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iTunes Australia to Launch Next Week
daria42 writes "It looks extremely likely that the iTunes music store will launch (finally) in Australia next week. Apple confirmed that its vice president of iTunes Eddie Cue, and vice president of iPod product marketing Greg Joswiak will be flying down under for a press conference on Tuesday morning. Cue has been prominent in a number of launches around the globe of the online music store, which is now available in around 20 countries worldwide. Australians have been waiting for the launch for more than a year now. It is believed Sony's Australian division wanted to block the launch."
Wooo!
From the article:
The iTunes Australia store is expected to provide largely the same offerings as its US and European stores, delivering access to almost one million songs at between AU$0.99 and AU$1.69 per song.
Crikey!
Hoo-bloody-ray!
ZzzzSleep
Emerald Astrology
For the past year, every single month the iTMS "is going to be released this month!" Sony BMG Are bitching like they did for Japan... There were technical difficulties... And it never happens.
When it's up. It's up. Until then it's just like the usual apple rumours - Fake.
Do you by any chance live in Australia? Slashdot is an American based website.
Finally. I would love to hear the whole "behind the scenes" story about why and who made it take so long. It must have been rather frustrating, but professionalism appears to have reigned despite that, I don't recall much gossip leaking out to the public.
this is tosh invented by the pathetic rumour mill that has never maneged to get a rumour correct, Appletalk Australia. They first fabricated this rumour on Wednesday this week and like the sheep they are Australian media outlets picked it up again. Remember their fake russell crow article that media outlets picked up? this is the same thing like the other ten times they told us the itunes store was opening in australia.
read more at andrew's blog about what to expect from these people. iTunes music store australia will come eventually but just give it a rest with the fake rumours people.
It is high time that the drum beat of the digital age began conquering the lands it has not yet subjegated. That sounds harsh, but what I mean is that until digital content, and more importantly, digital distribution is ubiquitous (I dislike that word) there will be no revolution in the digital entertainment world. Until the entire world holds the *AA business model up for ridicule there will be no change worth reporting on the common man's news channel.
:-)
I really don't care who makes digital music available in any country, I just care that it happens. Hoooray for music... horaayyy for music unfettered by malicious middlemen distribution companies. It is aobut time that musicians began getting paid for their music without all the middleman crap. In this case, the digital age moves ahead of current technology to support the small businessman, small business, and the artist.
Copyright and patent be damned, this is a *GOOD* thing.
Personally, I've not listened to commercial radio for a long time, it SUCKS. I do support Internet radio with my money, its worth it. Its time for all of the old business model to crumble, and crumble fast and hard... fsck the *AA and their Italian sports cars... (okay, that wasn't really PC)
I'm just glad to see the old model breaking!!!
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
So what was the hold up? They wanted to try to secure Sony's agreement to supply Australians with their music?
:(
The Seven Network has said it will start distributing popular television shows such as Dancing with the Stars to the Internet and portable devices by mid-2006.
That's good to hear (not that particular show, but that australian shows will be uploaded), but do we get American shows, and if so, when do we get them? American shows are often delayed in Australia, with some episodes merely not shown at all (or shown out of order), while entire seasons can just not be shown at all (we never got Enterprise Season 4, the best bloody season of the lot and it wasn't aired). We also have to put up with sci-fi shows being stopped mid-season for rubbish like this.
It's better for people to just wait for the season to be released on DVD half the time (although not only do we get those delayed, we get shafted with those as well compared with the American one.
If Apple can offer American shows to Australians at the same time as they offer it to Americans, they'll find a market ready and primed for them. Heck, if it weren't for the small screen size I'd include myself in those who would readily leap at the chance to buy the shows from Apple. Unfortunately I can just see the government and/or television companies trying to stop Apple
You're wasting your money, Apple of America.
Depends on whether or not they can offer American shows to Australians at a decent time (not when the Australian networks decide to show them). There is a market, it just depends on whether or not Apple will be allowed to fill it.
that Paul Hogan & Jackko never made it to mp3
when they ban enctryption only criminals wi$21*J *#JF$%!@#$':
Duke Nukem Forever will also be released in Australia within the year.
I wish the Slashdot-foretold Music Industry Apocalypse would hurry up and happen.
