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iTMS Now Available in the UK, France & Germany

Okay, I'm up for a complaint. For all the US people still hanging around here, why haven't we received some of the fruits of this deal with the UK? I mean, still no Warp records, still no Rephlex, very limited FFRR, come on! I can't get these import CDs for cheap around here, and I still want Aphex Twin. Blah.
 
Phelark said:
Okay, I'm up for a complaint. For all the US people still hanging around here, why haven't we received some of the fruits of this deal with the UK? I mean, still no Warp records, still no Rephlex, very limited FFRR, come on! I can't get these import CDs for cheap around here, and I still want Aphex Twin. Blah.
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My thoughts exactly! Does anyone know which labels (like Rephlex, Warp, FFRR, Good Looking Records, etc.) signed with Apple?
 
Jack White said:
i just saw wild postings on 4..no mention of iTunes now avialable in the UK.
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same here, saw it four time last night... that is, in fact, the first time i have ever seen an ipod ad of any sort on tv. However, at least apple bought ad space on a good channel at a good time
 
rog said:
Likely Never. Too low income of a population to justify the expense. You could always move to one of 4 countries now if you really want to access the iTMS. That's what I would do. :mad:
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you would move to a whole new country just to take advantage of an ONLINE music store? you must be crazy!

PS. why did you make "e" in likely and "low" bold??
 
wowser said:
I met an American who thought Luxenberg was in Scotland, and she asked whether they spoke English in London
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i met an american who asked me where i was from, and i told her Ireland, and she said "ooooh, european, how exotic!!"
 
aldo said:
You'd be suprised. Some of the areas of brazil do look like areas of American cities. Apart from large slums next to them -- but I'm sure there is more than 3million 'high income' people in Brazil, which would make it as economical as doing a NZ, Norway or Finland/Sweden store.

On the store front, I'm quite happy but it's been a bad day to launch IMO. It's plauged with 'store is busy' errors and 'this item is unavailable' But it is good to see Apple focusing on the non-US markets.

£ pricing is too high (as always) but much better than the 99p that was touted. Maybe they can get it down to as low as 69p one day.
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i totally agree with you, in terms of wealth, brazil is in teh top three most wealthy nations on earth.
 
iLilana said:
yet another online music dl service in canada beats apple to the punch.

FURUESHOP Bonfire
actully its part of puretracks but they are now associated with Futureshop (division of bestbuy or some huge american electronics store)
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i wouldn't be too worried about other music stores beating apple to the punch... they are so low profile and havn't really got a "direction" if you know what i mean... Apple have a direction and motivation, straight to the top. Whatever country apple goes into next, yolu can be sure that any other music service will be rendered obsolete...
 
groovebuster said:
At first I was a little bit excited, but now I am disappointed! :(

Who cares for the same catalog, that is already available in the US? The store features almost no german artists, only a few of the more famous ones, but still a lot of them are missing. And even from the artists that are available in the store you sometimes only get one song... Woohoo! :mad:

I bet it will be the same for the french people! A lot of productions you never even heard of in the US are in the charts here. As long as the store is not adapting to the "local" needs of the customers, it will never be succesful.

Bad start! :(

groovebuster
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this is a point i made in another thread... we need stores that are taregetted at the local community, not mirrors of the current store. however, even that has not happened... the UK store pales in comparison to the US one in terms of catalogue...

the best thing apple could have done was mirror the sites, as in, have the exactly same content, plue add local content for the other countries.
 
www.bleep.com

Phelark said:
Okay, I'm up for a complaint. For all the US people still hanging around here, why haven't we received some of the fruits of this deal with the UK? I mean, still no Warp records, still no Rephlex, very limited FFRR, come on! I can't get these import CDs for cheap around here, and I still want Aphex Twin. Blah.
Click to expand...

Sorry if this you're aware of this already (did search!), but did you check www.bleep.com, Warp's online music site?
 
I thought they said apple couldnt get a deal with U2? I've just seen U2 records ont he music store - like 23 U2 ALBUMS!

have they agreed a deal with some of the indies now?
 
NOV said:
Yet the Euro itself already has popular "nicknames" but that has much to do with the fact that most people HATE the new currency, because it made our lives 50-100% more expensive.

So in Holland the Euro is often named PLEURO (referring to the disease "pleurisy") en in Germany they name it TEURO (referring to the word "teuer" = "expensive").

