[HOM]

So those of you in the UK, France, and Germany awoke this morning to the wonderful world of the iTunes Music Store. The blurb from MacMinute:

Apple today officially launched its iTunes Music Store in the UK, France and Germany giving music fans there the same large online catalogue, a la carte pricing, free previews, one-click purchasing and downloading, and more that have made iTunes the number one online music service in the world. As expected, the songs are priced at 79p/ó0.99 each, with albums starting at £7.99/ó9.99 -- a catalog of over 700,000 songs is available. Apple also announced today that it will launch a European Union version of the iTunes Music Store in October of this year.æ

Seems to this uneducated eye that the prices are higher in Europe than the US, but I'm not sure if that includes VAT or not. Also, Apple and AOL continue their music alliance in Europe with the AOL Music channels pushing people to iTMS and allowing people to use their AOL Wallet for iTMS purchases.

What do our European members think of today's announcement?

[Quagmire]

Apple how about Canada!!!

[HOM]

Canada is different. Seeing as Napster isn't available in Canada yet either I would bet the Canadian RIAA is holding up the releases.

Now I'm pissed.

The new Beastie Boys albums is E 9.99, but $14.85 in the states. What the fuck is up with that? A note about the links. In order to view the albums in iTunes, you must be in the German store for the first link and the US store for the second link. To change your store settings, go to the bottom of the iTMS homepage and select from the pop up menu.

And of this post, it looks like only one song has been bought at the German store.

[Mac+]

Well, we're still waiting for iTMS downunder ... but I fear we'll have a while yet. ( & )

[Wickers]

Yah what about Canada! (and why does quag care?)

[SilentEchoes]

I'm just glad that Apple has released the iTMS in countries other than the US. I haven't heard much about it lately I was beginning to worry that it would just fade away like every other chance Apple has had in the past.

Lets just hope it can keep its market share going.

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by \/\/ickes Yah what about Canada! (and why does quag care?)

Because I am a very caring person.

[DMBand0026]

Originally Posted by \/\/ickes Yah what about Canada! (and why does quag care?)

Because he's a bandwagon closet spec whore.

And I mean that in the nicest way possible.

[Paul]

anyone else noticing slow loading times on the iTMS lately?

[SonOfSylvanus]

Yay! 79p That's a lot better than I was expecting. I was dreading 99p. Just got back to broadband so I can check out all the new iTMS goodness... brb

[jimdad]

Yeah, 79p will do for me. Still trying to get over the sight of Steve Jobs on British soil. Good coverage on Sky News today. Even heard the kids talking about it at the school where I teach this afternoon. News travels quickly.

[HOM]

That 700,000 song mark that MacMinute reported, well, Apple seems to be playing with numbers again. The MacObserver is reporting that the 700K number is a cumulative total for all of the three stores European stores. The UK store is the largest with 300-400K songs. Numbers for France and Germany were not mentioned. Napster claims on their site to offer over 500K songs, but there is, naturally, no break down of what is buyable and what is only available to subscription.

The US store is going to break 1 million tracks by the end of the year, we could have 3x as many songs as our EU counterparts.

:wow:

[SonOfSylvanus]

There is no D12 on the UK store.

[Wickers]

Originally Posted by SonOfSylvanus There is no D12 on the UK store.

Sounds like the UK store has some taste.

[Gargoyle]

UK iTMS is down.

[SonOfSylvanus]

Originally Posted by \/\/ickes Sounds like the UK store has some taste.

Bitch

[Wickers]

Originally Posted by SonOfSylvanus Bitch

At least you got the capital 'B' part right.

But jokes aside. . . is D12 in the American store?

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by \/\/ickes At least you got the capital 'B' part right. But jokes aside. . . is D12 in the American store?

Yes, D12 is in the American store.

[HOM]

Apple has posted the QT stream of the European launch of iTMS.

Gonna watch it now. I need a hit of RDF.