Everyone knows that damage is done to the soul by bad motion pictures. -Pope Pius XI
And it's about bloody time too.
We have been struggling with the pathetic excuse for a music service MSN offers for far too long.
Time for some real choice in music, not that Bob the Builder vs. Eminem crap Micro$oft offer us.
Orationem pulchram non habens, scribo ista linea in lingua Latina
I submitted this story earlier this week (news.com.au article) and it got rejected. But I'm not bitter, just glad iTunes is finally coming! Even if it is without Sony/BMG initially.
It will be nice when they finally open iTunes to New Zealand. People here have only owned iPods for what? 1½ years?
Let us buy songs from other countries.
This is my biggest gripe about iTunes, I will pay the exchange rate difference just let me buy songs from other stores.
"Joswiak"
Was he able to climb up through the ranks because he's only one of six people on the planet whose last name rhymes with "Wozniak?"
I mean, I realize with my last name it's a pot/kettle thing, but come on!
Hoofuckingray!
... and then they built the supercollider.
*Raises hand*
... and then they built the supercollider.
MOD PARENT UP. It's true. AppleTalk needs debunking every time one of their rumour story's makes it to news and ends up disappointing people.
Have we? I haven't. I have no intension of paying over $2 for a single, especially one that is DRM-crippled.
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
I'm An Individual
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
Seriously. eMule is much cheaper.
It's frustrating to have to wait for the iTMS to be released down here, knowing that the songs I want to buy are one (illegal) click away. The same goes for TV series and DVDs. There's a whole heap of stuff out there that us non-pirates have to patiently wait for, even though there are perfect digital copies of that same stuff floating around, ready for the picking, for free.
A colleague of mine suggested that I (illegally) download the stuff I want, then send a cheque for the RRP direct to the artist, along with a letter explaining my predicament and suggesting that the developer hands over whatever percentage the publisher would normally take from them. The artist would thereby be compensated for one "stolen" copy of their work, and it would be up to them to decide whether or not to compensate their publisher in turn. I realised that this model could be extended to other kinds of digital content (movies, TV series, music, software), and that a lot of people out there would be happy to pay off their "guilty conscience".
This got me thinking. How about a website (guiltyconscience.com) that accepts anonymous donations (via credit card or paypal or whatever) to allow people to pay-off the guilt they have for illegally downloading music, movies, games and so on? The website would tally up the donations received and make regular "royalty" payments direct to the artist. A user could donate $10 and spread it over 100 songs, if 10 cents a song is enough to offset their guilt. Products could be identified via their Amazon ID or similar, to allow the artist to be easily tracked down. The result would be a perfect marketplace, in that each individual defines how much they're willing to pay for something they want without knowing what others are paying. The website wouldn't promote piracy (i.e. it wouldn't help people locate and download illegal content), but it would help to offset the damage it causes. After all, aren't we constantly being told that piracy is "ripping off the artist"?
Imagine how things would change if a good proportion of those who pirate movies, music and software actually DID pay the artist for what they "stole".
Just another example of Americans think that feringers don't exist. Guess what? The internets lets us Aussies view Slashdot too!
What's wrong with gay marriage? Or gay sitcoms, The Pet Shop Boys or Abba? While it's true that most iPod and iTunes users (well ok, Apple users in general) are gay, so what?
For a troll you certainly know a lot about the gay community, stereotypes or not...
Gay Marriage? Check.
Abba? Check.
Pet Shop Boys? Check.
Bette Midler? Check.
iPod? Check.
Yes, I like all those. But you forgot:
Cher.
Madonna.
Dorris Day.
The Golden Girls.
Goldie Hawn.
and Susan Surandon...
So maybe this is not really a troll for homophobia but a troll for not completing the list. How dare you young man!
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
Wait there's an Apple of America?
I thought Americans were all shaped like pairs.
Obviously they must be some sort of fruit,
since they're trying to count raised hands over the internet.
Apple's customers are like no others -- a rich blend of the most sociologically elite with those seeking elegant, simple computing. ... Unlike users of Intel/Windows computers, a significant portion of Apple's users are active, exploratory, avant-garde and early adopters. The activities they enjoy are unique in the the way that they more often incorporate rich media such as video and music as well as more active prosumer behavior than many more passive Windows users.
