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iTunes Store Available in Australia Very Soon

Posted by timothy on from the wendell-white-kicks-apple-butt dept.

tintub writes "New Zealander Russell Crowe has probably infuriated Apple by revealing the launch date of the iTunes store in Australia. Apparently it will be open as early as tomorrow (Thursday), selling tracks for AU$1.80 each. Personally I think this is too much, but I'm glad it's finally available in Australia. Now, when's Amazon coming?"

35 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Dear Apple by CaptainZapp · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I read that you will also open an ITunes store in Scandinavia and in Switzerland as well this week; this is nice.

    As long as you don't sell MP3 / Ogg files in 320kb - / very high quality however, I cordially invite you to go and bang yer heads; you won't sell me one damn song.

    I can agree to not distribute downloaded material, but I'm hell bent not to buy anything that even faintly stinks of DRM.

    Oh and while we're at it: 99c a song is acceptable, 9.99 per album is not, specifically for some crippled format, which may or may not play in three years. You cut out the middleman and a whole lot of manufacturing -, distribution and logistics in the process and I - as the consumer - want at least a part of that savings reflected on the price.

    There is no need to thank me.

    --
    ich bin der musikant

    mit taschenrechner in der hand

    kraftwerk

    1. Re:Dear Apple by Calroth · · Score: 4, Informative

      You cut out the middleman and a whole lot of manufacturing -, distribution and logistics in the process and I - as the consumer - want at least a part of that savings reflected on the price.

      Whilst you can want that, there's no reason for you to get it.

      The cost of production has little to do with the price of the songs. The price is simply the highest amount that consumers will let Apple get away with. Although they could lower their prices and therefore sell more songs, if you add it up, they wouldn't make more money this way.

      Now, the actual issue isn't this simple in real life, of course. Also, Apple only makes a tiny amount of money from music sales (at the moment, the store is only there to make iPods more attractive). But it's useful to remember, in the real world, we have real world economics.

    2. Re:Dear Apple by CrackedButter · · Score: 2, Insightful


      The RIAA cut out the middleman btw not Apple, it isn't Apple which dicates pricing nor the DRM, iTunes music store is the result of what the music industries want. However I do agree with you on all the other points. Although I do buy music from them, I resort to cherry picking good albums for their singles because I'm not prepared to pay for price for an album to get a few good songs.
      There is also nothing wrong with selling 320kb songs in AAC either as long as the DRM wrapper isn't there, it is an open format after all.

      --
      Jonathanjk.com
    3. Re:Dear Apple by nmg196 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > As long as you don't sell MP3 / Ogg files in 320kb - / very high quality however

      Most people listen to MP3 files though headphones or in a car. The quality of the sound though headphones is so bad that it doesn't really matter if it's only 128K - you're never going to tell the difference anyway. Especially if you don't upgrade from the crappy white headphones that came with your iPod.

    4. Re:Dear Apple by 0x461FAB0BD7D2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Although they could lower their prices and therefore sell more songs, if you add it up, they wouldn't make more money this way.

      That's assuming that demand is inelastic. But given the number of alternatives to iTunes, albeit crappy ones, this is not the case.

      The main reason iPod is still the top dog is because of trend. There are iPod clones and killers out on the market now, but if Apple fails to continue innovation with the iPod, you can be sure that demand will be elastic, and they'd have to lower prices.

      And without the music, people have no reason to get an iPod.

    5. Re:Dear Apple by BackInIraq · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh and while we're at it: 99c a song is acceptable, 9.99 per album is not, specifically for some crippled format, which may or may not play in three years. You cut out the middleman and a whole lot of manufacturing -, distribution and logistics in the process and I - as the consumer - want at least a part of that savings reflected on the price.

