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Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reports [Google translation] that Apple is set to launch the iTunes Music Store in ten new European Union (EU) countries. While the exact timing of the launch is unknown, sources have indicated that Apple could launch the services "at any time", possibly as soon as next month.

The report names Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic as countries set to receive new iTunes Music Stores, but the additional seven countries are not specified. Of the 27 European Union member states, twelve currently do not offer iTunes Music Store services: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Speculation suggests that Cyprus and Malta could be the two EU countries left out of the launch, due in part to geographic isolation and their status as the two countries having the smallest populations among those currently without music stores.

The iTunes Music Store is currently available in nearly two dozen countries, making an increase of ten countries a substantial addition to Apple's offerings, although only Poland (38 million) and Romania (22 million) out of the candidate countries have populations substantially above 10 million. Apple's App Store is active in many dozens of countries around the world, including all 27 member states of the EU, but access to the music portion of the iTunes Store is considerably more limited at the present time due to the difficulties of licensing content in each market.

Article Link: iTunes Music Store Coming Soon to 10 New European Union Countries?
"geographic isolation"? - in the year 2011? They actually do have internet so what the h... has geographical location to do with this?
 
God I hope it's true!

I still don’t understand why there isn’t a unified EU music/movie/tvshow market. I know local licensing issues and music cartels lobbying against it, but this could be one great political achievement from the EU for the benefit of all the citizens - a new unified licensing system, universal and mandatory content availability across all member states (if you sell online to one EU country, it has to be available in any other). I remember reading somewhere a couple of years ago, that Apple was actually advocating something like this in the EU.



Wouldn’t it be great to have a single EU wide store with dynamic filters, for example, if you want to see top downloads in your region, country, any neighbouring country or EU as a whole? It essentially should be one store with single pricing scheme in euros, with the optionally visible converted price in the currency of your choosing (for the countries not within the euro zone)?
 
I use the iTunes Music Store a lot and like it very much, but one thing annoys me very much. The media moguls still enforce a limited choice of music in every country. Try for instance the album "Famous Blue Raincoat" from Jennifer Warnes. An old album and you can get it in every CD store throughout the EU. EXCEPT in the iTunes Store. Here it's limited to just a few EU countries. WTF??? Why???! And this goes for many other albums and tracks. A copyright thing? Come on, if the physical CD is in the stores worldwide, the digital download should be available too, worldwide. period.

:mad:
 
After years of endless waiting, movies are finally available in the Danish iTunes Store as of today!! :D YES!!!

The movies section isn't there, but if you search for something (like Pirates of the Caribbean) it'll show up and you can rent/buy it!
Woooot! Norway aswell! Great find, thx!
 
it doesnt depend on, which country has more members... For example, I'm from Hungary, we are only 10million, but apple has a very huge market share here, and they would earn a lot from the iTunes store incomes..
 
Don't do it Apple! Don't leave Cyprus out. One of the least penetrated iPhone markets in the EU and yet with a population flow in the millions when you consider the tourists that travel there all year round. Think of all the music these people would buy on their iPhones using Shazam in nightclubs and bars
 
Also: it seems that Apple is readying the iTunes movie store for Sweden as far as I can tell, it seems to be a mistake though since there's no link in the actual stores, but you can navigate to the page by browsing iTunes on the web.
I tried to rent Back to the Future 3 and it went without a hitch, but there are no swedish subtitles yet.
 
!

i use the itunes music store a lot and like it very much, but one thing annoys me very much. The media moguls still enforce a limited choice of music in every country. Try for instance the album "famous blue raincoat" from jennifer warnes. An old album and you can get it in every cd store throughout the eu. Except in the itunes store. Here it's limited to just a few eu countries. Wtf??? Why???! And this goes for many other albums and tracks. A copyright thing? Come on, if the physical cd is in the stores worldwide, the digital download should be available too, worldwide. Period.

:mad:

good point !
 
Also: it seems that Apple is readying the iTunes movie store for Sweden as far as I can tell, it seems to be a mistake though since there's no link in the actual stores, but you can navigate to the page by browsing iTunes on the web.
I tried to rent Back to the Future 3 and it went without a hitch, but there are no swedish subtitles yet.

Lets hope subtitles are optional. I never turn them on if I understand the language. But finally, the movie store has reached mainland europe.
 
And yet Apple are still allowed to break the low by preventing a EU citizen to purchase songs from other EU states......

Which is the real problem. Any EU citizen should legally be allowed to buy from any EU country iTunes Store. Somehow Apple managed to ignore that. There was a trial from the Brits a few years ago because of the price inequality and Apple was threatened with the obligation of unlocking the EU market, but that went away as soon as Apple promised to follow the exchange rates between EUR and GBP much closer.
 
Just read on a Dutch website that movies are for sale from the iTunes store. With subtitles and anything, only a 300 movies though…
 
Who cares when there are streaming services like Spotify and Wimp? It's the year 2011 and Apple still wants you to download music files to your hard drive. :rolleyes:
 
Still can't believe there's so many countries without an iTunes Music Store, especially bigger European countries like Poland.
 
Still can't believe there's so many countries without an iTunes Music Store, especially bigger European countries like Poland.

Licensing issues are a real hassle and in some countries there isn't so much disposable income. The average monthly wage in Romania is about $650 ... I just spent a month there ... so, there's not so much money for iTunes.

In Poland, it's a little better at 900/mo after tax.

At 1.40 USD/song ... that money doesn't go far, which explains why it's taken so long to open there.
 
I don't care cause I have had the music store in the US for years.

Yeah, I wonder why the rest of the world hates us. It's because of morons like you that have the me only view of the world.

On topic, the more countries that the iTunes store becomes available in the better.
 
I still don’t understand why there isn’t a unified EU music/movie/tvshow market. I know local licensing issues and music cartels lobbying against it, but this could be one great political achievement from the EU for the benefit of all the citizens - a new unified licensing system, universal and mandatory content availability across all member states (if you sell online to one EU country, it has to be available in any other). I remember reading somewhere a couple of years ago, that Apple was actually advocating something like this in the EU.



Wouldn’t it be great to have a single EU wide store with dynamic filters, for example, if you want to see top downloads in your region, country, any neighbouring country or EU as a whole? It essentially should be one store with single pricing scheme in euros, with the optionally visible converted price in the currency of your choosing (for the countries not within the euro zone)?

Because most European nations don't give a crap about each others taste. It'd be like iTunes USA wanting to filter and see what songs Mexico and Brazil are buying. We may be in some crappy union but we are wildly different.

Maybe I'm just biased against it because I'm English though :)
 
Because most European nations don't give a crap about each others taste. It'd be like iTunes USA wanting to filter and see what songs Mexico and Brazil are buying. We may be in some crappy union but we are wildly different.

Maybe I'm just biased against it because I'm English though :)

Europeans travel a lot + hundreds of thousands (if not millions) live, work or study in different countries than their native ones. It should be easy to have a single store where you can select “region” of your interest, regardless of the physical location.

Actually, this should be possible world-wide. It’s the 21st century already, for crying out loud! There shouldn’t be ANY artificial borders for ANYTHING that’s online. :rolleyes:
 
How badly uninformed am I… I thought Apple’s music store was in every developed country by now.
 
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