{"id":18868,"date":"2014-07-11T04:25:15","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T20:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=18868"},"modified":"2014-07-11T23:29:11","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T15:29:11","slug":"garth-brooks-whose-music-isnt-on-itunes-will-make-songs-available-digitally-on-his-own-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/07\/11\/garth-brooks-whose-music-isnt-on-itunes-will-make-songs-available-digitally-on-his-own-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Garth Brooks, whose music isn\u2019t on iTunes, will make songs available digitally on his own site"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Garth<\/a>
Garth Brooks. Photo from The White House \/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASHVILLE\u2014Garth Brooks is finally embracing digital music, but he\u2019s doing it his own way.<\/p>\n

Brooks, one of the last holdout big-name musicians still refusing to put his music on iTunes, said Thursday he will make his back catalogue of hits and his new music available for download, but only through his own website. He said the digital downloads of previous music would be available in a few weeks to tide fans over until a new album comes out later this year.<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old country star remains one of music\u2019s top-selling artists, with 134 million albums sold, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. He has said in the past that he had no animosity toward Apple, but disagreed with its approach to selling music.<\/p>\n

Other performers who refused to join iTunes but later reached deals include AC\/DC, Radiohead and Led Zeppelin. ITunes was launched in 2001.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we\u2019ll be doing our digital the best way we can, the only way we know how, because we are the only ones who kind of play our own way,\u201d Brooks said at a press conference in Nashville.<\/p>\n

He also announced a new deal with the Sony Music label, which will put out an album of his first new music since 2001. Brooks said it would likely be issued sometime around Black Friday. The first city on his tour will be announced on July 15, according to Sony.<\/p>\n

Brooks entered semi-retirement in 2001 near the height of his popularity to be with his three daughters and his wife, Trisha Yearwood. Since then he has performed an extended run in Las Vegas and done a few charity shows.<\/p>\n

The Country Music Hall of Fame member said he\u2019s grateful for his fans sticking around during his time off from the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cA second half of a career isn\u2019t granted,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that\u2019s what I have now, but you have given me a shot to have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he acknowledged a rocky start to his return to the stage. A series of Ireland shows later this month billed as his \u201cComeback Special\u201d was cancelled after a battle between venue owners and local residents.<\/p>\n

Brooks had expanded the number of shows he was to play at Croke Park stadium in Dublin because of demand, but the Dublin City Council last week refused to grant permission for five shows, saying they would cause \u201can unacceptable level of disruption\u201d for residents and businesses.<\/p>\n

Brooks said tickets had already been sold for five shows and if he couldn\u2019t play them all, he would play none.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if the prime minister himself wants to talk to me, I will crawl, swim, I will fly over there this weekend,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cSit in front of him, I will drop on my knees and beg for those 400,000 people to just have fun and let them come see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Online<\/h6>\n

http:\/\/Garthbrooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASHVILLE\u2014Garth Brooks is finally embracing digital music, but he\u2019s doing it his own way. Brooks, one of the last holdout …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":18869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","mauthors-kristin-m-hall","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}