      You might want to address this to somebody more appropriate, such as "Dear RIAA." Apple does not have as much control as you might think over the prices of songs on the iTMS...in fact, if I remember correctly, they've had to fight the record labels a couple times when they wanted Apple to raise their prices (especially on albums). I believe that is the reason that many albums are not even available at the 9.99 price, but instead you are forced to buy all the songs on the album individually (leading to 19 and 20 dollar DRM'd lossy-encoded albums!); the record lables refuse to license some albums for sale on their store at that price, but but instead just allow sales of the songs.

      I hate DRM, and I hate the idea of paying 9.99 for an album off iTunes (which is why I never have)...but let's give credit where credit is due. Apple has gone with the least DRM and the lowest prices that the record companies will allow them, or something very close to it.

      Remember, Apple does not own the music they sell. They are simply a reseller...most of your complaints are regarding the companies actually producing the product Apple sells.

      As for their 128kb encoding rates...well, even Apple is stupid sometimes. Unless that was another concession to the record companies. But I think that was just their (bad) choice. I've found AAC files as low as 192kb to be rather nice, qualitywise, however....320 just seems unneccesary to me.

    6. Re:Dear Apple by CaptainZapp · · Score: 2, Interesting
      The quality of the sound though headphones is so bad

      This is only true if you refer to the 99 cents ear killers, that they tuck in with portable audio devices. You are however free to toss them and get a set of Sennheiser, or Koss earphones. At least the more expensive models sound rather excellent to my ears.

      --
      ich bin der musikant

      mit taschenrechner in der hand

      kraftwerk

    7. Re:Dear Apple by rokzy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >You cut out the middleman and a whole lot of manufacturing -, distribution and logistics in the process and I - as the consumer - want at least a part of that savings reflected on the price.

      yes because we all know how expensive producing CDs is (*cough* AOL *cough*) whereas internet bandwidth is so cheap people never run out (*cough* /. effect *cough*).

    8. Re:Dear Apple by Calroth · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Most people listen to MP3 files though headphones or in a car. The quality of the sound though headphones is so bad that it doesn't really matter if it's only 128K - you're never going to tell the difference anyway. Especially if you don't upgrade from the crappy white headphones that came with your iPod.

      Damn right. Consider the following:
      • the difference in sound quality between 128Kbit AAC and 320Kbit Ogg Vorbis
      • the difference in sound quality between your current crappy earbuds and (for instance) anything made by Etymotic
      • the difference in sound quality between your current crappy sound card and (for instance) an external box with much less noise
      • the difference when listening to music between sitting near a humming PC and sitting in silence
      • etc. etc. etc.
      Most people focus on the first point. And yeah, it's a good point. But there are all these other things you can do to make your music sound better.
    9. Re:Dear Apple by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you are such a sucker for uncompressed source materials, why are you listening to ogg then? It's been compressed. So no MPEG or JPEG for you either.

      In other words, you are not the type of customer Apple is marketing towards, so really they shouldn't care and neither should you.

      Break out the turntable and the tube amps.

  2. It's just sad... by 0x461FAB0BD7D2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    that even though we have something that is truly global such as the internet and the web, we still find citizens of the web denying access to services based on real-world geographical location?

    Doesn't that defeat the all-encompassing nature of the web?

    1. Re:It's just sad... by MrMickS · · Score: 3, Interesting
      The issue, as always, is the invasion of external legilation onto the web. The reason for no global launch is two fold; the rights holders and the local government.

      In the early days of e-commerce it was simple for me to buy goods from the USA (I live in the UK) and electronically download them, or have them physically shipped, for less money than I paid locally. Now this is much harder. There are agreements in place that require overseas suppliers to charge me UK sales tax, or make it easy for the UK authorities to charge me it directly. This has made the world shrink again. I recently looked to buy something only available in the US but found that the company didn't ship to the UK, not because of shipping costs but because of the hassle of the form filling.

      --
      You may think me a tired, old, cynic. I'd have to disagree about the tired bit.
    2. Re:It's just sad... by CleverNickedName · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Doesn't that defeat the all-encompassing nature of the web?

      Unfortunately the all-encompassing nature of the web defeats the geographic nature of markets and governments. Neither are going to change anytime soon.

