Rock and hip hop artist Kid Rock has shunned technology, or more specifically, Apple's online iTunes store with a rant that has the world listening.

Perhaps just as well known for his music as his brief marriage to Pamela Anderson, Rock writes all his own material and rejects popular technology.

In his song "All Summer Long", Rock sings about growing up without the web. Perhaps he misses those days: The musician is now refusing to offer his songs for download on iTunes.

"This whole debate on downloading music illegally and stealing it, I guess you will, has just really gone way too far," said Rock. "I mean there's record companies suing kids and the kids are right in saying that, you know, you can illegally download my music and steal it if you will. I've done very - I'm (expletive deleted) rich, so how can I (expletive deleted) about someone downloading a song or two? I really can't."

Editor-in-chief of Billboard magazine, Tamara Conniff, said the singer's point is that he'd rather his fans rip him off before record companies or iTunes do.

"Part of the reason why he did this is because his record company, I think, had come forward and said will you please do a statement for us against file sharing?" said Conniff. "And he kind of turned around and said, no, actually I'm going to do a statement against iTunes."

Mega-acts such as Garth Brooks, AC/DC and the Beatles are also absent from the iTunes roster. Some admit tensions are building industry-wide.

"On the industry side, people complain about iTunes all the time. From an insider's perspective, it's not unusual. From a consumer's perspective, it probably is," said Conniff.

"Let's level the playing field. Steal everything," said Rock on his website. "I mean, if you need a new MP3 player or computer, do you know how much money Apple and Microsoft have? Go in there, get a new laptop, grab it and run."

Conniff said Kid Rock's sarcasm has a point, but also admits it is only a matter of time until recording artists start asking for a piece of Apple's pie.

"Kids are buying downloads for 99 cents and Apple is a $1.6 billion company and a lot of that is based on the fact that they make devices that carry music."