With above-average household income and education levels, the Mac population [is] very attractive [intellectually as well as physically.]
Already signed up here in frustration http://www.allofmp3.com/
Only 2 weeks ago.
EMail: 0110001101100010010000000110001101110010 0110000101111010011011100110000101110010 0010111001100011011011110110
I have to say, I'm very impressed with the independent music scene in Australia. There's a great spirit of independence there, helped by Triple-J Radio, a gov't-sponsored nationwide radio that actually plays a lot of truly-independent local artists, QMusic - a gov't-sponsored non-profit to develop and help local musicians, AIR, the Association of Independent Record Labels, which is run by a few passionate punks in Brisbane.
(I'm SO impressed, in fact, that we're going to be setting up a CD Baby office in Australia in a couple months!)
You are? Cool! Hopefully that is a Slashdot story!
Not Free SF Reader
Read the parent to this comment, which got modded down. Parent said that he heard this on the radio days ago and that /. was getting slow on tech news. What he heard on the radio, besides being speculation at best, would have been extremely localised. Fracex wasn't being a stereotypical arrogant american; his comment makes sense in context.
Now this hust begs the question of where is iTunes South Africa and what is causing the holdup? Although, there isn't even an official Apple South Africa, just one guy that has the distrabution rights who makes an obscene profit. There is just no understanding Apple.
-- Hot User Submitted deals, Discounts and Coupons
Apple NZ seems to just be a branch of Apple Australia. I wonder if this means we will be getting iTunes Music Store in NZ some time soon!
dominionrd.blogspot.com - Restaurants on
Karma to burn here.. shame on Apple, should have launched this 18 months ago when I actually gave a shit.
/me raises his hand
Provided the store charges something close to the US$0.99 of its overseas counterparts, I'm going to be a happy (but maybe slightly poorer) little consumer next week. Legally purchased popular music in Australia comes in one of two forms: massively overpriced compact discs, or massively overpriced WMA downloads that won't play on my iPod.
If Apple can launch a store where I can buy only marginally overpriced music that will play on my iPod, I'll be ecstatic.
Charles
The more I learn about the Internet, the more amazed I am that it works at all.
... for those who don't know, the ARIA awards ceremony is Sunday night. Australia's equivalent of the Grammies.
So we might even expect an announcement as part of that?
If not, it's still a week when people will be focused on music as opposed to movies, TV etc.
Heh... Set it up in Perth, and give me a job I can work around studying ;-)
What? Don't look at me like that everyone.
Also... yes, Triple J is a fantastic radio station, I don't actually listen to anything else.
But digital distributors ARE the new middlemen. There is nothing (much) to stop musicians setting up sites allowing their songs to be downloaded as MP3s in return for payment. So why, instead, do they want to be on a digital music store - whether a locked in one like iTunes or a non-DRM one like bleep.com? It's been possible to (fairly easily) record and distribute your own music since the distribution lock-in was broken in the 70s, and it's got easier with every year. While in the 70s you still had to persuade shops to stock your records, stockless stores like Amazon have also leveled the field further - everyone's virtually equal, even micro-labels. To me there's been no excuse for musicians to complain the music industry is stacked against them for a long time. And many don't - many do make a healthy living. I know one guy whose been playing instrumental guitar stuff for 25 years now and he's got global sales of about 50,000. Because his costs are low - built a home studio years ago - that's enough to make a healthy living. It also turns it into a day job, which is what a lot of people go into 'the music scene' to avoid. I think a lot of these people are actually in the pop and fame business rather than music - and these days it's promotion, not distribution, that's the issue there. That's possibly because as the major labels have lost control of distribution they've focused on the one thing they will always be able to do better - throwing vast sums of cash into promotion. The cost of 'breaking' an artist has rocketed since the 70s - but it's obviously working, or we'd actually have the occasional No.1 that didn't have a video.
'Capitalists of the world, unite! Oh
Damn. Must remember to change from HTML formatted or use the Preview!
'Capitalists of the world, unite! Oh
Are you sure that it's not just that they really like shiny white plastic?
