iTunes Music Store Canada... Soon? [Updated]
According to the reply from David Basskin, CMRRA's President, licensing issues have indeed kept Apple from launching iTunes Canada, but the wheels are now in motion:
- I'm happy to say that the process of negotiating a licensing deal with Apple is now under way. I met last week with representatives of the company, and I'm confident that our discussions will move ahead quickly. Last week, Steve Jobs told me that Apple couldn't wait to come to Canada, and that it was a very high priority for him. I trust that this enthusiasm will be reflected in a quick and mutually successful negotiation.
Recent emails from the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) have reported that they, however, have not been contacted yet by Apple (as of last week).
Apple's iTunes Music Store launched for the Mac in April and for Windows last week. The service is currently limited to customers in the United States. Meanwhile, the most recent target date for iTunes Europe is rumored to be May 2004.
Update: David Basskin provides some clarification about the role of the CMRRA in the comments:
- Our company represents music publishers (and the songwriters they represent) and we will be licensing Apple in order to authorize them to make and sell reproductions of our clients' songs. Apple will make separate arrangements with the record labels for the use of their recordings.
And invites any further questions on the CMRRA at their Ask a Question page.
Top Rated Comments
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Although I'm always dubious of the executive "blowing smoke" factor (iTunes for Canada is a "top priority?" Right behind the other 40,000 top priorities, perhaps...), this does sound like a step in the right direction for we Canadian music fans.
I read a post somewhere suggesting that Gift Certificates would work internationally. Haven't tried it out yet, but if we get the real thing here soon, that's even better. Go Apple!
*watches as the sarcasm detectors start buzzing and flashing*
I'm actually pretty glad... then there should be a few less complaints in the forums (not that they aren't valid).
Now that they've gotten the WinTunes store out of the gate and off to a roaring start (aside from a couple of key issues), I strongly suspect that the rest will follow *very* quickly.
Originally posted by bignumbers
Oh, Steve will be thrilled to see this. He had a private negotiation with someone, and that someone (David Basskin, CMRRA's President) gossips about it. Yeah, just how to get on Steve's good side...
I hadn't thought about that, but you bring up a good point. I wonder for how long the whole of Canada will be ex-communicated from all Apple products for this?
Hmmmm.... and just when it seemed the company had forgiven and forgot over that whole spec leak by (Canadian company) ATi....
Originally posted by jholzner
Once Apple gets this thing up and running Canada and Eurpore 1,000,000 downloads in 3.5 days will look like squat comparted to what they will be getting.
Rollout in Europe will make it available to a nice big population (although since there are licensing issues for each country, I don't know whether they'll be able to roll it out to all of Europe at once), but given that the population of Canada is only a small fraction of the U.S. population, I don't think the Canadian rollout will have much of an impact.
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