iTunes Russia on April 21, 2008?

[MacRumors]

CNews.ru believes that Apple will be launching iTunes Russia on April 21st 2008.

The evidence first came from billboards appearing in Moscow on Friday, with the words 'iSkoro 21.04.2008’ (iSoon 21.04.2008) .

Further evidence is from two domains registered: iMacintosh.ru and itunes-store.ru which redirect to a splash page that says "iTunes Store Russia 21.04.2008." The domains appear to be registered by Apple IMC Limited, "the leading distributor of Apple products in Russia."

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[twoodcc]

good news for those in Russia. i'm actually surprised that iTunes isn't in Russia already

[GSMiller]

I wonder if it will have any DRM-free music like the US store, seeing as how piracy rates are supposedly so high in Russia?

[irmongoose]

I call BS.



irmongoose

[CSid]

Originally Posted by irmongoose

I call BS.



irmongoose

Yeah, it is a little odd...

[caliguy]

Why would a Russian pay for music? That's like a Hawaiian paying for beach sand. It's laying around for free all over the place.

[Analog Kid]

Three thoughts:

This is the test to see if people will pay for music even if it's essentially free on the street (and it's not free, it's like $5 a CD).

This is necessary if they're ever going to get ahold of the piracy problem in Russia. As things stand there are literally no legal alternatives to purchase music, which makes it hard to prosecute pirates.

This might be the first step in getting iPhone to Russia. My understanding is that Russia has the 3 largest number of iPhone users after the US and China.


Fourth thought: I need to type faster...

[eXan]

Originally Posted by Analog Kid

Three thoughts:

This is the test to see if people will pay for music even if it's essentially free on the street (and it's not free, it's like $5 a CD).

This is necessary if they're ever going to get ahold of the piracy problem in Russia. As things stand there are literally no legal alternatives to purchase music, which makes it hard to prosecute pirates.

This might be the first step in getting iPhone to Russia. My understanding is that Russia has the 3 largest number of iPhone users after the US and China.


Fourth thought: I need to type faster...

All you say is true. Most people here don't buy music legally - they just get those 5$ CDs or find it for free on the internet. But the most of the music one gets is from his friends' or family's collections. Its a common site to see students in our uni exchanging gigabytes of music and movies...

And whats scary is that you really need to work hard to find a legal CD with music... I myself really enjoy buying legal CDs because the quality is very good and the boxes are made super nice with additional goodies like books with photos, texts, etc. If I can't find the legal CD I use our family iTunes (US) account.

P.S.: I'm seeing A TON of iPhones here already... and more people are getting (or planning to get) theirs. And the prices for them is usually lower than it would be with official iPhones (560-600$ for 8 GB iPhone - significantly cheaper than 750$ for 16 GB iTouch)