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iTunes Europe Next Month?
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Well...they better do something with their iTMS launch, pricing and marketing strategies, and general iPod re-thinking. They're about to become Microsoft's Lunch.
Having lived in Switzerland for my whole life (except the past 6 months where I moved to America) I can confirm that CD (and DVD's for that matter) are overpriced in Europe...
Its not a question of where the music companies physically are... like BMI, EMI whatever... It's that there is an established market in the United States at a price, where consumers expect to pay that price... In Europe even though some of the record companies are located there they still pay the higher prices and that is justified by the market and bloated VAT, TVA, (kind of sales tax).
People should also remember that not so long ago the Euro was at about an equal exchange rate with the dollar and before that most European currencies were worth a LOT less than the dollar !
Just my 2 cents...
Its not a question of where the music companies physically are... like BMI, EMI whatever... It's that there is an established market in the United States at a price, where consumers expect to pay that price... In Europe even though some of the record companies are located there they still pay the higher prices and that is justified by the market and bloated VAT, TVA, (kind of sales tax).
People should also remember that not so long ago the Euro was at about an equal exchange rate with the dollar and before that most European currencies were worth a LOT less than the dollar !
Just my 2 cents...
elo said:
oh? is it there automatically, without extra effort by user? i didn't know that, that was just an assumption. my bad
i still think actual cd has more art than only the cover.elo said:
is this even possible, and if it is, is it permitted? i think that reselling is not allowed at all. if it (technically) can be done but (legally) isn't allowed, that's just as bad as distributing mp3 files thru kazaa. the whole point of drm'd music files is selling the music online legally. anyone can legally (re)sell a cd easily.
elo said:
how do you borrow a drm'd file to your friend? also, how do you make a backup of the original, in case you lose your hard drive accidentally? i'm not satisfied with burning it into a cd, because re-ripping it into a new aac file degrades the already less-than-cd quality. restrictions are not so severe, i could live with them easily, but they are there.
JFreak said:
Backups are as easy as backing up any other file. The activation is on the computer not the DRMed data file. You can copy your music to any medium and copy it back to any computer as long as its been authed to use those songs.
As for loaning songs. *shrugs* That's what CD's are for. I loan music out all the time simply by burning the requested songs to CD. They don't need any higher quality track then what's on the CD. If they do its a pretty good bet you or they are pirating the track. I'd sugget you actually USE iTMS before you it. Sounds like you really don't know much about how it works.
Rule number one in life: Never trash something\someone unless you somewhat know what you are talking about.
SiliconAddict said:
you're right about that. i was originally stating that in principle when we accept restrictions, that's one factor that should lower the price. and there are restrictions, and thank god apple has negotiated such a loose restrictions that may not come in the way in the real world. but they are there, and therefore itms europe will have to sell music for less than a physical restrictionless cd in a store.
if you read my original post where i mentioned the restrictions the first time, you will notice that i listed the things that in principle should affect to the song price.
But a download also has BENEFITS that a physical CD lacks--and that's a factor that increases a song's marketable value.
I am speaking, of course, of the benefit of being able to buy just one song--or several--and not the whole album. That's the main reason for iTunes to exist, for me, and CDs simply don't offer that. (In fact, if you never listen to some of the songs anyway, you aren't saving money by buying that album on CD.)
Other benefits include major convenience: browse a much bigger selection than any physical CD store, browse faster and easier than any online CD store, hear previews of everything, do custom smart searches, and get your music NOW--not tomorrow, not next week, and NOT after hauling yourself out to a store with parking lots and lines gas costs and wasted time.
I am speaking, of course, of the benefit of being able to buy just one song--or several--and not the whole album. That's the main reason for iTunes to exist, for me, and CDs simply don't offer that. (In fact, if you never listen to some of the songs anyway, you aren't saving money by buying that album on CD.)
