Report: Van Morrison Pulling Out of iTunes “Very Soon”

Lonnie Lazar ()

a_br10q_0309.jpgLeave it to Van Morrison to pull back the curtain on the state of the music industry today: “We don’t know where the record business is going, and the record companies say, ‘We don’t know what’s happening, and it’s a really bad time.’ So if it’s really bad, why would you want to do business with a record company?”

Morrison, perhaps Rock’s greatest living iconoclast since the death of Frank Zappa, gave a wide ranging interview to TIME, in which the much-beloved, notoriously cranky Irish troubador downplayed the importance – to him and fans of his music – of download sites such as iTunes, admitted he’s neither inspired nor impressed by anything or anyone in music today, and said if he had one thing to do over he would never have become famous.

Follow after the jump for more on Van the Man’s thoughts on the music business and why he doesn’t need iTunes

Morrison suggested he does not plan to renew his contract with the iTunes store when it expires soon, a move MacNN suggests could be a black eye for Apple, but which actually serves to underscore a persistent split between those who pay fealty to art and those who do so to commerce.

“I’m not a download artist,” he told TIME, explaining “downloads are a very small percentage of my product. But it seems the record companies all want to be the agents for downloads. And I’m not going there, so that’s another reason I don’t need them.”

Much like Zappa before him, Morrison remains supremely confident in his art and its worth and would just as soon be in control of its distribution and marketing as to put his fate and fortunes in the hands of the recording industry.

As an example, he gave Brown Eyed Girl, a song he always considered a throwaway but one that has become one of his most famous, “not because I like it,” he says, but because Sony bought it and promoted it for their own interests. “I’ve got about 300 other songs that I think are better than that.”

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The truth of the matter is iTunes will do just fine if Van Morrison decides not to renew his contract with Apple. And Van Morrison, good health and good fortune willing, will do just fine without the distribution support of a vehicle among whose artists he finds none exciting: “Absolutely none. Nothing. It’s all been done.”

Video of the interview here.

22 comments »

About the author

Lonnie Lazar

Lonnie Lazar is a writer-musician-web designer-attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.

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Posted in iTunes, Music, News, Top stories |

  • Scott

    None too soon, the removal of Van Morrison from iTunes shall be a betterment for humanity! The 300 songs he thinks are better are actually tripe.

  • halapeño

    Wow. I had no idea Van Morrison was even still alive. Has he made any music since the 60′s?

  • http://www.otheroom.com Barry Wood

    You know, I listed to the samples of all 8 million songs on iTunes and Van is right, there’s just nothing that’s any good on the iTunes store. ;)

    Granted there’s a lot of mediocre music on iTunes but even if there’s one song out of a thousand that’s worth listening to that still leaves you with 8,000 good songs. If you’re exceptionally picky and only one song out of 10,000 does anything for you then you’ll still end up with 800 good songs.

    Sure it may be hard to find the good stuff but that’s where services like last.fm are starting to make some progress in intelligent recommendations.

    BTW, I’ll bet there’s going to be a pretty good spike in sales for Morrison’s tunes now that he’s announced that he’s pulling out of the store.

  • Sinister Joe

    Good luck to him. I’m not sure exactly what a “download artist” is but apparently it’s something he doesn’t want to be. For him it’s a no risk strategy. If it turns out that, as CD sales continue to decline, he has to rejoin digital distribution he can do so with no penalty other than the lost sales for a few months or years. I doubt he’s hurting for money.

  • Jack

    Not inspired nor impressed by anything or anyone in music today? I don’t think he’s listening to the right music.

  • Rick

    I don’t think I’ve ever purchased and of Van’s songs on iTunes. So I guess is won’t be stressed too much.

  • http://www.startmysong.com Scott

    Things change Van, get busy livin or get busy dyin.

  • Jack Sparrow

    What does Van mean he’s not a download artist?

    I downloaded his entire catalogue on Pirate Bay.

  • James P

    No artists are exciting today? I can think of at least ten bands/artists right off the top of my head, but Van’s statement is so idiotic it’s not even worth listing them.

    What an a**hole.

  • Cranston Snord

    Didn’t this guy play with Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman?

  • michel

    @ Jack Sparrow! Hehehe briljant comment!

