iTunes Canada - Next Month?

[atomiton]

I'm from Canada and I'm all for it, but when you think about it - it's not worth the effort at first. We're a country of 30 million, that's a fraction of many other countries in Europe and the US. Sure, Apple doesnt want to leave Canadian customers stranded without services, but I don't see a priority from a business point of view. I'm an Apple customer because of the Macintosh, not the iTMS. So Canada certainly isnt a priority, but BRING IT ON!

UK Has 55 Million
Germany has 80 million
France has 60 million.

There's more money to be made in Europe...
very slim margins in Canada if tracks are priced at $0.99 CAD...
However:
There is already an established group of downloaders
The highest saturation/capita of high-speed users in the world
The cheapest high-speed prices in the world.

 

[~Shard~]

just a reminder that file swapping is LEGAL in Canada - we pay a levy on all cd's, tapes, music players ($25 on an iPod) etc.

For now, that is. Gotta take advantage of that while we can!

iTunes will be great - hope it doesnt just have Canadian artists.......eh?

Why not? Plenty of Canadian artists are excellent. Depends on your tastes, I suppose...

More seriously, I hate to see any news about Canada - its pretty good here - dont tell anyone.
We dont want anyone thinking that anything happens here - its an empty wilderness of snow, OK?

We didnt invade Iraq, we dont shoot people, (well not many) we dont have much crime. Kind of like Switzerland only nice. We even have virtually legal marijuana, if thats your bent.

True, it is a great country, but there's nothing wrong with Switzerland - I've been there and I found it quite beautiful as well. But yes, as far as everyone else is concerned we live in igloos and play hockey all day. Nothing else here to see, just move along...

 

[MacinDoc]

UK Has 55 Million
Germany has 80 million
France has 60 million.

There's more money to be made in Europe...
very slim margins in Canada if tracks are priced at $0.99 CAD...
However:
There is already an established group of downloaders
The highest saturation/capita of high-speed users in the world
The cheapest high-speed prices in the world.

Agreed. Also, if Apple wants to continue to enjoy its world dominance in the MP3 player/music download business, it has to pay attention to markets in which competitors such as PureTracks already exist.

 

[~Shard~]

UK Has 55 Million
Germany has 80 million
France has 60 million.

There's more money to be made in Europe...
very slim margins in Canada if tracks are priced at $0.99 CAD...
However:
There is already an established group of downloaders
The highest saturation/capita of high-speed users in the world
The cheapest high-speed prices in the world.

True and true - we only have a population of ~32 million, but are the second largest country in the entire world. But our high speed network here is quite advanced. I know, I work at for the largest ISP/Telco in my province and a couple years ago I was the Project Manager for all high speed networks here for 2 years. Last year we succeeded in rolling out high speed Internet to every community here with a population of 500 people or more - and now we're beginning phase 2 to address smaller communities. And this is quite the undertaking if you have any concept of the physical size of our province and the distances between communities. I don't know many other places in the entire world where every community with a population of 500 or more has high speed access. And then I talk to people in New York, Chicago, etc. who tell me that even in the heart of some of these large cities high speed access is scarce, let alone on the outskirts... and it's slow compared to ours too...

So bring on iTMS Canada, I can't wait!

 

[MacinDoc]

True and true - we only have a population of ~32 million, but are the second largest country in the entire world. But our high speed network here is quite advanced. I know, I work at for the largest ISP/Telco in my province and a couple years ago I was the Project Manager for all high speed networks here for 2 years. Last year we succeeded in rolling out high speed Internet to every community here with a population of 500 people or more - and now we're beginning phase 2 to address smaller communities. And this is quite the undertaking if you have any concept of the physical size of our province and the distances between communities. I don't know many other places in the entire world where every community with a population of 500 or more has high speed access. And then I talk to people in New York, Chicago, etc. who tell me that even in the heart of some of these large cities high speed access is scarce, let alone on the outskirts... and it's slow compared to ours too...

So bring on iTMS Canada, I can't wait!

Yes, Canada is truly becoming a wired nation, with respect to the internet. In your neighbour province, Alberta, there is also a project underway to provided high-speed access to every community, irrespective of size.

I seem to remember, too, that although Canada's population is only 10% that of the U.S. its on-line purchases are much more than 10% of Americans' on-line purchases. It seems to me that the study I read suggested that Canadians were twice as likely to make on-line purchases as Americans.

 

[~Shard~]

I seem to remember, too, that although Canada's population is only 10% that of the U.S. its on-line purchases are much more than 10% of Americans' on-line purchases. It seems to me that the study I read suggested that Canadians were twice as likely to make on-line purchases as Americans.

I could see that. I guess the true test might come when iTMS is announced.

 

[Super Dave]

I could see that. I guess the true test might come when iTMS is announced.

Canada has always been more technologically advances than the US as far as the average citizen goes. Back in the day when cable television was a benchmark, (and as far as I know today could be the same), Canada had the highest rate of cable TV subscribers in the world, far higher than the US. We have had significantly less expensive broadband here almost since its inception.

Regarding online stores, I believe Amazon expanded to Canada following its migration to the major European centers, and aside from Japan has not moved on much. Canada is a great place to do online business, especially digital download business which requires high speed internet.