      --


      Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
    3. Re:It's just sad... by BackInIraq · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I recently looked to buy something only available in the US but found that the company didn't ship to the UK, not because of shipping costs but because of the hassle of the form filling.

      Welcome to off-topic land, but I just have to say something. I am a soldier deployed in Iraq, and have found that for some reason I cannot order software online and have it shipped here. I'm a US citizen on a US installation trying to buy something from a US store and have it delivered by the US mail system (even though the army handles part of it, they would still be a US entity), and for some reason I cannot do so. Even sillier because there is some computer software available at the post exchange here. And even sillier because I could legally have the Xbox version of the PC game I was trying to buy shipped here, no problem (from the same store, even).

      So go figure.

    4. Re:It's just sad... by Sunspire · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Even when your country is added to the iTunes approved list, all the content is localized. I have zero interest in the stuff on my local iTunes, it's the same poppy crap I can listen for free on the radio.

      I want to listen to what's new on the Brazilian scene, download the newest releases from Japan, listen to UK indie etc. Sell to me dammit! I've got a credit card and a 10 second attention span. I hope someone will take iTunes to the next level and truly offer a global service. I realize this isn't Apples fault, but it still sucks.

      Everything that can be digitized should be. Imagine being able to call up any song or movie ever produced. That way the media companies would be putting their vast archives to work for them instead of rotting away in some vault. Bulgarian jingles from the 60's are worth something to someone on the Internet right now. When there's see a "watch now" button on IMDB, no matter how obscure the movie, the world will have changed.

      --
      It's like deja vu all over again.
  3. What for ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why paying A$1.8 per song when you can buy a
    whole unprotected CD at www.allofmp3.com for
    the same amount ?

    And legally as well :
    http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/26/108283147 555 6.html

  4. When's Amazon coming to Australia? by artifex2004 · · Score: 3, Funny

    When everyone learns how to read upside-down!

  5. Price by Puremajik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I agree with the fact $1.80 is too expensive.

    I would be much more inclined to purchase tracks if they were $1.00 or at least $1.10 or $1.20.

    A lot of traditional distribution costs don't apply and I think they are not really passing on these savings as they should.

    If you really could get cheap fast track downloads with high bitrate in a flexible format you would cut out a lot of piracy.

  6. Apple is gladiating the RIAA! by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The whole anti-freedom effort on the part of the RIAA (A as in Australia) is really chafing. I'm glad someone out there is finally fighting for the rest of us, and it makes me happy that it is Apple, of all companies.

    iTunes may not be the best solution, but as far as a halfway point between music slavery and music freedom, a for-pay music download site is a great step and a great way to give the finger to our rights usurpers. I'd love to have a system that didn't require any pay at all, but Apple's pioneering of this type of business method is absolutely wonderful.

    And now, to have it spread to Australia, it is great to see freedom on the march. I hate to sing the praises of any company, but Apple deserves it this time.

    1. Re:Apple is gladiating the RIAA! by Artega+VH · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In Australia the correct acronym is ARIA, as in Australia Recording Industry Association.

      But they are pretty much the same thing.

      The price is horrible though... the current exchange rate is 1 USD = 1.28923 AUD... so 1.80 AUD per track is outrageous.

      --
      groklaw, wired and slashdot. The holy trinity of work based time wasting.
  7. price?? by aerthling · · Score: 3, Informative

    According to XE.com, US$0.99 = AU$1.27. Why then are they asking almost almost $2?

  8. iTunes is the only site where iPod users can legal by Idimmu+Xul · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the article:

    iTunes is the only site where iPod users can legally download songs.

    Is this really the only site where iPod users can legally download songs? It's a shame that the mass media can get away with spouting complete falacies such as this :(

    There are many sites to get free, legal, mp3s from:

    In This Defiance band
    Online Tonight
    John Peel sessions
    --
    The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
  9. Re:How much is that? by ivansanchez · · Score: 3, Informative

    1.80 Austrialian dollars? What is that 15 US dollars and about 1.5 Euros?
    1.8 Australian Dollars, at today's currency exchange rates, are about 1.40 US $, or about 1.08 €.