  • http://www.batifans.com Gareth

    Artists might find they do better if they engage more with iTMS – I can’t think of a better place to distribute not only standard releases, but podcasts of their activity, work in progress, PDFs of ongoing studio diaries or tour notes, promo videos, other videos, live films that aren’t worth actually *pressing* or distributing a hardcopy of… all kinds of things that can engage fans in so many ways.

    Van Morrison appears to have a bog-standard set of albums and that’s all.

    If I was an artist I’d be doing everything to put interesting and creative new kinds of content on there.
    Maybe a sure sign he should just pack it in, and that he’s as dimwitted as most record companies seem to be.

  • Paul

    He’s a dinosaur who doesn’t have a clue. Enjoy your remaining years in obscurity.

  • http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell

    What an incredibly arrogant and ignorant statement sentiment from VM. He states that if he could do it over, he’d never become famous. Fair enough—perhaps we can all assist him on his path to obscurity, then.

  • Patricia

    Have you guys lost your minds?! Why are you even reading this post if you’re not a Van fan? Van is right. He’s still out-selling everybody. Maybe you’re in that demographic of not-young-enough or not-old-enough to understand his music. I have everything he’s recorded and my sons (they’re 27, 25, & 20) like his work. They also listen to some other music that’s too strange for me, but they love them some Van. I wish he had not become famous so we could have enjoyed smaller concerts. You guys just don’t get it. Just go talk among yourselves, enjoy your own music, and stop with the snarky comments already! Van’s an icon.

  • http://www.batifans.com Gareth

    Patricia: “Why are you even reading this post if you’re not a Van fan?”

    Because I’m a music fan and an iTunes fan. And yes, I’m well aware of him and his music. My point is that artists need to engage 100% with the Store and the medium if they want it to work for them. If he’s not up for that – which he clearly isn’t – then it’s probably for the best that he withdraws and heads for that obscurity he desires.

    I’m more interested in seeing artists fill iTMS with all kinds of imaginative downloads, output and products.

  • Mark

    I agree with Craig Grannell. What a fatuous and self-absorbed comment to make – it’s only because he’s famous that his songs continue to sell.I’m sure he’d miss his millions if he wasn’t famous. The man’s a complete anachronism – he only sells his droning songs to people over the age of 60 anyway – hardly iTunes core demographic.

  • Darcy McGee

    halapeño, he did in fact just release on album his live performances of Astral Weeks…the first ever.

    In any case, the record company controls the contract not Van himself. He might try to impose that restriction, but the record company may choose not to comply.

  • nickdelodeon

    His lack of fascination for today’s music is more a sign of his age than a sign of the times.

    At his point in life, nothing is really impressive if you don’t want it to be. But he forgets what if felt like to be young and in need of good rock.

    l don’t need the rantings of an aged rocker, but I do admire his work as a younger man, even if he regrets it.

  • tim lees

    Van’s comments about the Beatles being peripheral to music history are another example of how cranky he’s feeling these days. We all end up grumpy and spiky.
    Jack Sparrow, loving your work…a genuine LOL.

  • Anita

    My goodness… a so-called “has-been” dares to critique the beloved iTunes and many sets of panties get in a twist. If VM is so irrelevant, why bother to comments on his observations and decisions. In terms of the Beatle’s comment, be sure to read the source material and not just the Google headlines.

    Van Morrison is correct. In the annuals of music, the Beatle are but one band. There is music before and after them. It is only one’s worship of the Beatles’ legend which extends them to near God-like status which cannot be critiqued lest the questioner be vilified as “old”, “jealous”, “one-hit wonder”, etc. The Beatles are not like Christ where we use their “birth” to mark time as “before” or “after”. Van Morrison pays proper tribute to those contributed to the foundations of contemporary music. He merely states that to categorize music using the Beatles as the standard is patently ridiculous. Which is it. He merely states that for him (and billions of others), the Beatles are irrelevant. Which they are. Get over it. Not everyone must worship at the altar of John, Paul, Mark, and Ringo.

  • http://www.loadsamoney.org james

    i think what mr morrison means is that there is nothing out there that has not been done before.love him or loath him this guy is a major influence on the way music is today,listen to his early work say before 1970 not many white artists were doing what he was doing but they have since.i believe he has been a truly great teacher,and when you take a look at his background were he came from and were he is now,all done on his own terms youve gotta respect that.