This is not to mention the wealth of Canadian talent in musical enterprise, many which fail to reach the US not because of lack of talent, but because of poor marketing, or because it is a music only Canadians will "get." I mean did Sam Roberts, a guy who sings a song called "The Canadian Dream" really have any chance of making it down south? Not really, but he still rocks!

David

 

[~Shard~]

Canada has always been more technologically advances than the US as far as the average citizen goes. Back in the day when cable television was a benchmark, (and as far as I know today could be the same), Canada had the highest rate of cable TV subscribers in the world, far higher than the US. We have had significantly less expensive broadband here almost since its inception.

Very true. Here in Saskatchewan our "light" package (256 kbps symmetrical) is only $23/month CAD (only $16 USD/month), and one of our high end packages, offering 5 Mbps is only $45/month CAD (only $33 USD). Throw in promotions, etc. and it's even cheaper, especially when you bundle it with cell phone, local phone, long distance and digital TV.

It's great to be a Canadian!

 

[mike301]

Canadian iTMS Pricing

just a reminder that file swapping is LEGAL in Canada - we pay a levy on all cd's, tapes, music players ($25 on an iPod) etc.

Just to drive this point home, having a lower price point for the Canadian iTMS makes sense since we're already paying artists with a portion of the price we pay for blank media. Apple's margin on iTMS sales therefore not necessarily the same as in the US.

 

[~Shard~]

An iTMS Canada announcement might be imminent - if you go to the iTMS in iTunes, it gives you the standard "iTMS is not available in your country" message. But then it redirects you to a page where you're supposed to select the country of whose iTMS you want to browse. After selecting the USA, it redirects me again to the same screen - "iTMS is not available in your country".

So, is this a glitch, or is this a sign? In short, Canadians do not appear to be able to access iTMS to browse anymore. Interesting...

 

[mike301]

An iTMS Canada announcement might be imminent - if you go to the iTMS in iTunes, it gives you the standard "iTMS is not available in your country" message. But then it redirects you to a page where you're supposed to select the country of whose iTMS you want to browse. After selecting the USA, it redirects me again to the same screen - "iTMS is not available in your country".

So, is this a glitch, or is this a sign? In short, Canadians do not appear to be able to access iTMS to browse anymore. Interesting...

I've posted something similiar in another thread here... I think this is a very interesting development!

 

[B. McKechnie]

You can still browse and preview in the iTMS.

After you click OK and select a country you are redirected back to the country warning. Here must choose BROWSE in the top right corner. You can now select tracks to preview, etc.

 

[mike301]

You can still browse and preview in the iTMS.

After you click OK and select a country you are redirected back to the country warning. Here must choose BROWSE in the top right corner. You can now select tracks to preview, etc.

Good point, and I've read in another thread that you can also search the store. However, we can no longer access the actual store (front page, artists' pages, etc.).

 

[~Shard~]

I've posted something similiar in another thread here... I think this is a very interesting development!

Yep - I actually submitted it to MacRumors earlier and it made the first page of rumors! It's nice to be credited with the story and be recognized...

 

[B. McKechnie]

Well it looks like Canada was screwed by Apple again.

The NEW list of countries as of 1:11PM Oct. 26, 2004:

Austria
Belgium
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
UK
USA

 

[pnfburnt]

check out the press release

check out the presss release Itunes Canada launcing in November WOOHOO!

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/oct/26itmseu.html

 

[kettle]

Where did you say Canada was again?

 

[Nermal]

It's the thin strip of land above a US weather map

Note: I didn't make this up, so I don't deserve credit

 

[aswitcher]

It's the thin strip of land above a US weather map

Note: I didn't make this up, so I don't deserve credit

Well at least they are on the Apple map...clearly DownUnder is not at this time...

 

[bousozoku]

Well it looks like Canada was screwed by Apple again.

The NEW list of countries as of 1:11PM Oct. 26, 2004:

Austria
Belgium
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
UK
USA

More than likely, it was Canada's government and recording companies.

 

[Sayhey]

Well it looks like Canada was screwed by Apple again.

An announcement of a November opening of iTunes Canada is hardly getting "screwed." Now, Ireland (the only country in the Euro zone not part of this rollout,) Japan, and Australia have something to complain about!

 

[~Shard~]

It's the thin strip of land above a US weather map

Note: I didn't make this up, so I don't deserve credit

Thanks for your disclaimer, if you didn't add that I would have to beat you since I in fact made that comment in another thread.

 

[Nermal]

I thought it was you but wasn't entirely sure, so I didn't mention you by name

 

[~Shard~]

I thought it was you but wasn't entirely sure, so I didn't mention you by name

No worries, it's all good.

 

[stcanard]

very slim margins in Canada if tracks are priced at $0.99 CAD...

Just wanted to point out that this is not necessarily true.

We're not talking about a case where there's a fixed cost for the media. A deal could be negotiated where the recording companies still get $0.89 CAD, apple get $0.10 and the margins are exactly the same.

I'm assuming that there is no marginal cost for new stores; there is a fixed startup cost fo the new localizations, new deals and that's it. The infrastructure for delivering everything is already there.