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ITunes Australia Goes Live
daria42 writes "ITunes Australia has finally gone live, after more than a year of waiting. Apple is holding a press conference in Sydney this morning to officially launch the service to the media, but the store has already opened. Like the Japanese ITunes store, it looks like Sony-BMG is not participating."
You know what the sad thing is? This idiot editor ScuttleMonkey picked from an obviously massive number of iTunes Australia submissions the one that doesn't write iTunes correctly.
GG SCUTTLEMONKEY! Want a free Ipod?
Modding down the only people who TRY to RTFA?
The URL is WRONG
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
I'm sure there are numerous world branches of just about every major record label out there. What's stopping Apple from running a global iTunes Music Store?
I tried it, but the songs were upside down.
The article comes up here just fine. Also, another interesting article: Apple: Our biggest competitor is P2P.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/iTunes_M usic_Store_comes_to_Australia/0,2000061733,3921879 8,00.htm
I have a friend in India who says that he would use iTunes store if it were available, but because it isn't he simply uses peer-to-peer.
As the iTunes store becomes available across the world it will help legitimize the online music industry. I think there are a lot of people in the world who don't have the option to go and buy the music they want to listen to. If they could, they would.
Of course there are a lot of people who will jump at the opportunity to get something for free if they can, but no one is stopping these now, so it's not really the point. But if you give everyone the opportunity to pay for the music, many will. I think this is a good thing.
Speaking of online music sales, I'm really looking forward to another price war. Come on guys, we need a legit iTunes competitor to drive down the prices!
Looks like it's not variable pricing as I thought it might have been. Thus, I hereby retract my "Crikey!"
This lack of participation is a Very Bad Thing for anyone who likes to buy digital music easily online. As a consumer in Japan, I have been much-thwarted in my attempts to buy songs I hear on the radio or wherever. Though iTunes is very convenient, I haven't spent any money on iTunes Japan because it's so crippled. Obviously, I don't think this is good for either Apple or Sony-BMG, and hopefully they work something out eventually.
Although the moon is smaller than the earth, it is farther away.
Fair use is irrelevant here, as Apple have permission from the record companies to publish it in the relevant format.
Not Meta-modding due to apathy.
No.. the correct URL for getting music is: http://www.allofmp3.com/. :)
Friends don't let Friends use Internet Explorer.
A spokeswoman from Warner, Maverick's parent company, declined to comment.
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
how about Itunes service that includes NZ too?
http://www.fanboy.co.nz/adblock/
That's right, Jim. We leave that up to Sony.
Badda-ching!! I got more, I got more...
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
Cause we won't be able to download the lastest Australian Idol releases...wait did I say shame?
So Sony won't allow Apple to sell their tunes library, (about a quarter of the big five's recorded music), in Japan and now Australia/New Zeland. interesting. And ABC (Disney) is the only TV network willing to sell their TV Shows, Pixar only willing to debut a few (very cool) shorts.
This is very important everyone. the content providers are VERY SCARED. First they were scared the medium wouldn't be popular enough to thwart file sharing, now they are scared it is SO POPULAR it will thwart their very role in distribution!
I for one welcome the medium - The quality of "Lost" is totally acceptable for the price and download time, actual movies should only be provided in a hgher quality though.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
New Zealanders who feel left out are apparently lying to Apple and getting songs anyway...
TRHOnline - Staggering Towards Brilliance
cAlm dOwn, fAnboy. aPple dOesn't rEad sLashdot. nO bRownie pOints fOr pRosletyzing hEre.
Knowing that iTunes Australia was launching, I did an interview with AppleTalk Australia that tells a little bit more behind-the-scenes stuff, in case you're interested.
I'm glad this is finally up-and-running. Australia has a great independent music scene (as I spoke more about in previous Slashdot comment).
The price is steep compared to the US, but the message should not be to stay with physical media. We're seeing more and more "copy-controlled" discs these days, and they just don't rip so easily.
Also, despite parallel imports being around for ten years or so, I still see new release discs at $25-$35, much higher than the iTMS album price of $16.99. I think the music industry would absolutely *love* it if only physical media were sold and the Internet distribution model failed.
I'm going to give iTMS a good go and buy music from there. I'm no audiophile, and I think the sound quality is very good (except for some music with higher-pitched harmonics, but that's not so common).
I'll also investigate other options like emusic, which I'd never heard of before this topic came up. I absolutely won't buy anything in WMA format though (not so hot on the iBook), so my options are not huge.
It is true that there isn't a 'fair use policy' in Australia equivalent to the US. However, this has nothing to do with lack of Australian TiVO models. We have plenty of personal video recorders, both for free-to-air and pay (cable) TV. Most of those are more permissive than the TiVO - we have no broadcast flag issue here, and we can freely copy files from PVRs to computers via USB. As for why TiVO doesn't seem to be available here, you'd have to ask them about it. They probably have their own reasons for not producing an Australian model.
I have been downloading from iTunes to Australia for well over a year, because I have a UK bank account as well as an Australian one. The choice from the UK store is probably better than the Australian offering at the moment anyway. Apple doesn't care where your IP address is from, they only check that your credit card is registered in the territory that the music store is located in. This seems to work around the regional disaster that is the record industry quite neatly. In fact, I'd say it makes a mockery of the whole regional distribution model, and really it's about time that the record industry realised that it needs to wake up and smell the coffee as far as globalisation is concerned. As for any tracks I still can't get legally? Well, there's always Acquisition...
Australia has no "Fair Use Policy" laws
Howabout Div 3 of Part III of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)? - scroll down to the appropriate point on this page http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/0/244/to p.htm and have a read as to what is permitted as "fair dealing" under Australian law.
so far there has been no test case
This is just wrong. There have been cases about fair dealing and so forth since the Act was encated. Try this link http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinocgi.cgi/au?m ethod=boolean&rank=on&query=ca1968133%20s40 if you're really interested.
This is the reason TiVO has not been introduced to Australia.
I would suggest that there are several reasons TiVO has not been introduced, such as:
- only 5 free to air channels
- no free cable, encrypted pay TV
- no electronic program guide
- TV stations who persist on not running to time
- different video standard (PAL not NTSC)
It's certainly not the law - which hasn't prevented VCRs from flourishing (albeit they reisde in a somewhat grey area) - but more likely a question of economics.
It is illegal to record any TV show that is not being broadcast live to air
In fact its UNLAWFUL (but not illegal) to record a TV show at all (except in the case of fair dealing, and other exceptions I wont go into now) whether broadcast or not.
But the distiction between unlawful and illegal is an important one. Unlawful means that the TV station or distributor or somebody has to come sue you for infringing upon their copyright. No jail time. Illegal means that somethings is a crime - the copyright holder just has to notify the cops, they can pick you up and you might face jail time (although now is not the time to go into criminal sentencing procedure).
It is also illegal to rip cds to MP3
Again, it's unlawful, but not illegal.
Apple have finally taken the chance, which is good to see.
I would suggest that this is not, in fact, a chance or risk for Apple. Australians are high per-capita purchasers of music. It is guaranteed profit which will also drive the iPod market with a legal source of downloads. Apple has only "waited" so long because the record labels in Australia have been absolute asses to deal with. Sony BMG is still not on board.
Hopefully none of the recording labels will launch a lawsuit
This is the bit that gets me most... it is the labels WHO ARE COOPERATING WITH APPLE TO ALLOW APPLE TO SELL THEIR MUSIC. The labels would be, in effect, SUING THEMSELVES. This will not happen.