For those of you waiting for an iTMS outside of the US...

Ricky

Ricky

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From Apple's quarterly SEC filing...
Apple said iTunes faces "increasing competition" from other digital music services, free peer-to-peer music services, and larger companies that may have "greater resources, including technical and marketing resources, and supplier relationships." The company said failure to effectively compete could negatively affect its bottom line. "There can be no assurance that [we] will be able to provide products and services that effectively compete in these markets or successfully distribute and sell digital music outside the U.S."
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Full report here. http://www.macminute.com/2004/05/07/10q
 
You have to be kidding. I think that would irrevocably damage my faith in Apple. I've had issues with certain aspects of their development for a while now, mostly little doubts that have started to gnaw away at my love for them, such as the recent 'rumoured' tie-in with 'Starbucks' amongst others, but this would be the straw that breaks the dromedary.
 
gigapet said:
You have to be kidding. I think that would irrevocably damage my faith in Apple. I've had issues with certain aspects of their development for a while now, mostly little doubts that have started to gnaw away at my love for them, such as the recent 'rumoured' tie-in with 'Starbucks' amongst others, but this would be the straw that breaks the dromedary.
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Oh, nothing of the sort. It is my understanding that a 10-Q filing is required of public corporations to ensure disclosure of the opportunities and challenges which face them. From what I can see, Apple is stating the obvious. Having anticipated these challenges, you can be sure that Apple has developed strategies and plans to meet them.

Bottomline: Grow up.
 
I understand that there are a lot of problems with a pan-European iTunes store, but It boggles my mind why they haven't opened stores in less problematic countries. Australia, for example, is, well, one country, and traditionally easier to work with in this area than the US. And for cripes sake, why not in Canada??
 
Indeed Ripcord why not in Canada?I know they could count on me to buy songs from the "store".But can you imagine all the red tape there must be to negotiate all those contracts between the record companies.:(
 
And you must remember that Ripcord is also from 'down under' :D

I don't personally use the Music Store, but I hope they get it out in other countries soon, because you can be betting their competitors will.
 
We already have a "store" as such up here it's called puretracks.com. But it's only Win Media Player, sooooo it's not worth the effort!
 
Even though you can convert WMA to AAC now?
I personally wish Apple would offer an optional higher bitrate on the downloads.
 
You can only convert non-protected WMAs to AAC. Chances are if it came from a music store (Walmart, Napster, etc..) there is some kind of DRM or protection on there, and iTunes won't be able to convert it.

Most likely they're dragging their feet because the numbers they have (predictions) say it wouldn't make sense to open a store in Xxxxxxx country without doing it in Dddddd and Hhhhhhh at the same time. Since Hhhhhhh is causing problems, the other countries are getting the shaft.

Doesn't Canada have the same screw-ball kinda tax like France has on digital devices and files/media? [screw-ball kinda tax = idea of taxing HDs, CDs, etc. to prevent or fill gap of profit loss due to file trading]
 
mdnky said:
Doesn't Canada have the same screw-ball kinda tax like France has on digital devices and files/media? [screw-ball kinda tax = idea of taxing HDs, CDs, etc. to prevent or fill gap of profit loss due to file trading]
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Oh we sure do have a screwball taxes here try 15 % on for size! :mad:
 
Why do people blame Apple when it's the lawyers for the music companies in each individual company that are dragging their feet?

Rather than bash Apple, send a polite but nasty e-mail to various record companies and law firms that represent them in your country. And then send an e-mail to your legislator(s) and complain to them that the lawyers are keeping you from enjoying legal music. Get your friends to do the same.
 
Bah, I think the IRAA and it's cohorts are like the big kid that no body likes, but can't really do anything about. I wonder if they really are doing it all for vast profits, like everyone thinks, or whether they've made too much out of nothing and are now stuck with too little to go around :(
 
mdnky said:
You can only convert non-protected WMAs to AAC. Chances are if it came from a music store (Walmart, Napster, etc..) there is some kind of DRM or protection on there, and iTunes won't be able to convert it.
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Yeah! and if you have lots of Mp3's/wma's and a version lower that win media play 9 iTunes 4.5 asks you to upload to that version or better. The broblem is that when you do, Wmp9 automaticly protects all the 1000's of Mp3's/wma's you had to its DRM thus iTunes cant convert them, what a blast, and a waist of programing affort.

I dont use Wmp9 ever, is there a way to unprotect your songs?
 
markceltic said:
I'm glad you can feel my pain :D
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Kinda gives me the impression that the Canadian government should be classified in the same group as those execs from Enron, Worldcom, etc...

Do they try to impose that on items acquired off E-Bay by chance?



Quicksilver said:
Wmp9 automaticly protects all the 1000's of Mp3's/wma's you had to its DRM thus iTunes cant convert them, what a blast, and a waist of programing affort. I dont use Wmp9 ever, is there a way to unprotect your songs?
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Never seen that happen before. I just finished updating the beige with a fresh install of everything, including WMP9 (had a few pesky vids provided by clients to review) and it left all the imported MP3s I had alone. I don't see how it could convert them without prompting you to save the conversion first. If it did, M4 would receive a very nasty letter from an attorney...that's for sure. Are you talking about when you install WMP9, or when you try to convert through iTunes?

I just converted 2 classical tracks from the WMA format (samples included with XP) for my dad and it worked beautifully. The only time the DRM should be an issue is if you downloaded the file from a source which uses the DRM feature, namely Walmart or Napster, etc.
 
Canada's store should be up and operational by August. I think they are going after population centers. America 280 million, Germany 90 million, France 80 million, England 50 million, Canada 35 million, rest of EU 300 million... I was somewhat surprised that they didn't have a separate Spanish store though... not sure when Australia will be getting since they only have 20 or so million...but it really depends on where all the ipods are.
 
You say that with confidence mi5moav!About the Canadian store being up & running by August.Do you have an inside source by any chance?
 
You'd just think that the Canadian market would be an "easy-entry" with the fairly well-established contracts with record companies just to the south. Is the Canadian equivalent of the RIAA that much different that Apple can't just say "hey, we'd like to extend the store to the 30M Canadians"?

...Just seems like an easy place to extend the existing market by 10% or so...
 
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