MrMacman said:
LOL, came down a little late I see. 😀
Still no Canadian Music Store, shees... someone would think this would be the most easiest.....oh well we shall be blessed in time. 🙂
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More EU iTMS Stores In October
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LOL, came down a little late I see. 😀
Still no Canadian Music Store, shees... someone would think this would be the most easiest.....oh well we shall be blessed in time. 🙂
dekator
macrumors regular
Poff said:
Sorry? Norway is the richest country in Europe. In the sense that it is the only one without debt. The problem is probably legislation and the smallness of the Norwegian market. But don't forget that it's Norway that sniffs at the EU because you're so rich, not the other way round. So much for the stinking.
Macaddicttt
macrumors 6502a
Poff said:
Then get Norway to join the EU 🙂. But seriously, even though the vote has failed twice, now the majority of Norwegians are for joining the EU. Plus, Norway is already as close to being in the EU possible without actually joining.
Go iTMS
It's good to see that Apple is extending the iTMS to more European markets. For all the people still commenting about a EU-wide store, remember that licensing is still divided up by country (that's an issue the EU should deal with, and one Apple can't change). The EU is a free-trade zone, but record companies still license music locally, which isn't a big deal with CDs since you can buy one in Italy and physically take it to England or the reverse. If you open up a EU-wide store and place it in Switzerland, that effectively locks the music to the companies that distribute it in Switzerland. Other companies that own the rights to distribute it in other EU countries would be upset that they could not collect royalties from sales to citizens in their own countries for music that they own distribution rights to there.
An EU-wide store would be the equivalent of a Latin American store, where people from Mexico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, etc. would all use the same store. Can you imagine trying to get the licensing worked out over that free-trade zone? Heck, it would probably be easier since most (except for Brasil and Belize) speak a dialect of Spanish. We don't expect Apple to be able to do that.
As for Japan, I read recently that their record companies are demanding something like 2 dollars a song in licensing. They don't want Apple to undersell their preestablished online music stores. Sorry, I don't have the link. Maybe someone else remembers?
It's good to see that Apple is extending the iTMS to more European markets. For all the people still commenting about a EU-wide store, remember that licensing is still divided up by country (that's an issue the EU should deal with, and one Apple can't change). The EU is a free-trade zone, but record companies still license music locally, which isn't a big deal with CDs since you can buy one in Italy and physically take it to England or the reverse. If you open up a EU-wide store and place it in Switzerland, that effectively locks the music to the companies that distribute it in Switzerland. Other companies that own the rights to distribute it in other EU countries would be upset that they could not collect royalties from sales to citizens in their own countries for music that they own distribution rights to there.
An EU-wide store would be the equivalent of a Latin American store, where people from Mexico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, etc. would all use the same store. Can you imagine trying to get the licensing worked out over that free-trade zone? Heck, it would probably be easier since most (except for Brasil and Belize) speak a dialect of Spanish. We don't expect Apple to be able to do that.
As for Japan, I read recently that their record companies are demanding something like 2 dollars a song in licensing. They don't want Apple to undersell their preestablished online music stores. Sorry, I don't have the link. Maybe someone else remembers?
Ugg
macrumors 68000
Don't panic said:
Yeah, the licensing of music sales really sucks. When the 3 Euro stores opened, I had hoped that the music would be available in the US too but that didn't happen. I think that due to the licensing laws regarding international sales of music, it will be a long, long time before I can buy the same music via iTunes as the Germans can and vice versa. Talk about protectionism of the worst kind. I bet that about a third of my purchases would be of Euro music. ARE YOU LISTENING YOU STUPID RECORD COMPANIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Windowlicker
macrumors 6502a
JFreak said:
i'm totally with you here.. on and my friend wanted to thank you for the info on the G4 power supply thing about which I sent you email some time back!
dekator
macrumors regular
otter-boy said:
Well said. However, the language thing does not apply. In fact, you could do the whole store in English, practically, it wouldn't make any difference. Look at the Eurovision contest, everything takes place in English and French. And two languages are only there for reasons of diversity. To ensure communication, English would suffice.
Once you have individual stores, people expect them to be in their vernacular though.
No, the real issue is what you say at the beginning of your post. Buying something in the EU and then taking it somewhere else is different from buying at the iTMS because the *location of buyer and seller differ*. EU law states that the location of the buyer is decisive, hence, the various licensing schemes in different countries apply.
Windowlicker
macrumors 6502a
Poff said:
um... norway isn't gonna be the only one left here in scandinavia. remember finland? yeah, we're here, right next to sweden (or russia if you like). and i'm pretty sure there will be no itms for us for a long time 😛
Poff
macrumors 65816
Windowlicker said:
Yeah, I know. You're right next to us aswell, btw, if you just go to the north.. Just weren't sure if you were part of EU or not. The Nokia-ppl should put some pressure on Apple now that they are bonding so much.. 😀
Seriously, though, I guess we'll be the two lone countries up here.. At least for a while. But I know that norwegian record companies are working on it. iTunes music store has several times been in the focus of the biggest newspapers here in Norway, and record-reps always say they're working on it. First they expected july, then october, now they don't say anything.
