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ITunes Music Store launches in 4 More Countries

Posted by timothy on from the cupertino-money-funnel dept.

Paal Unanue-Zahl writes "I've just published the news in our blog, iTunes Music Store has opened in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland. As for Australia, no dice. It seems that a record company is holding up the launch for the Aussies. We are waiting for official confirmation from Apple later on Tuesday, but purchases are possible with credit cards from Norway and the country icon shows up in the 'Select country' page. Finally."

10 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. who could this possibly be? by spir0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Are Sony releasing a competing product?

    --
    The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
    1. Re:who could this possibly be? by spir0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I tire of having to spell out every little thing in my replies - but for the person who marked my post as off-topic:

      Sony are starting a new online music store called Connect which is direct competition with Apple's iTunes store.

      There is an unnamed record label who are hampering Apple's progress in Australia (and potentially New Zealand).

      Sony owns a record label.

      Thus: Sony are probably the company who are slowing down Apple's progress.

      sigh.

      My maths may be wrong and I may be mistaken in my assumption, but please don't mod if you don't understand the topic you're moderating.

      --
      The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
    2. Re:who could this possibly be? by frankmu · · Score: 3, Funny

      but the sony guy showed up at Mac World this year! how can sony be for Apple, and against Apple?

      --
      Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
  2. About time... by pv2b · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's about time this service came to Sweden. Providing legal ways to conveniently download music while compensating artists is good news for consumers and artists (and record companies ;-) alike.

    Most people I know (including myself) download pirate copies off the Internet because of sheer convenience. I'm simply too lazy to go to the store and buy something (which might not even be in stock, but on order only), when I can just download a copy off the Internet and get it instantly.

    Now if the industry could just get a similar model going for movies and TV shows instead of suing file sharers...

    Can the media industry take note... I don't pirate because I want your stuff for free, but because it's more convenient. You can't compete effectively against electronic delivery with outdated models based on shipping optical discs to people!

    Unfortunately though, the iTunes music store doesn't seem to accept my credit card information. (No, I will not post the information so you can check out what's wrong ;-) But I don't think I should expect it to work fully. It's not even officially launched or anything!

  3. Ob. Quote by earthbound+kid · · Score: 5, Funny

    I for one welcome our new ABBA overlords...

    And dammit, now I have "Dancing Queen" in my head.

  4. More karma whoring... by pv2b · · Score: 2, Informative

    To answer your other question, ITMS is currently available in 19 countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and the good old U S of A. (I'd make this a nice bullet point list, but slashcode won't let me, it'd be too few characters per line.) Note the conspicious absense of *any* Asian countries on that list. And here's some lameness to get rid of the lameness filter. (Ironic isn't it?)

  5. Re:Slightly offtopic, but.. by pv2b · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't know about US buyers buying from overseas ITMS:es, but I know that Apple didn't let non-US:ians in non-ITMS-countries use a non-local store.

    I seem to remembering this having caused quite a ruckus with the European Union when UK citizens were not allowed to use non-UK iTunes Music Stores. The reason UK citizens would want to do that, is that the ITMS is significantly more expensive in the UK. Because of the pound and all.

  6. Re:Slightly offtopic, but.. by kimba · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not unless its already in the US store. You need a billing address in the country of the store you want to buy stuff in.

    Worse than that, the credit card needs to be issued in the country where you want an account.

    I live in Belgium, have a credit card, but the card is not issued in Belgium - therefore Apple rejects my attempts to sign up to iTMS.

  7. Cool, about time by theolein · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Switzerland has one of the highest percentages of Mac users worldwide, and it's about time that the bloody itms showed up here.

  8. Re:Is there a Japanese iTunes? by Quattro+Vezina · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nope. Shimatta is a Japanese expression equivalent to "dammit". The Japanese word for "shit" is kuso.

    Ah, I've taught someone how to swear in another language...my day is now complete.

    --
    I support the Center for Consumer Freedom