’t buying in yet

Finally, you can legally download “Can’t Buy Me Love” on iTunes. (SEE: Apple Finally Gets the Beatles on iTunes)

But there's plenty that you still can't.

For some other performers, art and commerce have still not hit the right note. So while you twist and shout over John, Paul, George and Ringo, her are five other top artists you still won’t find biting the Apple.

AC/DC – 1980's “Back in Black” has sold more than 49 million copies worldwide, making it the second best-selling record of all time behind Michael Jackson’s “Thriller." But if you want "You Shook Me All Night Long," better "Shake a Leg," too — AC/DC say they put out albums, and that's what they want their music sold as. “It's like an artist who does a painting," guitarist Angus Young said in 2008. "If he thinks it's a great piece of work, he protects it."

GARTH BROOKS – In and out of his various retirements, the country superstar is very much of the same POV as AC/DC. Brooks has remained consistent in saying that unless America’s largest retailer of music only allows fans to download full albums and not single songs, it can't have his wares.

KID ROCK — Like his mentor Bob Seger, Detroit’s Bob Ritchie isn’t letting iTunes get its hands on his music. Without putting too fine a point on it, Kid Rock has told Steve Jobs that, until he hands out more $$ per download to artists, the Apple boss can stick it where the sun don’t shine. Except for 1990’s cringe inducing “Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast,” which Kid Rock doesn’t own the rights to, you won’t find anything directly by Kid Rock on iTunes. 

So if you want his new album “Born Free,” out Tuesday, hear it streaming on Facebook, buy the whole thing digitally on Amazon or actually venture out to a record store.

BLACK SABBATH – Actually, you can buy Sabbath on iTunes — the Ronnie James Dio version of the band. But with the exception of a live album or two, you won’t be head-banging to Ozzy Osbourne. Not to sound paranoid, but thanks to a just recently seemingly resolved long-standing legal dispute between the Prince of Darkness and guitarist Tony Iommi, the classic Ozzy-era Sabbath isn’t there. On Amazon, however …

THE SMITHS – Frontman Morrissey’s solo albums and almost everything by guitarist Johnny Marr are available, but with the exception of a Greatest Hits from 2008, the Manchester band that poetically owns adolescent angst are nowhere to be found on iTunes. To paraphrase, how soon is never?

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