DMB on iTunes

By Waldo Jaquith
Dave Matthews Band, for one, welcomes their new Apple overlords. As recently as last June, Dave Matthews Band was selling their music on-line only through their own website, unwilling to work with the iTunes Music Store because Apple requires that artists be willing to sell the lion's share of their songs individually, as opposed to requiring the purchase of a full album. This conflicts with the band's belief that each album is a work unto itself, and not to be broken up. By July, though, the band had begun to sell their songs via Napster, giving them an exclusive contract through August. When that didn't pan out, they began selling through Sony's Connect last month. With iTMS dominating the on-line music industry, though, the band has now done the inevitable -- they're beginning to sell their music through iTunes. At the moment, the only track available is "American Baby", the first single from Stand Up, but the accompanying text promises that the album will be available as "a digital exclusive on iTunes in May." It looks like iTMS has, at long last, won DMB's affections.