iTunes Europe - 1.29 Euros?

[takao]

i jsut looked at the austrian store from coca cola
prices between
0,83 € and 1,89 €

but windows only

 

[whooleytoo]

Does it bother anyone that a PowerBook G4 17" costs 3,023.79 Pound in Ireland and 1949.00 Pounds in the UK? The exchange rate does not support the drastic different between the Irish Pound and the English Sterling. Yet the PowerBook is still extremely successful. You cannot base the success of a product on it's price in other countries.

In that case, the difference in base price (at current exchange rates) is only 20 euros. The majority of the price difference is due to a higher VAT rate in Ireland.

 

[Colonel Panik]

As for the Euro... There is no guarantee anywhere that says the Euro will not dive against the dollar at any point. If the exchange rate were 1.50 Euro to the dollar you wouldn't be complaining about this, you'd be complaining that the States pays too much for the iTMS .99 cents is still lower than a CD.

The Euro is more likely to stay high against the dollar. It had a very bad start, that's all.

Does it bother anyone that a PowerBook G4 17" costs 3,023.79 Pound in Ireland and 1949.00 Pounds in the UK? The exchange rate does not support the drastic different between the Irish Pound and the English Sterling. Yet the PowerBook is still extremely successful. You cannot base the success of a product on it's price in other countries.

Actually Ireland uses the Euro. And the VAT rate is higher than the UK, so that explains the price difference. £1949 = €2,905.69
When you take away the 17.5% VAT in the UK you get £1658.72...
When you take away the 21% VAT in Ireland you get €2498.34...
When you convert the £ to the € (and this fluctuates all the time), it's no so bad... €2498.34 = £1,675.49.

 

[GeeYouEye]

I don't know about anybody else, but I don't get charged any tax on the iTMS store, but Minnesota tax is 6.5% so who knows.

In America there's no need to charge tax if the buyer is in a different state. Some companies do however, and it's always the buyer's location that determines the tax rate they're charged.

Why do they call it value added tax anyway? I don't see any additional value added in paying tax, it would be more valuable for me to buy products tax free.

It's funny, I don't either, and I'm in California, barely 40 miles from Cupertino.

 

[masterthespian]

Come to Canada.....

We might not have the itms but our Apple prices are about 5-10% less with exchange before tax. This is comparing it to the US.


some examples

12" pbook 1599.00 US exchange to CAN is 2231.38 on Apple.ca website it's 2099.00 CAN


or 15g ipod is 299 US exhange to CAN is 417.16 on Apple.ca website it's 399 CAN

So come on over eh!

 

[The Red Wolf]

In that case, the difference in base price (at current exchange rates) is only 20 euros. The majority of the price difference is due to a higher VAT rate in Ireland.

Exactly. One can't argue about the price of tea in China. I mean iTMS songs in China em, Ireland, em, the UK, I mean the EU vs. America. It's all subjective based on taxation in the country.

 

[Stike]

Couldn´t it simply be that the prices will VARY in the EU from country to country?
iTMS has a country check, so why shouldn´t there be different prices, too?

 

[Hattig]

Another way that Apple shafts Euro customers is this pan-European sales tax that they like to impose.

In the UK, sales tax is 17.5%, but Apple sometimes charges a 21% rate ( for services such as dot Mac ).

Well, if Apple set up a company in a EU member state with 21% sales tax that you get .Mac from, then that will be why you are getting charged 21%.

If you are getting it from the States, then they must by law charge 17.5% UK VAT rate.

The law is getting changed soon I believe in Europe so that you charge VAT at the purchaser's country rate, not your own. So it should be 17.5% for Brits regardless of country. This, of course, is for online / shipped orders / services, not physical purchases if you visit the country!

To US people, in the EU, all prices must be shown inclusive of tax. I.e., final price shown up front. This is why it is a shock to most of us to go to the states, get the correct money ready and then get charged more!