So to all British on this board: "Never make the mistake of introducing the Euro in your country!!"
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Well, 'Teuro' in Germany is used as a joke but most people here are quite happy with the new currency. In fact (I don't know about the Netherlands though) prices haven't gone up *due* to the Euro. That's basically an urban myth. I'm travelling a lot between Germany/Netherlands/Belgium/France and I can say that the Euro has so far saved me tons of time, nerves and money because I don't have to change money all over.

P.S. Extensive studies have shown that, indeed, in some areas prices went up with the introduction of the Euro. Especially in gastronomy and food in general. There were cases were prices went up 100%. But that is up to the individual merchant etc. of course. The Euro didn't *make* the prices. It was people who tried to cheat. In Germany, however, most prices were recalculated on the basis of 2DM = 1 Euro which amounts to an actual reduction in price. Interviews with people leaving restaurants etc. have shown, however, that when prices went actually down they felt they payed more or less the same and when prices stayed flat they felt they were paying more...
On the other hand, prices for e.g. consumer electronics have continued to drop as before.
Due to the fact that higher prices are mostly encountered where ppl pay cash and effect purchases more often (you buy a beer more often than a computer) people have the impression of paying more. However, the Euro and prices are economically completely disconnected. The paranoid belief that it is different has a name here in Germany too: 'Eurosis'.
Other than that it's just as everywhere here: 1 Euro fifty, 1 Euro fifty cents (pronounced variously /sents/ or /tsents/).

P.S. 2: Funny thing is, small coins or coins in general are getting rare because people tend to collect sets for each country. You know, the back side of each coin differs from country to country. So people try to get sets for each country and store them in a drawer or a glass on the mantelpiece :)
 
Can't buy from ITMS Europe

Crying shame that ITMS won't allow you to buy music not released in the US, no German, French or UK music, unless a US-label is distributing them. Time to start Music Without Borders.
 
Availabity of songs/ volume

Here a short list of how availability and volume of the US iTMS differ from the German one: Available albums:
Elton John (35:0), Michael Jackson (17:6), Aimee Mann (6:0), Johnny Cash (42:20), Anthony Braxton (2:0), Diana Krall (8:4).

German top-act 'Rosenstolz' aren't present with their current Album 'Herz'.
Herbert Grönemeyer (long time biggy in Germany) only offers a few 'exclusive tracks' but look for the complete discography elsewhere.
Of the German top 10 albums (in the charts) only 4 are present, as singles go, it's only 1.
(Information taken from http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/48301).
In many ways the iTMS in Europe is antithetical to modern life: Europeans are used to go anywhere in the EU and buy whatever at local prices. They profit from and take for granted the richness of local markets not least in music. Such a wide variety of music is readily available when you go into music stores or travel. The supposedly borderless Internet distribution now does the complete opposite: Access to a minimal, highly selective market only. All that post modern Europe is not about. The 'nationalisation' of iTMSs is a step back of at least 100 years...
Yet, I guess the situation will improve as labels and artists become convinced that the iTMS can work for them... or so I hope.
 
Of course Apple did this on purpose!

iChan said:
this is a point i made in another thread... we need stores that are taregetted at the local community, not mirrors of the current store. however, even that has not happened... the UK store pales in comparison to the US one in terms of catalogue...

the best thing apple could have done was mirror the sites, as in, have the exactly same content, plue add local content for the other countries.
Click to expand...
Some of these comments show a lack of how these sorts of agreements work. The artists and music companies in each country will have different demands and this creates a nightmare for companies like Apple! They just CANNOT add artists at their own discretion. So Europeans had a choice... no iTMS for months to come or start now wth an incomplete but (hopefully) growing catalogue. I continue to be amazed at the comments about "bad Apple" for failing to offer the service that everyone would like. For now, they cannot! Get it??
 
rjwill246 said:
Some of these comments show a lack of how these sorts of agreements work. The artists and music companies in each country will have different demands and this creates a nightmare for companies like Apple! They just CANNOT add artists at their own discretion. So Europeans had a choice... no iTMS for months to come or start now wth an incomplete but (hopefully) growing catalogue. I continue to be amazed at the comments about "bad Apple" for failing to offer the service that everyone would like. For now, they cannot! Get it??
Click to expand...
According to news reports, Apple started approaching indie labels very late in the game. As a good Mac zealot I will blame Bill Gates for that.
 
iChan said:
we need stores that are taregetted at the local community, not mirrors of the current store
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I disagree. It's not for Apple to say what music you are interested in, based on where you live. It's for you to say. They should offer everyone the same catalog of anything they can license. If they add a U.K. subsection or U.K. defaults on the iTMS home page, or some other easy ways to look for regional music, that's fine, because you choose if and when to use it.
 
