iTunes Music Store Launches in 56 New Countries, Movies Arrive in Four

Finally in South Africa

In SA we have been fighting to get music available in Itunes for years, it had something to do with taxes and licensing , finally its here !!!

Hah! Moldova, Belarus...

Like those are real places.


Nice one Apple.

7 billion people on the planet yet a simple music store remains as balkanized as ever.

iTunes opening up in other countries has zero benefit for me.

kriebe said:

I get that they are physically on both continents. That's why I'm ok with it being Eurasian. But when 90% of a country is in Asia and it's considered a European country, that seems pretty odd to me.

And thanks for the maps... Google is hard.

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I don't know about Turkey, but only a tiny part of Russian population (IIRC ~7%) lives on the eastern side of the country, and most of them are indigenous peoples of Asia (much like the native Americans in the USA or the aboriginal people of Australia) basically what you get beyond the Ural mountains (which separate Europe from Asia) is wild nature. Russia did colonized Asian territories in the 17th century but they never had enough manpower to make them something you'd call a populated territory. I did a paper on that.

nuckinfutz said:

7 billion people on the planet yet a simple music store remains as balkanized as ever.

iTunes opening up in other countries has zero benefit for me.

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It's all a out licensing!

Itunes Store,well in India,back home,not even one of my friend pays for the music or movies or PC games-it's rampant piracy.

If some one does-he or she is labelled a fool.

Now it makes more sense to own iPhone 5 (my first iphone )
Now, more content for Apple TV & it gonna be successful worldwide

Being a developer, this is great news for me. More apps to sell!

SWPROX said:

Itunes Store,well in India,back home,not even one of my friend pays for the music or movies or PC games-it's rampant piracy.

If some one does-he or she is labelled a fool.

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Piracy is rampant in India, but much of music piracy had to do with non-availability of legal downloads. Flipkart's music service "Flyte" opened earlier this year and within 6 months had over 600,000 legal downloads. So there are many willing to pay for music.

iTunes will face tough competition from Flyte. While it has the backing of Apple, as far as music is concerned, Flyte does hold an edge. Their pricing is slightly cheaper than iTunes, their catalogue much bigger, and Flipkart as a brand is now highly trusted in India.

serbia next please

as a us citizen in belgrade i feel a little bad for for serbians they want to be new yorkers so bad they even have a geat apple distribution store i suppose the turbo folk record companies are playing hard ball with apple.

Did they also launch itunes match so that we can add the music that we "imported from cds" ?

Yay, iTunes in Armenia.

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SWPROX said:

Itunes Store,well in India,back home,not even one of my friend pays for the music or movies or PC games-it's rampant piracy.

If some one does-he or she is labelled a fool.

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I have an Indian friend who has told me about the video CDs he sees a lot of when he visits where two CDs are used to store one feature-length DVD film. Those are illegitimate, right?

Man, Turkey and Russia also got the Movie store. Romania has a iTunes Match button since Friday, but I still can't subscribe

faroZ06 said:

Yay, iTunes in Armenia.

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I have an Indian friend who has told me about the video CDs he sees a lot of when he visits where two CDs are used to store one feature-length DVD film. Those are illegitimate, right?

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I guess yes,the problem is no one gives a hoot about legitimacy of music or movies,I still spend a good part in India and everyone of my friend as I said either torrents movies or there are illegal rental shops which rent out pirated copies.And am talking about New Delhi,not some small town or city.

It's sad,but then why pay when everything is so easily accesible,tons of sites where you can download music easily for free.Literally all my college friends keep downloading movies,even shows like 'how I met your mother' and all are wildly popular and easily torrented.

reallynotnick said:

As a US resident, it baffles me how long it has taken to roll out to some of these countries. I mean we have had the iTunes Music Store for over 9 years over here! Licensing just must be a real pain.

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In Soviet Russia, music license you!

kriebe said:

When did Russia and Turkey become European? They are definitely on the continental side of Asia. You could say they are part of Eurasia, but definitely not Europe.

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I always thought Turkey and parts of Russia were part of eastern Europe, now I think I need to look at a globe...

MOKHAN said:

Please come to Canada

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Trollololololololo.
I must be imagining the iTunes music store that I have had access to since December 2004, TV shows since June of 2009, App store since June of 2009 or Movies since February 2012.

Oh and those iTunes gift cards that have been on the shelves in Canada for a couple years now must be in illusion too.

ThunderSkunk said:

Hah! Moldova, Belarus...

Like those are real places.

Nice one Apple.

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seriously? why don't you get your head out of the ground and check out a map, and maybe get some culture knowledge while you're at it.

And still no iTunes match for the Nordic region. Wonder why, if it's the music industry or Apple that's stalling.

Finally India also going to get iTunes Store. Great news!

reallynotnick said:

As a US resident, it baffles me how long it has taken to roll out to some of these countries. I mean we have had the iTunes Music Store for over 9 years over here! Licensing just must be a real pain.

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Heh, Even Singapore got itunes and apple tv only this June.

It only took 10 years...

but finally we have iTunes in Israel.
I truly wonder why it took so long.

Pretty sure Azerbaijan is part of Asia and not the Middle East.

pgiguere1 said:

You don't need an iPhone to buy music on iTunes.

BTW iTunes has been the largest music retailer in the US for over 4 years now, and now sells more music than all US CD retailers combined. Those people may want to ditch CDs without resorting to piracy too.

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True... If I just want a single track I am not going to purchase the whole album fromt he store.. .Which was the only option... Hence, we had to resort to that...

SWPROX said:

Itunes Store,well in India,back home,not even one of my friend pays for the music or movies or PC games-it's rampant piracy.

If some one does-he or she is labelled a fool.

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Well seems you have been abroad for a long time... Times are a changing my friend... But, yes piracy is still rampant... But then if cineplexes steal by charging 500 quid a movie, then you can't blame them for stealing music... lol... And yes I am labelled a fool amongst my friends... But, then I don't think paying Rs. 7/- - Rs. 15/- per song... Yes paying Rs. 300 for the whole album when I just wanted a single track was ridiculous...

I am happy movies have been launched too... I can enjoy the HD movies by renting them at Rs. 120/- and watch it with my family on my 50" for Rs. 120/- rather than spending 400/- to 500/- per person... Ofcourse those blockbusters I will still prefer watching in a movie hall... But not every movie...

rodeoz said:

Piracy is rampant in India, but much of music piracy had to do with non-availability of legal downloads. Flipkart's music service "Flyte" opened earlier this year and within 6 months had over 600,000 legal downloads. So there are many willing to pay for music.

iTunes will face tough competition from Flyte. While it has the backing of Apple, as far as music is concerned, Flyte does hold an edge. Their pricing is slightly cheaper than iTunes, their catalogue much bigger, and Flipkart as a brand is now highly trusted in India.

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Yes rightly said... But, Flyte isn't that big yet... And it has just recently launched... Not many people are aware... So since both are just starting up I think iTunes has a better chance of success... Unless Flipkart improves its collection and experience quickly...

TV Shows next, please!