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Apple launches iTunes in Germany, France, UK

updated 06:45 am EDT, Tue June 15, 2004

iTunes for some of Europe

As expected, Steve Jobs this morning introduced the ]

by MacNN Staff

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Parky
Mac Elite

Joined: Oct 1999

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06/15, 06:58am | report spam | close Reply |
Rip off

UK Prices are a rip-off they should be 65p and �6.50 if you use the exchange rates!!! It's not down to Tax either as Germany and France both have higher taxes.

Pauldunlop
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2000

0

06/15, 06:58am | report spam | close Reply |
Woohoo

Damn, my credit card's gonna take a battering. Damn the iTMS UK. Poor students cards like mine can't handle such punishment! hehe

Rosyna
Forum Regular

Joined: Aug 2001

0

06/15, 07:23am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Exchange Rates

You should not be using exchange rates. They can change. and I imagine the UK price includes the VAT. The US price does not include sales tax.

1800-whatever
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2004

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06/15, 07:25am | report spam | close Reply |
50 %

"the iPod (mini) has a 50 percent marketshare (in Europe?"

It's not even available in Europe yet isn't it?

ppasata
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2004

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06/15, 07:25am | report spam | close Reply |
UK price

Comparing � to euro, the UK price is a rip off - wasn't this outlawed in the EU? Thought prices had to be common accross countries. Usual attempt to rip off UK customers

solaris
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2002

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06/15, 07:30am | report spam | close Reply |
Purchased a song

Well, I just purchased a song from the UK store. "Easy" (the Faith No More version). Sums up the whole experience really.

AviH
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2004

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06/15, 07:32am | report spam | close Reply |
?

Perhaps Its because the UK didn't fully commit to the Euro since they are so attached their precious Pound, that they would not be extended the protection New United States, err, the EU, provides.

iJed
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: May 2001

0

06/15, 07:33am | report spam | close Reply |
As soon as I get home...

from work I'm going to start buying tracks :D

ism
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Sep 2001

0

06/15, 07:38am | report spam | close Reply |
dial-up

cool, shame I no longer have broadband, does it work with dial-up?

If it does at least it'll limit what I spend

robrandtoul
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2003

0

06/15, 07:40am | report spam | close Reply |
Whiners

Oh stop whining about the cost. Feel free to go buy a CD from HMV for �14.99. I am more than happy with �7.99 for an album saving me �7.

chrissyboy
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Joined: Aug 2001

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06/15, 07:48am | report spam | close Reply |
Oh dear...

Content VERY thin compared to US version - for instance, 'Oasis' gives 6 full albums in the US, and zero tracks in the UK. This is for an English band! Good price for what little we can get though...

haunebu
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Apr 2000

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06/15, 07:49am | report spam | close Reply |
October?

The rest of Europe in October? What a disappointing bunch of BS.

tabarnak
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Joined: Jan 2003

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06/15, 08:04am | report spam | close Reply |
still no canada!

since there is no store compatible with the ipod/itunes in cananda, i'm still gonna have to get my music illegaly on p2p!

bravo morons of the music industry!

trevj
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 1999

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06/15, 08:09am | report spam | close Reply |
Re. still no canada

Tabarnak...Relax, it's not illegal to download music from p2p in Canada (the morality of it is up to you). Just don't make your collection available to others. That's the illegal part.

LouZer
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2000

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06/15, 08:15am | report spam | close Reply |
What really blows!

I can't believe it, but the European iTMS isn't available in the US! What kind of c*** is this, anyway....

nat
Junior Member

Joined: Mar 2002

0

06/15, 08:40am | report spam | close Reply |
rip off?

compared to what? a bottle of coke? quart of milk? dozen eggs? pair of nike's? haircut? you buy music you get to use it FOREVER! music is the best deal out there, period. a tank full of gas costs 30 bucks and that's every damn week. you want a pizza? $20 every time. steak dinner? $30+. you want to listen to some Clash or some classical? buy it once and change your mood by selecting it on your ipod anytime, anywhere for years to come.

csimmons
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2004

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06/15, 09:10am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Oh dear...

?!?!

I'm looking at 5 Oasis albums to purchased as I'm typing this. The same 700,000 songs available in the US are available to you and me (I'm in Germany).

t_hah
Mac Elite

Joined: Dec 2000

0

06/15, 09:22am | report spam | close Reply |
Let's bring this

Let's hope that they will be able to make the iTMS possible in the rest of Europe as well.

t_c
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2002

0

06/15, 09:28am | report spam | close Reply |
re:Still no Canada!

Apple U.S. doesn't seem to be a good father to Apple Canada (actually they're more like a tolerated step-son), they kinda treat the other brothers and sisters at Apple Europe better!

So what if it's legal for me to download off limewire, etc. ... iTunes browsing makes life easier.

The few songs I have downloaded illegally were of 'poor quality' and a couple even had gaps in the middle of them!.

