iTunes Music Store: Can’t buy from other countries’ stores
Posted by Pierre Igot in: iTunes, Music, TechnologyDecember 3rd, 2004 • 1:29 am
Talk about “exclusive”… I wanted to buy my very first “exclusive” tracks from the iTunes Music Store this morning. I found a two-track Macy Gray exclusive in the “Exclusives” section of the US iTunes Music Store. So I just clicked to buy it and… I got a message saying that I can only buy stuff from the Canadian iTunes Music Store.
And of course the Macy Gray exclusive is nowhere to be found in the Canadian iTunes Music Store.
Now that’s what I call exclusive.
When I want a music CD by a French artist that has not been released in North America, I just go to Amazon.fr (or another French on-line retailer) and buy it from there. Amazon.fr has no qualms about selling me, a Canadian, their “exclusive” French stuff. In fact, they even deduct the local sales tax from the price, since I am buying from Canada and will have to pay the local sales tax when I receive the package.
Why can’t I do the same with the iTunes Music Stores?
Lawyers, lawyers, lawyers. And the RIAA, or whatever its Canadian counterpart is. I guess they get to decide what I am allowed to listen and what I am not. Nice.
We really have a long way to go before this on-line music buying experience comes anywhere near what the real music lover is hoping for.
December 3rd, 2004 at Dec 03, 04 | 1:57 am
Move to Switzerland, no iTunes Music Store and no Amazon.ch.
March 16th, 2005 at Mar 16, 05 | 12:20 am
The bottom-line is that, in a global village, there’s no need for local stores. Yet that’s exactly what the iTunes Music Stores are. Local, and closed to foreigners.
March 15th, 2005 at Mar 15, 05 | 3:10 am
I’m a similarly frustrated U.S. iTunes user. In the U.S.iTunes Store, Canadian content is extremely limited, unless one wants Bryan Adams, etc. I enjoy 54-40 and prior to the opening of the Canadian iTunes Music store, Apple had at least placed Goodbye Flatland in it’s catalog.
When iTunes Canada came online, I attempted (to no avail) to purchase some of 54-40’s much more extensive album selection from that store. No luck, I had to have a Canadian credit card. And am perpetually referred back to the U.S. iTunes Music Store.
I’m certain there are compelling legal reasons to not permit this. I guess a way around this is to open a Canadian bank account, acquire a debit card to get around this. It would seem there would be a simpler solution.
I guess Apple could add some indepth Canadian and other international content to it’s U.S. iTunes store. We’ll see, there are many bumps and potholes in the road to a truly free international marketplace.
Better yet, I’ll just peruse a music store on my next visit to Canada.