Suck figs.
where does it say it /. is an open source community? it says NEWS FOR NERDS.
i'm a nerd and am hyped up for Itunes Au.
There's only two stations I listen to: Triple J and Classic FM.
Long live independent government funded radio!
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
Facinating, I read your links and CDBaby does seem to be a great way for musicians to make the transistion from being a Pub band to semi pro or pro status.
...
Your Site and Concept sell themselves well.
If I wanted to get listed on Itunes purely to get listed provided I didnt use samples and was completely original didn't do a cover of an existing song I could be there for pretty much the cost of my time producing 2 cd's and 55 dollars (pretty much vanity publishing but for music).
might never get downloaded but hey I am published
For those musicians that want to get further then there is still a lot of work to be done. unlikely that someone will download your song by chance. I guess a musician could try p2p and give away some songs.
legally covers you can't give them away since you have to pay the publishers for a licience although it does seem that if i covered "what becomes of the broken hearted" and only ever got 10 downloads on Itunes then I would owe the publishers 90 cents.
I wonder what my liability would be if a few 1000 copys of my performance of this song got downloaded free on p2p. If it was deliberate on my part or just released by my "Fan".
Samples/mixes seem to be another huge minefield that will incur an overhead.
mixes might never be legal and samples seem to have a dollar value that assumes a minimum quantity of 500 to 2500 copys.
if your making sales it also seems likely that tax will be paid somewhere and it also means making accounts your friendly song publisher will want to ensure you really only did get 10 downloads.
however given all that I don't think CDBaby can be held accountable for the taxman the publishers or that fox fella for taking a slice from your sales.
The only negative I could see was a comment about cdbaby taking a fixed price from a Cd Sale
http://www.gnutellanews.com/article/6830
" Author: gdZiemann
Posted: June 6, 2003 at 7:46 PM EDT
Well, I've been writing to Apple for months before they started iMusic.
MacWarehouse has called me three times in the 2-3 weeks to update their records. They keep talking about their Apple "champs."
You know, I really have nothing against CD Baby. I think they're a great deal for a lot of artists still basically going the traditional route.
But if I use them, it will double my $5 retail price, because they charge $4 per unit. I'm not doubling my price to get in the club, so I can cut the price back to $5 on iMusic.
It might be the yellow brick road, but that damn witch is still hanging around.
"
Derek can you explain what this guy is talking about?
do you take submissions by people other than musicians
say i heard a good local band or a bad one for that matter and organised getting thier unpublished recordings to you. would you deal with me as thier representative or
would they have to come direct to you?
sorry if this takes away some of the wow factor from cdbaby but i would be interested to see your reply.
please correct any inaccuracys in my understanding of what cdbaby is about and the reality of publishing via cdbaby to itunes ect.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
Please, If your great "spirit of independence" is based on Triple J then you have a problem - Heres a hint Melbourne is not the centre of the world. All they ever play are poser punk bands like The Living End and Green Day. The only people who listen to that shit are 16 year olds who spend all their time hanging around Westfield's because they don't know any better.
If you want to know what good radio sounds like buy a ticket to London and tune into Soulwax.
Also, that /. provides you the ability to 'Submit A Story'. If you heard it on the radio days ago, then why didn't you submit the story to /. and claim some 'better than first post' kudos for being the person who actually provided some 'news' instead of complaining that it's now 'olds'!
----- Concentrate on promoting more than demoting.
Apple haven't made you sign NDAs? I'm surprised.
This means that Apple has to reach agreements with the groups in each and every country before they can roll out the iTunes store in each of those country.
While NZ and Australia share the same song rights group (APRA - The Australasian Performing Right Association), this is different to publishing rights which is governed by other groups.
Artists aren't seeing penny one from allofmp3. not even the 2 cents of wich you speak. Its basically piracy, but because Russia is ... well Russia the laws only cover physical copying.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4328269.stm
Just pirate it if your not going to support the artist. That way your supporting criminals as well
By the way, most artists see $0.00 from the record companies as well - so if getting money to the artist is the issue I'd much prefer to pay the russian mafia than the US mafia.