Give me iTMS for Canada!

typoon
Addicted to MacNN

Joined: Oct 1999

0

06/15, 09:33am | report spam | close Reply |
We always find something

As Mac users we ALWAYS find something to complain about. I mean Now that iTMS is in Europe you folks are complaining about content. That I'm sure will improve over time. You forget when iTMS started in the States it was only 500,000 songs. I would rather have them get it started than wait for it to get there. Like someone else said don't comprare exchange rates. Besides what are you folks in the Europe complaining about? You were complaining that you didn't have iTMS and now you have it you find something else to complain about. Our neighbors up North in Canada still DON'T have it. Stop your complaining and Enjoy.

zanc
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2003

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06/15, 09:33am | report spam | close Reply |
Agree with parky

The price differential between UK and France/Germany is outragous (~20% increase). I will probably boycott this service on principle. Not sure, but isn't it a violation of EU trade agreements to prevent UK citizens purchasing goods from other EU states. So why do we have to have a French/German billing address to buy from the French/German iTunes store.

JudgeDredd
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Joined: Jun 2004

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06/15, 09:47am | report spam | close Reply |
re:re oh dear

Chrissyboy is right, Oasis are missing from the UK store (not that big a fan, so it's not a big deal to me, but it's a bizarre ommission considering they are a large UK act and it's available on the German store)

What I want to know is, where is the new Faithless album 'No Roots'? It was released last week on CD dagnabbit! (for the record, all other Faithless albums are available on the UK store) *Sigh*

Wanders off in the direction of play.com...

johnhood
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2003

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06/15, 09:50am | report spam | close Reply |
Compelling prices

The price point is great and I can now download and burn an album to CD in minutes!

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

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06/15, 09:51am | report spam | close Reply |
this and that

You forget when iTMS started in the States it was only 500,000 songs. I would rather have them get it started than wait for it to get there.

Actually, it started out at 200,000 to 300,000.

So why do we have to have a French/German billing address to buy from the French/German iTunes store.

This probably has to do with licensing bureaucracy rather than the EU bureaucracy. There's bound to be issues of the license holders allowing sales in some countries, but not others (or, more likely, the license holders are different per country, so the people with the rights to distribute a piece of music in France might be different than those in England or Germany. All these different rights holders is the reason that the iTMS is chock full of Partial albums for older artists.

And if you all think its against the EU, file a complaint with some body or another. I'm sure they'd be glad to b****-slap Apple (esp. France, who was (is?) owed money for those iPods used to hold all that stolen music).

salut0
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2004

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06/15, 10:21am | report spam | close Reply |
credit card/IP address?

Supposedly the itunes store requires a credit card with the appropriate billing address (ie. UK billing address if using UK store, US one if using US). Does this mean that when, as planned, I move from England to the USA this summer, I can still buy music with a UK credit card and download it while based in the USA? Or does the store track your IP address and physical location also?

ppasata
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2004

0

06/15, 10:31am | report spam | close Reply |
�14.99 ???

Who pays that anymore?

Clive
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Jan 2001

0

06/15, 10:46am | report spam | close Reply |
EURO prices

>Comparing � to euro, the UK price is a rip off - wasn't this
>outlawed in the EU? Thought prices had to be common
>accross countries. Usual attempt to rip off UK customers

No, it's not illegal to have different prices in different countries - but it would be illegal for Apple to try to stop you buying from the German or French sites from any other EU country, including the UK.

So, given the price differential between GBP and EUR prices, just buy from the EUR stores - if the rates change again later then they can buy from ours.

z10n
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2003

0

06/15, 10:59am | report spam | close Reply |
Canada

"They're not even a real country anyway."

- South Park ;-)

P.S.: Why should canada get priority over Europe, or even the rest of the world for that matter? The labels go where they think they can rip off the most money from, and obviously that means the US and Europe ;-) My guess is Japan is next on the menu (if apple has any brains.)

tontondavid10
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2004

0

06/15, 11:03am | report spam | close Reply |
still no radiohead

even though it is one of the most important bands of the last decade in the UK

rtamesis
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Jan 2000

0

06/15, 11:11am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: iTunes in Canada

Canada will have iTunes available once the current administration accomplishes its goal of annexing Canada into the Union!

chrissyboy
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

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06/15, 11:46am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Oh dear...

The same 700,000 songs available in the US are available to you and me (I'm in Germany).

Nope - it's the same with a stack of other acts - Placebo has 3 tracks in the UK store, over 30 on the US store. DJ Shadow has 2 tracks in the UK store, and 49 in the US version. I'm not hunting for these, just trying out artists that I might have been interested in buying - I imagine the UK independent labels have different deals in the US, and it's these labels that aren't playing. Shame really - I do appreciate that the smaller labels have to make money too, but if the majority of my music budget is going to be spent online (as I'm sure it will from now), these artists are going to lose out.

chrissyboy
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

06/15, 11:54am | report spam | close Reply |
Ironic

Found this quite amusing - the 'British Sea Power' album isn't available in Britain - only the US. LOL.

jonbwfc1
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2003

0

06/15, 11:54am | report spam | close Reply |
Whoops

"An unknown error has occurred(504)"
I think we broke it.

turtle777
Clinically Insane

Joined: Jun 2001

0

06/15, 12:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
To all the UK bitchers

Stop whining about UK prices.

