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iTunes Europe Goes Live
Spad writes "The Register is reporting the launch of iTunes in the UK, France and Germany. "iTunes will carry 700,000 songs from the five major record labels and independents, and prices for the download service start at 79 pence or 99 euro cents per song." It's not ideal (99c is about 55p) but it's better pricing than expected. I for one will be signing up to use it."
I know there is a Windows client for I-Tunes, but this article made me wonder.
How many Apple users are there in Europe anyway?
(Not trying to belittle them in any way, I'm just curious)
This is the sig that says NI (again)
What? Only UK, France and Germany?
Why not the whole of Europe? Did Apple also excluded one or more of the States of America?
Grmbl...
Well, kudos to them for not making us Britains pay 99p a track, like I'm sure some other companies would.
We still pay the highest price, but I'm getting used to being shafted out of every penny I own here anyway.
120 characters should be enough for anybody
Well i think we're getting a shitty deal in the UK when 0.99 euro converts to 65p and UK users have to pay 79p a track!
99 eurocents per song might seem expensive. But how many of you haven't bought a cd because you liked some songs, only to find out later you really don't like the rest of them? Then the option of legally owning the few songs you *do* like isn't so bad.
Btw, is it illegal to download the cdcover of the full cd if you bought only a couple of tracks?
I wonder to what extent Apple's business model anticipates a similar crackdown on this side of the pond?
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Why choose iTunes/Sony/Rhapsody/Walmart over AllOfMp3?
Though AllOfMP3.com is a legally questionable operation, so are the tactics of the RIAA's, whom iTMS users are supporting with every cent they give to the store. You're screwing artists either way, whether it's through P2P or funding the RIAA through iTMS/Apple. If you really want to send your money to an artist, go to one of their shows, buy their merchandise, have one of your friends give'em a listen.
By choosing AllOfMP3.com over Apple's store, you can do the following:
-NOT support the RIAA or their questionable methods of operation
-NOT support a company that works with the RIAA to further their influence and funnel your money into the RIAA's coffers (for a list of other companies and people not to buy music from, please visit here)
-NOT support the use of the iTMS' proprietary DRM which not only limits what media player you want to play your music on (Most people prefer listening to their music on Winamp intead of being forced to use iTunes to listen to music they paid for), but what digital audio portable you want to use to listen to your music as well. AllofMP3.com and several other services (Audiolunchbox, Bleep, Magnatune) do not treat you like a criminal for buying their music, nor impose limits on how you wish to listen to it.
-CHOOSE what format you want your music encoded in, instead of being stuck with vanilla 128 AACs, with Apple's proprietary and limiting DRM tacked on.
None of the independent labels are signing up for iTunes; and that means the vast bulk of their service will be made up by the commercial schlock the majors are trying to cram down peoples throats. (Unlike the US, non-major labels are a big chunk of the UK CD market).
No Franz Ferdinand? No White Stripes? No Dizzee Rascal?
No thanks, Steve.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Except most of Europe has higher sales tax.
There's rumours that the iTMS Europe is located in Luxembourg due to the slightly lower tax rate there. It's still above 15% - IIRC, 17%?
So there's that difference gone.
I thought that the EU was dead against people being able to price people differently based on country. In other words, if you go to a site, that site can't give you a different price based on your country of origin. But, that having a UK site and a French site with different prices is OK.
...going to be before Apple becomes a media company who just happens to sell software and computers? Right now, there are definitely a hardware company that sells software. But with the iPod, and whatever next Big Thing that will follow, I have to wonder how much of the bottom line is going to be based on media content?
Don't be a looter...and yes, I know that it's spelled with an "A" instead of an "E".
2a. I buy one or two standard format CDs from the large range on display for a reasonable price that is identical (in my own local currency) no matter what part of the world I am in or
2b. I buy separate tracks in an open format like MP3 or OGG and burn them to a standard CD either in the record store or at home.
3. I play, rip, burn my songs in whatever format I like on whatever application I like on whatever OS I like.
A revolutionary idea, I agree, but I think it might just work...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
You for one may decide to use it, but on the other hand, I for one will continue to purchase my CDs for 6.99 for CD-Wow (average of 11 tracks at 6.99 is 64pence a track) with the added bonuses of
a - Better sound quality
b - no restrictions on how many different devices I play it on
c - no restrictions on how many times I can rip it
d - the possibility of ripping it to the (superior) ogg format.
e - the artist getting a bigger cut of my money
f - casing, and cover art
So when you buy a CD, you get more for less. Hmmmmm so tell em again, exactly why is iTunes such a great deal?
Sunday you're Thinking Different, Monday you're a huge tool, paying too much and waiting to think like everyone else.
Is low. I couldn't find many artists I wanted, and the songs available for the others were quite limited.
Big business has been arguing (quite rightly) the case for a free flow of goods and services as a means of creating more efficient markets and thus lowering their production cost. Unfortunately, at the same time they appear very hesitant in extending these benefits to the consumer.
...
Region encoding on DVDs was only the most blatant example where markets were kept artifically separate, but it extends to many other areas, particularly cars (VW has been convicted under EU law for trying to stop Germans buying VWs abroad where they sell them cheaper), fashion (companies prosecuting anyone who dares to "re-import" produce that was to be sold cheaper abroad), CDs (CD-wow was prosecuted for importing CDs to the UK and selling them for US-prices)
It's a world of free trade, so if I want to source my products from the cheapest source I should be allowed to. I can see that some companies warrenties might not be valid abroad, or that I'd have to pay additional shipping, but creating artifically separated markets can only be bad for the consumer!
I'm particularly annoyed in the case of downloadable music. There are *no* shipping costs, yet i-tunes US won't sell music to a UK customer, presumably because they figured out they can extract more money from them...
This is even more galling when it happens internally in the EU where there are supposed to be *no* trade-barriers, yet i-tunes germany also won't sell to the UK.
Companies should not get away with having their cake and eating it. If they want globalisation they also have to face global competition for customers and can't be allowed to create artificial niches. If the Brits are prepared to pay a few pennies more in return for a more British service and not having to convert currencies, that's fine, but if I want to buy from the US (or Europe) I should definitely be allowed to do so!
I'm in france, using a french keyboard (a sick invention) with english XP, download iTunes 4.6, I select france as the home country, click on a track and what do I get?
"This track is not available in your store" in french.
I been waiting for the EU version of iTunes for a year, what's the point if I still can't get the music I'm interested in?
P***** de m****!
People are saying the selection is low. How is Apple providing two different store fronts? Are they keying on the IP address? I live in Europe but use a US credit card to buy from iTMS. Will this change if iTMS is offered in my country?
Devon
You're so right,
In my cicle of friends I see a lot of people downloading not the films/series that are broadcasted on TV here in the Netherlands, but especially the stuff that's not on the local networks.
Japaneese Anime, Brasilian soaps, indy music, episodes that have aired in the USA but not yet in europe, etc.
They would pay for a legal alternative, but it just is not there.
There are hundreds of niche markets that do not warrant nation wide broadcasting, but could make gold money in some bittorrent/iTunes combination, where increased demand would increase the number of nodes.
DSL+Tivo-like product could do this in a very convenient way. The box would function as a seed for the last 20 things you downloaded next to the Tivo like behaviour.
RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
I did a little bit of digging on AllofMP3.com, but nowhere did I come across statistics on just how big a piece of the pie the artists are getting. Where are you getting your numbers from?