New AC/DC ‘Black Ice’ Album Downloaded 400,000 Times Before Release

Rock & Roll juggernaut AC/DC are an Australian hard rock band formed in Sydney, Australia in 1973 by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young. The band are considered pioneers of heavy metal, and have sold more than 200 million albums worldwide. Despite their tenure, AC/DC is releasing yet another album, 38 years from their first and 8 years since their last. Their latest album, ‘Black Ice’, adds to the 14 studio albums, 4 albums issued in Australia only, 5 live recordings, 13 video collections of concerts and music videos, and 7 box sets available. The album comes via Sony Music, who signed a long-term contract with AC/DC back in 2002.

There’s just one problem, though – it’s already been downloaded 400,000 times on BitTorrent, according to TorrentFreak. That is a huge dent in potential sales, and the figure has probably risen past that estimate at this point. ‘Black Ice’ debuted on BitTorrent a full 13 days ahead of the release date. Is there anything Sony can do? It seems like for the last decade or so now there has always been a system to download software and music; when one service is eliminated, another, more powerful service appears in its dust.