EMail: 0110001101100010010000000110001101110010 0110000101111010011011100110000101110010 0010111001100011011011110110
Why would who ever let's apple sell the shows let aus. users download them before they show on local tv when americans can not download them before they are on local tv?
if only i had broaband:( but seriously, does itunes offer lossless songs? like a .flac, for $1.50 a song i want the same thats on the cd. the cd costs $30, has around 10-15 songs, sometimes 20, which works out to be $15-20 if you bought each single from itunes, so i'm hoping it's of a high quality
Apple doesn't take kindly to companies stealing their thunder. After ATI pre-announced Apple's Macs by 24 hours one time, NVidia became the primary video card vendor for Apple.
It seems kind of odd that you would go on record on the internet preannouncing one of Apple's moves.
everyone knows when you splice genes you end up with twins, one good and one bad(see movie 'Twins'). Joswiak is in marketing, so is the good twin creating the next gen Powerbook in some dank dungeon beneath 1 Infinite Loop?
blackest_k: Thanks for the nice comments. Yes when we sell the physical CD (where we warehouse it, ship it, etc) then we keep a flat $4 per CD sold/shipped, no matter whether the selling price is $10, $15, $20, whatever - that's how much it costs to do everything we do. It's actually a much smaller cut than Amazon, for example. For our digital distribution, we only keep 9%, paying 91% of all income directly to the artists. But I feel weird answering a customer-service question on Slashdot comments, so please feel free to email us (cdbaby.com/contact) for any details - I'd be glad to help.
where does it say it /. is an open source community? it says NEWS FOR NERDS.
i'm a nerd and am hyped up for Itunes Au.
You must be new here, but true... This isn't the Slashdot it once was... Very Sad....
Right, so some never heard of station in London will play heaps of Australian, and more particularly, new, Australian bands?
Surrrrrrrrrrrrre...........
Not Free SF Reader
Who here thinks that was a silly way to make a point? Show of hands?
Everyone? Thought so. Of course, it's only me here right now, as I suspect was the case with the AC's post.
I've been looking forward to the iTunes Music Store. There are no legal options for me at all. Sure, there are some music stores out there, but they don't provide any options for Mac users or iPod users. The industry has intentionally ignored the biggest portable player market segment for no apparent reason. Looking past that roadblock, they still don't offer good selections - a recent survey in The Age showed that none included the current top 40 singles. That's not just weak - that's crap.
Apple may well be wasting their money, but it depends how much they've sunk into this venture and how good the uptake will be. In other countries with actual, real competition (ie not Australia) they've done very well indeed. The only differentiating factor here *may* be the lower population resulting in lower sales numbers. I don't know yet though.
We'll just have to wait and see.
Last I checked, it is still illegal here to make a copy of the music on a CD you own, for any reason at all - personal uses of any type included, even for an MP3 player. We have no fair-use provision in our copyright laws, nor (AFAIK) are we getting any as a result of the Free Trade deal with the USA (though copyright terms are being drastically lengthened to match the US). We own the media, but have no "license to the music".
There are already a few online music stores in Australia, but to my knowledge they only sell songs in WMA format, not much good for iPod owners. iTMS will be the first useful site.
I can imagine that all of our iPods would be desperately looking forward to playing something other than crappy bootlegged highschool bands, home-recorded birdsong & the occasional scroungings from Creative Commons.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Just like the switch to Intel, the two button Mighty Mouse, and the Video iPod. Nope, no music store for Down Under.
wow that s a good news... Australia has a good market for that.. === http://www.thewebbrains.com/
RTFA!
I guess you're just going along with what everyone else tells you.
At first glance, I thought it read, "iTunes Australia to Launch Next Wank."
That I believed.
this is a bit of a relief, australian podcasts can now get registered on iTunes.
Hasn't been much fun watching iTunes take off as the leading podcatcher with no australian listings.
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
I just had some pain trying to register quicktime pro here in New Zealand. Apple don't want to know me. I think i'm going to go back to using an Amiga.
The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
Well - it IS here people. Go to iTunes music store and open up the list of international sites - AUSTRALIA heads the list! So far it looks like Aus$1.69 per track but haven't had a good look yet. Videos are up to $3.39. Albums $16.99. Pixar also $3.39. NO TV episodes yet. AT LAST!
Wet Scalpel The first cut is the deepest.......