Other benefits include major convenience: browse a much bigger selection than any physical CD store, browse faster and easier than any online CD store, hear previews of everything, do custom smart searches, and get your music NOW--not tomorrow, not next week, and NOT after hauling yourself out to a store with parking lots and lines gas costs and wasted time.
For the way I buy music, this is good news. If I am going to buy a whole album, I will buy the CD. New releases seem to be around £9 at the moment on Amazon. But my CD collection is littered with albums that I bought for one track and never listen to the entire album. I don't want to trawl through the P2P networks to download tracks of varying quality. iTMS will (I hope) give me a good source to fill in some of the gaps in my collection, without having to fork out for a whole album. But when it comes to buying an album, I want the packaging, sleeve notes and all the other stuff. Look at a Hed Kandi album and tell me you don't want the box. Boxes are important to me, I am an Apple fan after all.
Now I am starting to sound like a vinyl junkie who swears he will never trade in his 12" albums for one of those horrible new-fangled compact-disk things...
Now I am starting to sound like a vinyl junkie who swears he will never trade in his 12" albums for one of those horrible new-fangled compact-disk things...
The music store will be good for me for several reasons:
I consider the AAC codec to be very good. I think it is a good sound considering the little space it takes up. And I appreciate music.
- I can buy songs on a per song basis as nanogramme said. This is the main deal with downloads and the reason for it being successful. (If I got an album, I would buy the CD). Albums are only sold to keep the record companies happy.
- I only listen to my music now at 128kbps AAC generally so the quality is fine
- This also means it saves time ripping into iTunes
- DRM limitations are hardly limitations are they? Again this keeps the record companies happy.
- Individual songs are far cheaper than singles.
- Only means of getting hold of some songs (or without having to buy an entire album that I don't want)
I consider the AAC codec to be very good. I think it is a good sound considering the little space it takes up. And I appreciate music.
edenwaith said:Forget it! I refuse to pay 1.29 Euros per song! Instead, I'll pay 99 cents.
yeah when does Canada get the Music Store.. I mean Common now!
Napster has a subscription service where you can sign up for £9.95 per month (about $18) and use their streaming service (or even download DRM'd tracks to your hard drive) as much as you like. I know that Apple is very keen to keep the association there between iTunes and their iPod devices (and this would obviously be no good for an iPod) but do they have or are they thinking of implementing such a system with iTunes where we could listen to tracks unlimited times over the web or from our hard drives? I just think that this would be a good idea and would allow me to get a taster and compare the Napster UK and iTunes systems before I lock myself into one or the other because I prefer to have all my music files available from one player and the Napster player does not support AAC.
Steve Jobs has said time and time again that the subscription model doesn't work. "$18 a month over your lifetime is a lot of money to pay just to listen to your favourite song. With iTunes, you can keep it forever for just $0.99"chrisblore said:
adamfilip said:
Yep Ill definitely be making use of it when its released here! Right now though, I have little choice when I want music other than to use P2P. Theres a huge revenue stream sitting here in Canada that Jobs should tap into! Yah, I know, easier said than done, but I dont think setting up iTMS in Canada would be quite as difficult as setting it up in Europe, for instance. I could be wrong though...
~Shard~ said:
I can't wait for the Canadian iTMS either, infact Apple should get on it before loyal apple supporters start going to the Canadian napster and puretracks that are already set up!!!!!!!!! Common apple I know we aren't the size of Europe and the States, but we will make those international sales numbers look really good. As for the ease of set up here I wonder if the content laws of Canada and Content / language laws of Quebec are complicating things?
Regardless I hope we all can buy from iTMS soon!
Raid said:
Yah, this is the one thing that gets me too - if Napster and PureTracks can do it, why can't Apple? It's not like there are impossible barriers to overcome here in Canada, these other services ahve already proved that. I realize this is being a little over-simplistic, but it obviously can be done - so do it Apple!!!
come on apple, your laggin. let's get this show on the road! [guess i'm a little impatient today]