 

[Hattig]

I use to buy CD's and carparts all the time from the UK and Germany and most of the time the VAT(Value Added Tax) is included with the purchase unless they say it's not.

If you are from outside the E.U. then you can claim back the VAT from the relevant government. Better still - don't get charged when you order. I was told that we don't have to charge VAT for non E.U. orders.

 

[wordmunger]

Well, your nominal rate may be close to 40% if you are quite wealthy (seems a bit unlikely for a student, but what do I know, you could easily have a large income producing activity), but if you pay anywhere near that you are a lonely fool who needs an accountant. I'm in the second highest tax bracket, and my actual federal taxation rate last year was under 15% and still under 25% including Social Security. My state income taxes are less than 5% which is typical.

I was talking about marginal tax rates, not "actual" rates, which is I assume what our Swedish friend was talking about as well. I don't know what America you're talking about, but in this America, the highest marginal tax rate is 38 percent, and most people pay at least some of their taxes at the 25 percent bracket. It only takes an income of $68,000 to hit the 28 percent bracket, for a total rate including state taxes of 36 percent (Here in North Carolina the top bracket is 8.25 percent), not counting social security and medicare.

In any event, if you desire a social utopia where the government takes most of your money and then decides what "services" you will be given, there are lots and lots of places that still think that works. Please go to one of them so that I will not have to support you if I should ever be so unlucky that you get your way with our government Denmark is very nice in the summer and the girls are quite pretty

Personally, I'll choose to control where my own money goes, thank you.

This is pretty much the same point I was making. If you're going to complain about the price in Finland, or whatever, and the price difference is primarily due to higher tax rates, then it's not about some type of Apple-sanctioned discrimination against Finns, its that Finns have chosen to support more government services through higher tax rates.

Now it does turn out that I'm in favor of national health care, for a variety of reasons, but in my post I was only suggesting that personally I'd accept the Finns' situation, with its "higher" prices, over my personal situation in America.

 

[Floop]

At the best exchange rates you will find, a consumer will not get better than

1.29 EUR = 1.52407 USD

So this turns out to be more than 50% more expensive than in the US?

You have to be kidding me. I love Apple, but there is no way I am paying that.


Floop

 

[Doctor Q]

The best clue that Apple isn't intentionally overcharging in Europe is that they don't appear to be running iTMS as a profit center. From what I've read, I think Apple's goal is to sell iPods, that iTMS is their way of doing that, and that they wouldn't choose to cut into iPod sales by padding iTMS prices.

 

[ALoLA]

Why is Apple getting the blame?

Based on what I've read here, and correct me if I'm wrong, the increase in price is due to taxes (VAT, etc.) and the licensing fees/percentage. So why are some people putting the blame on Apple? I wouldn't be surprised if their equivalent of the RIAA is trying to milk the iTMS-Europe for what they can. But I seriously doubt Apple's margins are any greater than what they have here in the States. I'm sure Apple would like to have the prices as low as possible, too.

 

[wordmunger]

At the best exchange rates you will find, a consumer will not get better than

1.29 EUR = 1.52407 USD

So this turns out to be more than 50% more expensive than in the US?

You have to be kidding me. I love Apple, but there is no way I am paying that.


Floop

But in Europe the VAT is added before; in America sales tax is added after. So most Americans pay not $.99 but $1.07.

The best comparison is to strip off the 25 percent VAT: You get a price of about

1.03 EUR=1.22 USD

So there is a price difference US--Europe, even before taxes are considered, but closer to 23 percent, not 52 percent.

 

[Omen88]

to quote Rick Mayall

Oh that's just TYPICAL!!!

 

[skunk]

Based on what I've read here, and correct me if I'm wrong, the increase in price is due to taxes (VAT, etc.) and the licensing fees/percentage. So why are some people putting the blame on Apple? I wouldn't be surprised if their equivalent of the RIAA is trying to milk the iTMS-Europe for what they can. But I seriously doubt Apple's margins are any greater than what they have here in the States. I'm sure Apple would like to have the prices as low as possible, too.

