Euro iTunes Store Delayed

pnjman writes "Due to the record labels being unable to agree licencing issues, the European iTunes music store has been put back until at least next year."

Comments

Bad for Apple

[maxentius]

Now that Jobs scared the competition into action, he's got to keep the machine growing. International iTunes store access -- and Windows access -- are critical to maintain the early victory.

Credit Cards

[Llywelyn]

"imagine remotely accessing a machine in Finland, using that machine to download from Apple's store at a cheaper rate than your home country, and then downloading from the Finland machine to yours. "

This would probably be countered the same way that it is being handled now to prevent people from buying music this way from Finland by routing through a US American server--by checking the credit card address.

Thus, if your credit card has a home address in Estonia (and a Credit Card *is* required to use the store), then you won't be able to use the iTunes store through Finland after Finland is included in the plan or through the United States today.

Re:Credit Cards

[0x0d0a]

Seems like reselling credit card service could be a profitable business.

Overblowing it a bit?

[Llywelyn]

This is blatant hyperbole.

Windows access is relatively critical, but only from the perspective of competing with whatever MS manages to cobbel together that actually has a chance of competing (I haven't seen anything yet) and will likely have very little to do with the long term life-and-death of the project as it stands now (the record companies seem happy with the deal, and so long as they have the big-5 and the big-5 remain profitable, Apple will probably not have to float the store).

International access, on the other hand, is in no-way critical to whether the project succeeds or whether Apple succeeds. The problems are the laws in other countries which are not conducive to this kind of pricing scheme, as well as the international contracts and licensing issues surrounding distribution of media.

If Apple and the big-5 are having trouble with it, so will anyone else who wants to expand across country boundaries.

Thus, the two *most* critical issues for the iTunesMusicStore, at this stage, are:

1) Getting more labels aboard (they seem to be doing an admirable job at getting this set up).

2) Getting iTunes ported to Windows (once again).

These would be the "logical next steps" to remain in front of the pack. International access is more of a nicety that is not overly critical for their success (though I'm sure they want to do it as quickly as possible--more profits are never a bad thing).

why is this difficult?

[kahrhoff]

offer one euro downloads, isn't this why they (europe) went to one currency? Let the record companies figure out how to divide their 60% that they get. Seems easy enough for me.

Re:why is this difficult?

[6hill]

offer one euro downloads, isn't this why they (europe) went to one currency?

Well, for starters, only 12 of the current 15 EU countries have adopted the euro, and there's still about 30 countries in Europe that are not EU members, all with their own currencies. Granted, using the euro as the default currency in iTMS would capture the core Central European market, but it would also leave countries from the UK to Bosnia-Herzegovina without iTMS access. So enabling the use of all local currencies seems the only rational way to go.

Anyhow, I don't think the point was the myriad of currencies used in Europe, but the complexities of getting to record companies to agree (colour me surprised).

Haha!

[psavo]

I can't help but quote Simpsons:

Haha! Suckers.

I can't believe how this is feasible for them. From my POV, they're loosing money here all this time the iTunes store isn't running in Europe. I think they'll have a lot to explain to shareholders, eg. 'Why didn't you pursue this business model as soon as it showed it's potential?'.

Reading the article...

[squiggleslash]

...it appears to me that Apple has made the somewhat common mistake of treating Europe as a country. It isn't. It's a collection of countries with a growing trade-orientated body joining most of them in some fields but by no means all. It's almost as absurd (I said almost) to treat Europe as a country as it is to treat "North America" as one.

Apple would do well to look at rolling out iTMS in individual countries rather than attempt to do this as a bloc. Other international retailers, such as Amazon (which has amazon.co.uk and amazon.de) have already learnt this lesson, and built successfully upon it.

Cyberspace is *not* a real place

[BriSTO(V)L]

This just goes to show how deluded is the common idea that "Cyberspace" is a real place, above and separate from the real world, immune to national boundaries, laws and so forth. The internet might provide an efficient and (apparently) "free" means of communication between people in different nations, but if enterprises are going to do business "on" the internet then they have to play within the various frameworks of the existing nation states that us 6 billion people have formed ourselves into. Oh, and PS - the Apple story is still annoying, cos at 0.99 euro's per track I'd buy it (and I *don't* indulge in P2P file trading anyway...)

Take what they can get

[fingers1122]

The record labels should take whatever they can get. Basically, they have two options: (1) Get some money when people legally download songs. -or - (2) Get no money when people download songs illegally with p2p clients. The record companies are getting greedy; they should take what they can get and be happy!

Losing Money? I think not

[Llywelyn]

You, sir, are ignorant.

"they're loosing money here all this time the iTunes store isn't running in Europe. "

Hardly. They aren't making as much as they could, but they are not "losing money" because they are not in Europe.

"I think they'll have a lot to explain to shareholders, eg. 'Why didn't you pursue this business model as soon as it showed it's potential?'."

Not Apple's problem--there are laws and licensing issues involved that they are attempting to negotiate their way through. These are a more major issue than was first anticipated. Period. End of discussion.

If they are turning a profit with it now and/or will turn a profit once the Windows version comes out, why on earth would they need to justify that they haven't managed to work out licensing with Europe just yet?

They aren't exactly trying to explain to the teacher why they haven't gotten their homework in on time.

Re:Losing Money? I think not

[klmth]

Actually, the grandparent was referring to the european recording industry, certainly not Apple.

Re:Ah-ha!

[byolinux]

I think part of the problem comes from the fact that artists are on different labels in different countries. With the potential for different labels in different parts of Europe, it may result in a UK iTMS, a French iTMS, etc.

Re:No good music in Europe?

[JonathanBoyd]

U2 were one of the headline acts and they are Irish. You don't get many countries more embracing of Europe than the Irish.

Re:What about a Canadian store?

[mikeloader]

Well, no offense, but Canada's not exactly a huge market, you know? It's got fewer people and a smaller GDP than California, for crying out loud

But it's a good test market for an international rollout. It has similar licensing rules to the US so it won't be has hard as Europe but it requires multiple languages and a different currency. If you want to test international support before an international rollout, Canada is 10% of the size of the US and an easy option.

Re:European Music Store, what about individual one

[pnjman]

Would it not be better to combine all the stores into one huge store and so expose these smaller artists to a much wider audience rather than the big 5 labels just pushing the latest teen act?

5 million isn't good enough for them?

[chia_monkey]

I find it odd that the initial success of iTMS here in the US isn't good enough for the EU to say "ok, they were a good test bed. We let them take the risk, now we'll jump on". What exactly are they waiting for (aside from what the article says...which I think is just a bunch of sad excuses).

I also find it ironic that in that very article, they're talking about how the P2P networks are trading thousands of tracks per day, thus people aren't buying CDs. Um...hello...doesn't it just seem like common sense to hurry up and get this set up so you can get SOME money?