  10. Russell Crowe by TuataraShoes · · Score: 4, Funny

    What are you doing telling everyone that Russell Crowe is a New Zealander???
    We've been doing a pretty good job up till now convincing the world he's an Aussie. The Aussies can have iTunes if they promise to keep Russell Crowe.

    --
    Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird -- Proverbs 1:17
    1. Re:Russell Crowe by donscarletti · · Score: 2, Funny

      Oh no you don't you sneaky sheep farming weasel. Claiming Russell Crowe is ours is like claiming that the nuclear bomb is Japaneese.

      --
      When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
  11. $1.80 a bit steep... by GrahamCox · · Score: 2, Informative

    While $1.80 is in line with the prices charged elsewhere, based on the actual exchange rate, it does FEEL too high nevertheless. Wages and the overall cost of living in Australia is lower than e.g. UK and US, so the affordability of iTunes is that much poorer. Something like $1.30 - $1.50 would seem right.

  12. Amazon by Yakman · · Score: 2, Informative

    Now, when's Amazon coming?

    There's not enough of a market to make it worth Amazon's while setting up the distribution infrastructure for an Australian store.

    iTunes on the otherhand doesn't have a physical product so it's only contractual reasons (ie. stupid music industry) that prevents a worldwide iTunes day one.

  13. I expect... by j0e_average · · Score: 5, Funny

    we'll see a rise in "Men at Work" downloads now...

  14. What? by datacaliber · · Score: 2, Informative

    Anyone else read that and think, "What the hell does Russell Crowe have to do with iTunes?" Well here's the answer:

    Crowe said songs he had recorded since the break-up of his band, 30 Odd Foot of Grunt, would be available when iTunes launches.

    Seriously, I wouldn't have read the article if I hadn't read that Crowe was involved. Pretty boring story otherwise.

  15. we've checked it out ... by zbaron · · Score: 2, Informative

    ... using a "side" door to get in early. The song price appears to be AU$1.69. Russel Crowe in the interview was talking about the price of the sanity.com.au online store, not the iTMS(AU).

    Looks like out accounts have been disabled for getting in too early too. :-(

  16. 30 odd songs and grunts by digitaldc · · Score: 3, Informative

    1.80 AUD Australia Dollars = 1.39636 USD US Dollars
    A 40 cent difference just for living 'dahn undah'?
    Now is anyone actually going to download Russell's songs without being totally inebriated first?

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  17. Russell Crowe? by flamearrows · · Score: 2, Funny

    Frenzal Rhomb (Australian punk band) summarised Russell Crowe's involvement in music nicely -

    "At least we know that Russell Crowe's band is a fucking pile of shit".

    If this is what iTunes Australia is offering, count me out.

    flamearrows

    --
    The indiscriminate use of vulgar language is the linguistic crutch of the inarticulate motherfucker
  18. It's actually $1.69 by ojek · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's actually $1.69, not $1.80 as predicted. See this Sydney Morning Herald article

  19. Amazon happy with status quo by Ezza · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Because when you buy from Amazon in Australia, you get charged shipping fees from North America, yet most of the time the book will actually come from their Hong Kong distribution centre (geographically around the corner compared to the US, plus cheaper labour to boot).

    Just be happy that you can buy itunes music legit down under now, even if it's more expensive than as if you got it from the US.. (US$0.99 AU$1.80 by about AU$0.50).

    --
    I'm a perfectionist but I'm trying to cut back.
  20. Price blah blah by danielacroft · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why the hell does everyone think that taking the US rate and doing a currency conversion is a valid comparison in price? Do you morons think that the Australian (or other countries) record labels have the same cost structure? They're negotiating the price with the record labels people, not picking a number out of a hat and deciding that it's fine.

    --
    Something intruiging...