Just accept that the UK is more expensive.

You pay 15 pounds for a CD in a regular store, the same costs EUR 15 in Germany ?
So, you're actually getting the better deal with 0.79 p vs. 0.99 c.

It's not Apple's fault that the UK is overpriced in general.

-t

ihobson
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2000

0

06/15, 12:27pm | report spam | close Reply |
Lack of Artists

First of all, I'm delighted we've got this, and the prices are certainly reasonable by UK store standards. When the pound returns to normal against the Euro and US dollar we might even be ahead!

However, what I have noticed, as reported by others is a massive difference in availability. Coldplay, a UK band, have their albums in the US store, and some music in the French store. But not in the UK store. They are NOT an indie band as far as I know (EMI?). There are many like this where the selection in the UK is very low or non-existent. So, I certainly don't believe we've got the same number of tracks here as in the US yet. Hope this is just a minor teething problem. Otherwise, great.

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

06/15, 12:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Radiohead

even though it is one of the most important bands of the last decade in the UK

First, to call any band "important" means you're taking your music way, way, way too seriously.

Second, I would think no Radiohead would be a plus for the store!

Pauldunlop
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2000

0

06/15, 12:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
UK Store

The UK store definitely seems to be a bit thing on the ground. I tried buying something from the Germany store (with my account being set up for the UK store) and it didn't let me. Then it passed me through to the UK Store, only to inform me the item I wanted to buy wasn't available on the UK Store (an Oasis track). Which is interesting if the whole "can't stop you buying from other EU countries" thing is true

heyriddle
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2003

0

06/15, 01:10pm | report spam | close Reply |
Imports

I wonder if Apple can do an "Imports" feature in the iTMS. I am assuming that the import laws are why there are different catalogs of artists in different countries in the first place. It would be nice for the whole iTMS catalog to grow with these new stores being added.

heyriddle
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2003

0

06/15, 01:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
Slow

Has anyone else noticed that the iTMS in the US is dog slow right now? I have not had an issue with speed since day one. Hopefully they will bring more servers online to help with the new draw of customers on the other side of the pond.

chrissyboy
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

06/15, 01:23pm | report spam | close Reply |
Odd omissions...

Weird - it's not just leftfield stuff missing from iTMS-UK, there are some really odd omissions too - Bruce Springsteen? The Eagles?? Nothing for either of these two in the UK, and I'd have thought they'd have no licensing issues with these two rather creaky acts. Maybe there are separate UK servers and they just haven't got all the songs uploaded as yet - I sure hope so, as the current catalogue is really skinny.

C

PookJP
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Jan 2001

0

06/15, 01:32pm | report spam | close Reply |
A Few Things....

1. Nobody has mentioned the car tie-ins yet. This is a big deal, I think, because the iPod could easily replace CD players as the standard source of audio. I spent $500 having my iPod hardwired into my car, and it was money well spent. If I were buying another car, or knew someone who was, I would highly recommend getting one wired for an iPod.

2. Radiohead: they really need to get them into the store. They're something of a halo band these days, having both strong sales and artistic credibility, and their absence from the store is quite a gaping hole. This is all the more true given their fanatic Macintosh support (they always have an iBook on stage, and the lead singer (Thom Yorke) has an Apple stick on one of his guitars).

3. The complaining: who ever said earlier has Mac users will always find something to complain about is spot on. I suppose that with great fanaticism comes great expectations, which brings great criticisms. But my goodness, Apple has beat their main competition in the UK. That's a good thing!

PookJP
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Jan 2001

0

06/15, 01:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
--> I wish I could edit

I meant, "Apple has beat their competition to the market in much of Europe."

There there.

finknottle
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Aug 2000

0

06/15, 01:39pm | report spam | close Reply |
Daft

This is bull that you the rest of europe has to wait still longer. And for the guy who buys in HMV.... WHY??? Amazon or CD-wow are 20-50% cheaper than HMV....
Same argument applies in the end however. Why pay more ofr a .mp4 file when you can get the CD for the same or less.

stefbystef
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2001

0

06/15, 01:43pm | report spam | close Reply |
Well...

I am Greek, living and working in Germany. So let's say if the Greek iTunes Music Store launches in October (which I highly doubt), I would't be able to purchase any greek music from Germany, unless I go and get a cretit card in Greece.

I hope that Apple will integrate other Payment methods like PayPal for example.

Also, everybody should be able to buy music from other european countries.

Call it iTunes Music Store Tourism. :P

Stefanos

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

06/15, 02:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
Radiohead

You people make it sound like Apple is keeping Radiohead off its stores. Did it ever occur to you that Radiohead is one of those artists who believe in the whole creativity thing (or whatever) and don't want people buying their music on-line, track by track???

As for springsteen, there's a real greedy piece of work. All his stuff on the iTMS is by song only. Don't be thinking you're going to get any album discounts from him, he and his band are just struggling by...

Frogmella
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2001

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06/15, 04:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
UK pricing

�0.99 is 77p when you add VAT (aka sales tax). So, 2p difference.

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