AC/DC turns down the volume on ITunes listeners

So as I was driving to school one day, they played the new AC/DC song, Rock and Roll Train, on 97.1 RQQ, and right before they announced that the band would not be making their new album, Black Ice, available on ITunes. Singer Brian Johnson said that he preferred that the album be listened to as a whole and that fans should not purchase single tracks to listen to individually.

Well, I'm not so sure about all this.

On the one hand, I can see where Johnson is coming from and I not necessarily saying that there isn't something to what he's saying. But ultimately, I think this is a sign that big bands have begun to forget that the fans are the customers. The fans are the guys who write your paycheck, and if they only want to buy one track off the album then that should be their right. Let's think of this in economic terms. If I go onto ITunes and download Rock and Roll Train, that's one dollar you've made off me that you wouldn't have made otherwise. But by refusing to put it on there, you've now lost that potential to make money. You've lost the dollar you would have made off me.

Doesn't sound like good business sense, does it? But if you think about it, apparently it is.

Now fans are forced to buy the entire album if all we want is Rock and Roll Train. So that's now somewhere between 11 and 18 dollars we have to pay just for that song. That doesn't mean that there might not be other good material on the album, but that isn't the point. If the customers only want one song, then they can pay their money to AC/DC and their record label, go home and listen to the song, and both sides are happy. Or at least they should be. And this whole Wal-Mart deal? Huh? Why deny all other retail outlets the chance to sell your CD? This doesn't make a lot of sense.

Well basically, I'm willing to acknowledge that technically the band does have the right to do what they want with their product, but if people don't like the way they do business then they don't have to buy it. As for me, I can say that this is 11 dollars that AC/DC won't be seeing from me. Honestly, I don't even like the song that much anway.

MTSU housing department bans sitting

Would you believe it? The MTSU housing department has come up with some rules that I haven't always agreed with, but I think this one has gone a bit too far. The housing department has recently mandated that no student can sit in front of the service desk in Monohan Hall. But I think the point they're missing is that this is our home. I wouldn't go into your home and try to tell you where you can and can't sit. And secondly, we, as the residents, are the ones writing their paycheck. If we don't like it, we can move out and sit wherever we want. And the best part is, MTSU houing wouldn't be getting a single penny from us. If you're going to mandate these thing, they should at least try to give us a reasonable explanation, which they have not.

Rapid Reaction: MTSU 14 Florida Atlantic 13

Alright, I'm going to (slightly) rip off Paul Kuharsky and ESPN a bit here and do a "rapid reaction" type of piece; that is, give you my thoughts on the game within two hours of it ending.

First off, it was a great ending to what honestly was a pretty crappy game. FAU led 10-0 most of the way, the offense sputtered, and the defense bent but didn't break. About the ending, though, I will say that the stadium was louder than I have ever heard it been, and I've been to every game here since 2007. That includes the likes of the Maryland and Virginia games. You always hope that winning in dramatic fashion will be a shot in the arm, but even if it doesn't, it sure is a hell of a blast for your fan base. Even though we still failed to make the front page of ESPN.com.

Other things that jumped out:

• If it weren't for the last 5 minutes, I would almost be willing to say that this was the game where MT proved they had one of the worst offenses in Division 1 football. They were shut out for 53 minitues against an FAU team that surely doesn't rank very high defensively out of the 119 teams in the nationm (I'll check this later). The Blue Raiders could get drives going but they couldn't sustain them once they crossed midfield, and that's what was so frustrating.

• Can someone explain Rick Stockstill's call to go for it on fourth down inside the FAU 10? Getting a field goal would have allowed the Raiders to tie the game with the late touchdown and taken a lot of pressure off the offense. It's just easier to operate when you get the shutout monkey off of your back.

• And what the hell was the defense's problem on the final drive? All night long, the defense had given up chunks of yardage but had kept the Owls off the scoreboard. Then, in the course of one drive, they played 10x worse than they had all night and almost cost MT the game. To be fair, it didn't help that the kickoff went out of bounds, but it's a team effort. FAU ran two plays for about 40 yards and looked like they were in position to sew things up. Right after the offense finally put the ball in the endzone on a fourth down play, we get hit with this. Deflating.

• And lastly, what was with everyone leaving at halftime? We saw a mass exodus from the stadium that was so large you would have thought the game was over - literally. I got up from my bench to see where everyone was headed because there was no way I was believing that everyone I saw was heading for the exits. But like I wrote on my facebook page - if you left early, you missed a good one.