Colonel Panik said:
if I purchase an item when I'm ordering from Austria, then I pay the Austrian VAT, even if I buy from Germany. However, if I go to Germany and then buy the item, then I just pay the German VAT.
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You are right for this specific case. The rules are VERY complex, but I sorted it out. Generally, in business to consumers sales VAT is owed in the suppliers member state. However, a company in one member state who makes sales of physical goods over a particular limit (I believe > €100,000) in a year to consumers ("non-entrepeneurs") in another member state is required to register locally and to account for VAT at the local rate. In your case, Germany based Amazon.de will be over the limit for sales to Austria, so has to apply Austrian VAT to Austrian customers. For most other EU countries, where sales are below the limit, they will apply the German VAT.

The new special EU directive for electronic services (such as software and music downloads) is different though. Basically, the difference is that the sales limit rule does not apply. See this table. The second option in the table (customer is a "non-entrepeneur") says that VAT is owed in the suppliers member state. In iTMS's case in Luxembourg. There is no mention of a limit in sales, like with physical goods.
 
DNS Attack on Akamai Cause of Problems

Yesterday Akamai was hit by a denial service attack on its DNS servers. It appears certain sites were targetted (Apple being one). This is why all the troubles with the iTMS. Might also explain why it took (is taking) Apple so much long to get the catalog squared away (ie songs being listed but not up on the site and then a few hours later they are up). Really sucks for Apple when they were doing a such a major launch.


Here is the article from zdnet:
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5236403.html?tag=zdfd.newsfeed
 
The new special EU directive for electronic services (such as software and music downloads) is different though. Basically, the difference is that the sales limit rule does not apply. See this table. The second option in the table (customer is a "non-entrepeneur") says that VAT is owed in the suppliers member state. In iTMS's case in Luxembourg. There is no mention of a limit in sales, like with physical goods.
Click to expand...

But the VAT rate chargeable by Luxembourg is 15%, not the 3% previously mentioned (which is for food, books and pharmaceuticals). And it still doesn't explain why the UK price is higher than France/Germany.

PDF of Luxembourg VAT rules
 
This from another site:

Luxembourg Alternatives

Before opting for the traditional regime or the special regime, a US company should determine whether it may be more advantageous to establish a Luxembourg subsidiary through which it would make its B2C sales. The benefits to such an arrangement would be two-fold. First, B2C sales would be subject solely to Luxembourg VAT at a 15% rate, the lowest VAT rate within the EU. Second, the administrative burden would be minimal when compared to the traditional regime and special regime. The benefits would of course, need to be balanced against the related costs which would include, in an arrangement designed to withstand the scrutiny of the VAT authorities of EU member countries: (i) ¤2,500 excluding VAT for professional fees to organize the Luxembourg subsidiary, (ii) a capital tax equal to 1% of the initial capital invested in the subsidiary (which should be minimal), (iii) ¤30,000 estimated annual costs which includes the cost of a resident director, net worth tax, filing of statutory financial statements, preparation of VAT returns, preparation of income tax returns, etc., and (iv) Luxembourg income tax (levied at roughly a 30% rate) on income deemed equal to 10% of the costs incurred by the Luxembourg subsidiary (excluding cost of goods sold and license fees).
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http://www.cooley.com/news/alerts.aspx?id=37920020
 
Incidentally, the effect of the new EU directive is that all non-EU firms are now required to charge VAT "on Internet sales of software, music, films, games, other digital products and services to EU consumers".
 
Sections of the world

It really suck, that the record companys still sell different versions of their albums in different countries. We wouldn't have all this waiting and trouble with the iTMS if it weren't for those bastards.

Point is: For the right money you get a record or a CD that has a booklet and is importet from whatever country it originaly comes from.
Where are for example japanese records on the iTMS....? Or real american ones in the EU version?

Though I guess the iTMS is allright if you want Titty Spears or the Black Eyed Peas...

Well, sorry but I just think that 99 Cent is way too much since you just get a music file and a jpeg. When their music catalogue has reached the millions (and some real music) and they start being smart enough to include hi res PDF booklets we can talk again.

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