iTunes Music Store Ireland Opens

[MacRumors]

Several members have alerted us that Apple has quietly opened the iTunes Music Store in Ireland. Price: €0.99 per song.

The iTunes Music Store opened in the U.S. on April 28, 2003 (story, press release), along with the release of iTunes 4, with a price of $0.99 per song and a catalog of over 200,000 songs.

Apple released iTunes 4.1 for Windows on October 16, 2003 (story, press release).

The iTMS expanded to the U.K., France, and Germany on June 15, 2004 (story, press release), using iTunes 4.6 (released a week before), with a price of £0.79 and €0.99 per song and a catalog of over 700,000 songs.

The iTMS added the European Union countries of Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain on October 26, 2004 (story, press release), along with the release of iTunes 4.7, with a price of €0.99 per song. iTMS Ireland was notably absent, as were Australia and Japan.

After missing their promised November 2004 deadline, Apple opened the iTMS Candada late in the day on December 1, 2004 (story, press release), with a price of $0.99 CDN.

 

[ChrisH3677]

Hopefully this bodes well for an Australian launch next week

 

[oingoboingo]

Once again, iTunes is appreciably more expensive outside the United States. Must be all the postage and packaging to send those CDs international mail. Oh wait...

 

[bigandy]

and hopefully it'll give my irish friends a reason to shut up for a few days

 

[Doctor Q]

They managed to iron out the details to open this store before MacWorld Expo, which will make one more accomplishment they can boast about (even though many consider this store opening "late").

Note: "Vertigo" by U2 hasn't yet fallen off Apple's Top 10 Songs list. It's number 9.

 

[nagromme]

U2

Yes, Vertigo has been on the iTMS charts for a long time... Not to mention that the huge BOX SET was the top-selling album for a while!

 

[iChan]

all i can say... truly underwhelming.

 

[DPazdanISU]

they should also send digital guiness pints per song to help make the irish feel more at home

 

[Eaon]

You forgot Canada!

I feel so Polish.

 

[DPazdanISU]

Apple needs to RELAX. Sometimes I think they do this to all the mac nerds to help increase our heart rates so we don't die off and in return they keep the mac faithful. We still got next week to lose 5 more pounds of armpit sweat!

 

[johnnyjibbs]

Once again, iTunes is appreciably more expensive outside the United States. Must be all the postage and packaging to send those CDs international mail. Oh wait...

Actually, it's only €0.99 a track, and the tax is included, unlike in the States. It's marginally more expensive because of the strong Euro and weak US dollar.

Good news for Ireland. Another bit of red tape obviously sorted out.

 

[yoda13]

Apple needs to RELAX. Sometimes I think they do this to all the mac nerds to help increase our heart rates so we don't die off and in return they keep the mac faithful. We still got next week to lose 5 more pounds of armpit sweat!

an image I surely didn't need.....

However, I am happy for all the Irish Mac users

 

[dontmatter]

good, now the irish can buy local music in the form of the U2 boxed set, instead of just a bunch of americas....

on a more serious note, anybody know the list of countries itunes serves, and the list served by napster, M$, etc? Nobody compares to apple in countries total, for sure, but is apple's range covered by at least somebody PC based/ are there any major countries served by international music stores that itunes hasn't yet reached?

 

[plastree]

Once again, iTunes is appreciably more expensive outside the United States. Must be all the postage and packaging to send those CDs international mail. Oh wait...

My god, I'm so sick of you people who whine about the price of songs every time Apple opens the store up to a new country. For the last time, the prices reflect the unique economic situation of the affected country, not deliberate profit wrangling!

 

[Daveway]

This is great news but how did this get past us?

 

[rikers_mailbox]

This is great news but how did this get past us?

Maybe all this talk of iWork, iPhones, flashPods, and headless iMacs was just a diversion from the *real* secret. . iTunes iReland.

 

[coolfactor]

Once again, iTunes is appreciably more expensive outside the United States. Must be all the postage and packaging to send those CDs international mail. Oh wait...

Incorrect... Canada's 99 cents per song makes it the cheapest iTMS running. Not sure how they pulled it off, but they did, and we're loving it.

 

[ASP272]

Oh, the luck 'o the Irish! Congratulations!

 

[b-randomly]

I'm sure by MacWorld they'll easily boast of all the countries they've added -- and probably add Japan and Australia as well. I'm actually very surprised that Japan hasn't gotten iTMS yet. Considering their society, it would be such a blockbuster hit there, I'd think (along with the reported iPod micro).

 

[ASP272]

Now if they could just get Evanescence, Metallica, and Fu-Schnickens on iTunes it'd be a perfect world. Oh yeah, and add all those other countries that are missing out, most notably Australia.

 

[rory2002ie]

Woo Hoo

Well about time....

Although Apple has a large presence in the south of Ireland and they run a very large call centre and tech support operation in Cork, its really difficult to buy an apple or accessories in Ireland

there are very few places to buy a mac, O2 the mobile operator sells Ipods, iBooks and iMacs only in there retail stores but they wont sell G5 Powermacs and most of the staff are completely useless...

PC World used to carry some mac stock but they no longer carry any.. and the Apple Shop run by compustore went out of business too...

In most cases the small resellers are more expensive than the online apple store.

 

[Jimmni]

My god, I'm so sick of you people who whine about the price of songs every time Apple opens the store up to a new country. For the last time, the prices reflect the unique economic situation of the affected country, not deliberate profit wrangling!

LOL!! Yeah, right

 

[oingoboingo]

My god, I'm so sick of you people who whine about the price of songs every time Apple opens the store up to a new country. For the last time, the prices reflect the unique economic situation of the affected country, not deliberate profit wrangling!

Steve, shouldn't you be doing a run-through of your MWSF keynote presentation, and not wasting time counter-trolling on Mac rumour boards? You might accidently get sued by your own legal department!

 

[Avicdar]

Steve, shouldn't you be doing a run-through of your MWSF keynote presentation, and not wasting time counter-trolling on Mac rumour boards? You might accidently get sued by your own legal department!

LOL!

 

[fatfish]

Once again, iTunes is appreciably more expensive outside the United States. Must be all the postage and packaging to send those CDs international mail. Oh wait...

It beats me how someone from the land of Oz can winge (is that how the Ozzies spell it) about the price of songs in other countries. Being from the UK, I believe we pay more than most and I ain't complaining. Songs cost what they cost, don't moan about it, take it or leave it. I'm quite happy to take it.