Hope they clean up their mess soon, because record companies is what's slowing this train down. 😡
Poff
macrumors 65816
dekator said:
Macaddicttt said:
Yeah, lets hope we never join EU. Most people who vote for EU are either owners of various companies, or just people who doesn't really know what effect joining EU will have. One thing is sure, fewer people will get work, and the ones who do get work will have to work longer hours for less.
I wouldn't even want that for the store..
However, norwegians normally embrace new technology pretty quickly, so I'm pretty sure they could earn some NOK's if they got in here..
Ugg said:
Sadly, they are not. They don't realize that Apple is cutting them a check every month for licensing and all they have to do it sit back and collect it. They think that they should get more money for doing no work, and eventually they will kill the golden goose, or themselves.
Poff
macrumors 65816
Ugg said:
Yeah it really sucks! Currently the record companies are seperated into multiple divisions for each country. An artist may even be signed to different companies in different countries. With digital distribution, one single division should have had exclusive rights for the whole world. Would have made things so much simpler..
Let's just hope they'll follow this in the future..
Windowlicker
macrumors 6502a
Poff said:
indeed. I was already planning on trying to get a VISA (I'm a student so it's not guaranteed that I would get one) when I heard about the iTMS EU. Now that it's close to extending to other countries as well, I'm eager to see if I'm trying my luck on the credit card thingy.. iTMS is fairly priced in my opinion and I hardly ever listen to CDs anymore, so I would basically buy a bit lower quality audio but at the same time wouldn't have to rip it myself and also I would pay less than I do now.
Language and respect
Correct. An EU iTMS could easily be in just one or a few languages. But, in order to reach the widest audience, to compete with other localized stores, and just to make the many diverse groups of people in Europe feel respected, I think Apple should at least consider offering language-specific fronts to its store even if they do work out the licensing thing to have one EU store.
I know that when I've worked retail and used Spanish with native-Spanish speakers, I made sales where other people failed to. It wasn't that the customers couldn't speak English, it was just that they were more comfortable with Spanish, and making your customers feel comfortable and respected for who they are can take you a long way with selling them your products.
Anyway, it's not like you have to replicate the whole store in different languages. You'd really just have to work on localizing the controls and navigation, right? You could even tap into the customer's web browser settings to get the localized language that they use. Most of the songs titles and artists would remain in the original language anyway.
dekator said:
Correct. An EU iTMS could easily be in just one or a few languages. But, in order to reach the widest audience, to compete with other localized stores, and just to make the many diverse groups of people in Europe feel respected, I think Apple should at least consider offering language-specific fronts to its store even if they do work out the licensing thing to have one EU store.
I know that when I've worked retail and used Spanish with native-Spanish speakers, I made sales where other people failed to. It wasn't that the customers couldn't speak English, it was just that they were more comfortable with Spanish, and making your customers feel comfortable and respected for who they are can take you a long way with selling them your products.
Anyway, it's not like you have to replicate the whole store in different languages. You'd really just have to work on localizing the controls and navigation, right? You could even tap into the customer's web browser settings to get the localized language that they use. Most of the songs titles and artists would remain in the original language anyway.
Poff
macrumors 65816
Windowlicker said:
Those nasty VISA-ppl harassing students? Here VISA is not a credit-card, so basically anyone can get it.. If only one could get an american credit card or something..
Btw. only bad thing about downloading music is the cover.. I do like the feeling of a really cool cover in my hands..
otter-boy said:
First of all, Switzerland (like Norway and Iceland) is not part of the EU so it wouldn't make sense to place the "EU" store in Switzerland because of different laws/regulations etc. The question is, will this "EU" store be limited to customers living in member states of the EU or will we outsiders be allowed to buy from iTMS Europe nevertheless? There is a rumour published by a free commuter newspaper that Apple plans to open a Swiss store as well but since that newspaper is known for low level journalism, it's unclear if they made that up from the info Apple released at the launch of DE, FR and UK. Since Switzerland has one of the highest (some say the highest) number of Mac users per capita in Europe, we would definitely deserve it.
Windowlicker said:
Finland is scandinavia?
Its like... Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark...
And there is Finland, Latvia, etc...
😀
Porchland
macrumors 65816
Trowaman said:
I figure a 60-gigger will be announced at MWSF in January since iPod announcements have come there before, but an earlier announcement wouldn't surprise me. If Apple has had the 60s in full-on production, October would be the time for a pre-Christmas announcement.
