Kid Rock goes digital with Rhapsody

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Rock a strong critic of iTunes

Who needs iTunes to make money?
Who needs iTunes to make money?

Kid Rock isn't what you'd call a long-term commitment kind of guy. So when he decided to end his embargo of digital music services and signed on with Rhapdosy, he stipulated that it would be for four months only.

Starting today (Oct. 3), Kid Rock's music on Rhapsody is available for DRM-free purchase as full albums only. If you want individual songs, they can be downloaded only under the subscription plan, or streamed via the services' 25 free songs a month offer.

This is somewhat surprising, as Rock has been a vocal advocate of keeping music available only as full albums - the basis of his music's continued absence from iTunes. (Apple's Steve Jobs insists on selling all music as both albums and as singles.)

After Rhapsody's exclusive ends, Rock is expected to make his music available to additional services under similar kinds of full-album-only provisos.

While Kid Rock hasn't been on iTunes per se, two cover versions of his smash hit singleAll Summer Long have made respectable showings on the music service: Hit Masters' version hasracked up morethan 267,000 downloads, while Rock Heroes' take on it has logged 137,000.

And the Kid still makes money regardless. That's the way he rolls.

Joe Bosso
Joe Bosso

Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar World, Guitar Player, MusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.