iTunes Europe Next Month?

[MacRumors]

According to a Reuters report, Apple may be ready to launch their iTunes Music Store for Europe as early as next month.

The article discusses Sony's ongoing efforts to launch their European music store ahead of Apple.

Their sources indicate that Apple may have the necessary licensing contracts by the middle of next month.

This is consistent with previous reports that also claimed a 1.29 Euro price tag for these songs.

[Shagrat]

About bloody time!

Yay, first ever first post!

[Mustafa]

Yeah, right. We'll believe it when we see it.

Too many false dawns. Just tell us when it's launched.

[virividox]

about time!!!

[javabear90]

nice.... very nice.....

[cdburrows]

still wondering what will happen in the UK... will we be paying in Euro? with constantly changing rates or what ?

[Trimix]

can you imagine, how many songs that would add to the count in the first week ? my list has now over 140 songs, i want to download. if they announce the g5 i-mac at WWDC, then june will be an extremely expensive month for me

[JFreak]

cool! i just hope apple could make the 0.99eur per song price point happen...

[vollspacken]

no frikken way am I gonna buy music online at that price!!!

I predict a colossal failure - thank you music industrie, here's a shovel, dig your own grave...

vSpacken

[dekator]

But I don't care. I wouldn't buy a DRMed song for €1.29, so it's all the same to me. Maybe it would get interesting if they have some stuff I can't get on CD... but wait... 128kbps AAC? Forget it.

[Stike]

I wonder if the price will really turn out to be 1.29... thats quite a difference. Let´s see if the albums are more expensive also.

[Wendy_Rebecca]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

According to a Reuters report, Apple may be ready to launch their iTunes Music Store for Europe as early as next month.

Well isn't that just lovely? Napster already beat them to the punch in Europe, and now in Canada, too!

What's wrong with Apple? Why are they behind the 8-ball on this one?

[Vanilla]

Originally Posted by vollspacken

no frikken way am I gonna buy music online at that price!!!

I predict a colossal failure - thank you music industrie, here's a shovel, dig your own grave...

vSpacken

Assuming of course that you don’t believe in digital theft what do you perceive to be reasonable remuneration for the Artist who actually created the music, for the Record Company that invests in the artist to pay for the music producers, production engineers, promotion, marketing, CD production & distribution, tour organisation etc. etc. and finally for Apple themselves to get a return on the investment of creating iTunes in the first place and negotiating all the contracts to make this feature happen?

Frankly in my opinion EURO 1.29 per track is very reasonable. If you consistently download entire albums by all means go and buy the CD, I am sure you can find great deals out there. But for the purchase of individual tracks of interest, particularly from back catalogues, this is NOT expensive. It’s also LEGAL.

Over time maybe artists will bypass Record Companies and sell direct to us, maybe co-operatives of bands with common ideals will setup their own online vehicles, who knows, but until the concept of paying for online music as well as physical CD’s is well established and accepted we have not got a hope in hell of transforming the industry.

Vanilla

[~Shard~]

Let's hope this is true, and is the start of more international iTMS starting up all over the world (yah, I know, easier said than done).

But I do have the same opinions as previous posters - let's not forget about actually building computers, Apple! When were the last PowerMac and iMac updates?!? Lately all it seems to be is updated iTunes, commericals for the iPods, iPod minis, now Europe iTMS. I'm all for the music-related things, but Apple does seem to be focusing a fair bit on it these days, and not as much on their main systems. That being said, I suppose we have seen eMac, iBook and PowerBook updates too, recently... but I'd definitely like to see more G5-related news and updates.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by dekator

128kbps AAC? Forget it.

that is "decent" quality. that has been discussed many times and i can live with that, even if i listen to the 128kbps aac files through the high-end shure E5 headphones (reference quality monitors actually).

but since (compared to a physical cd) the drm'ed aac file:
- is worse than cd quality
- as drm'ed file has less freedom of use
- has less (none!) cover art
- has less (none!) resell value

these points in mind the price will also have to be less than a physical cd to make the itms europe a success. i believe the average cd price - tax included - is somewhere near 15eur and the average cd track count about 12 tracks per cd. so in average we pay 1.25eur per song when buying physical cd:s.

itms offers less than a cd purchase. the price MUST be less than 1.25eur. and i'd say, more than 0.99eur per song and it will fail.

of course, i'd be happy if the hit singles would be priced higher if the rest would be cheaper. but in us itms the selling point has been "0.99 dollars per song, any song" so i think apple wants to make the same selling point in europe as well.