I agree. All this whining is ridiculous: nobody has done even a rudimentary calculation here. If Apple are having to pay €0.80 per track in fees, as opposed to 66c in the States, and you add the same 50% mark-up, you get €1.20. Add 20% for VAT and a margin for currency fluctuation, and what do you get?
€1.50 or thereabouts. It sounds like Apple are really cutting their margins to the bone on this.

 

[kettle]

We're used to getting screwed on pricing by Apple in Europe, but this would be about 85p per track - I was expecting 99p, so this would be fine - our CD albums here cost £12.99 - £16.99...

HAA HA!

You can get new release CDs from Play.com sent quicker than it would take to download 60 minutes of AAC over 56k, and you'd only have to pay around £8.25 for the privilege (cheaper again for less recent music) that's including airmail post and packing.

Why would I bother to use iTunes unless I can pay less for less quality?

Also, if it's priced for a euro only transaction, I won't be buying even if the price is right.

 

[billyboy]

At the best exchange rates you will find, a consumer will not get better than

1.29 EUR = 1.52407 USD

So this turns out to be more than 50% more expensive than in the US?

You have to be kidding me. I love Apple, but there is no way I am paying that.


Floop

So you wont buy a car because it can be had for less in the States, or a pair of Levis, or a can of beer?

85p a track sounds like a great price to me as a Brit. As someone said, the prices quoted would be all inclusive of tax, which sort of takes the wind out of the sails of direct comparisons with 99 cents a track in the US.

 

[kettle]

Oh that's just TYPICAL!!!

I was imagining more along the lines of...

"Isn't that just Rudy TYP-I-CAL!!!"

 

[NOV]

BTW. the credit card companies involved (transaction clearing) want their piece of the cake too.
I don't think they are really happy with this sort of transactions due to low amount of money per transaction.

I know they will rate 3 - 5% of the order total, but I can not imagine this is the case with iTunes transactions.

 

[daSilVetZ]

The 19.6% tax is specific to France as that is their TVA (Taxe a Valeur Approchée) so in other words it probably won't be the same price over Europe but rather country specific if the report is true.

 

[LoloFromParis]

The 19.6% tax is specific to France as that is their TVA (Taxe a Valeur Approchée) so in other words it probably won't be the same price over Europe but rather country specific if the report is true.

TVA means Taxe sur la Valeur Ajoutée !

It's our VAT

I think the price will be the same in Europe, Apple will make an average rate for everyone.

An audio CD here in France costs about 17/20 euros for a new release, and it can be more expensive when it becomes older (22/25 euros). BUT, there are a lot of web sites (discount) where we can buy new CD audio for about 13/15 euros. There are also a lot of mid price CDs.

At 1.29 euros, it's a good price for a single song because one title CD audio cost about 6 euros here in France.

 

[nagromme]

Why blame Apple?

Based on what I've read here, and correct me if I'm wrong, the increase in price is due to taxes (VAT, etc.) and the licensing fees/percentage. So why are some people putting the blame on Apple?

Because typing is easier than thinking

 

[asif3]

We're used to getting screwed on pricing by Apple in Europe, but this would be about 85p per track - I was expecting 99p, so this would be fine - our CD albums here cost £12.99 - £16.99...

I agree - I was expecting 99p - so 85p is fine by me.

We're in the UK, and therefore we have to pay a premium. I would have thought everybody would have got used to this by now?...

 

[takao]

1,29 € hmm
-20% VAT= 1,075 €
thats with current exchange rates: 1,26 $

if an american has to pay perhaps 5 percent sales tax average
were down to 20 us-cent difference...
10 cent regionalisation
10 cent greedy music industry..

well that doesn't look _that_ bad...it could be worse... but lets wait for official prices ..perhaps they are higher ...