0.99eur per song and i'll buy some instantly more than that, i might buy one just to be able to say i have done it.

[claughery]

Does this raise the possibility of the 4g ipod intro???

[Stike]

Other German services already offer songs at 0.99 €.
They even work on the Mac, although they have WMA. Apple has to compete with those. If they are more expenisve, I´d say screw online shopping.

[PolarbearTed]

People were saying that Apple's ITMS US would be a failure too, but there is a market for people who want to purchase music online even if it has DRM attached.

As for people complaining about Apple neglecting machines, it's a sign of it's diversification as a company that once wholly and solely made software and macs; to a company that has the number one most lusted after MP3 Player and one of the largest Digital Music Services.

Apple has to move into the consumer electronics arena to survive. And that has been echoed by many a industry analyst, even though some are calling for Apple to abandon the Mac altogether. (which I pray and doubt!!)

[edenwaith]

Forget it! I refuse to pay 1.29 Euros per song! Instead, I'll pay 99 cents. Oh, when does Canada get their on-line music store?

[CmdrLaForge]

Why is this cool ? Haven't you seen the price tag ? 1.29 Euro is just freakin too much.

I doubt that we will see a similar success as in the states. Not that it will a complete failure, but really not that successful as it could be.

For me its too expensive. I will buy my CDs in the store except I just want ONE special song. (must be very special)

[edenwaith]

Originally Posted by PolarbearTed

And that has been echoed by many a industry analyst, even though some are calling for Apple to abandon the Mac altogether. (which I pray and doubt!!)

...and those same analysts also predicted that Microsoft would quit producing Windows and instead concentrate solely on the XBox.

[Zaty]

Cool bring it on! As for the price I would think that it will vary from country to country because of the different VAT rates.

[eric67]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

According to a Reuters report, Apple may be ready to launch their iTunes Music Store for Europe as early as next month.

The article discusses Sony's ongoing efforts to launch their European music store ahead of Apple.

Their sources indicate that Apple may have the necessary licensing contracts by the middle of next month.

This is consistent with previous reports that also claimed a 1.29 Euro price tag for these songs.

Yesterday, I was submitting to macrumors.com that the Press conference planned by Apple for the May 18th will actually correspond to the launch date of Europe iTMS, as claims by croquer.free.fr
now reuters reports that Apple is ready and has collected all the licence/rights to (finally) launch iTMS Europe...lovely...
those two info correlates quite well.
the only problem being the stupid price...1.29Euro...I mean really...that sucks major; and majors suck...
They are really afraid of Apple iTMS in europe, in the US, they did not believe that it will be a success, and when it turned out that iTMS was a real hit, then they could not come back and ask for increasing the price per track...
now back in Europe, they want to protect their ass and why not getting money from the european consumers...I mean 1 euro=1.2 US$, and we will have to pay 1.29 Euro/track...in other words around 1.5US$ /track...what the hell is going on here...Apple should really not go into such a deal, because it is a dead project from the beginning...f*@#$& majors, they do not want competition...

[johnnyjibbs]

But at least the €1.29 includes sales tax (which is around 15-20%, higher than the US) so, it's not so bad. We generally always get screwed in Europe. I expect the UK price will be 79p per download. That's fine by me. To be honest, 99p a song is still good value in my book. It's better than buying a single (with the hassle of importing it and a crappy CD case you never look at) for £3.99 ($7).

I'm just praying that they unleash the US store catologue - and not just some limited thing with about 100 000 songs. There are lots of things on the US store that I like the look of but can't buy in the shops.

[Veldek]

Originally Posted by eric67

Yesterday, I was submitting to macrumors.com that the Press conference planned by Apple for the May 18th will actually correspond to the launch date of Europe iTMS, as claims by croquer.free.fr
now reuters reports that Apple is ready and has collected all the licence/rights to (finally) launch iTMS Europe...lovely...
those two info correlates quite well.

You are aware that May, 18th is already over and was said to bring new Power Macs not iTMS Europe, aren’t you?