As noted by 9to5Mac, Apple has turned on its iTunes Match service in Hungary and Poland today. Notably, the additions appear to make the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden the only ones of the over 60 countries in which Apple offers music through the iTunes Store to not have access to iTunes Match.
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iTunes Match is Apple's subscription service that allows users to access their entire music libraries from a variety of Internet-connected devices via the cloud. Users' music libraries are matched to the iTunes Music Store catalog to quickly make many tracks available for download, with unmatched tracks being uploaded to Apple's servers. iTunes Match is priced at €24.99 annually in Hungary and Poland, the same as in other Euro countries.
Top Rated Comments
Yes, I would sign up instantly.
Strange that the nordic countries always is low priority.
Sure, we're not that many people but we have more or less the worlds best internet connections, both wired and 3G/4G and many early adopters.
This is interesting! I have been listening to music extensively for more than 30 years, and have developed quite a critical opinion on the record industry here, blaming them for being too passive about the modern, technological development. I honestly thought that copyright organizations and the record industry together were stalling the launch of iTunes Match. HOWEVER; curiously enough, it turns out that apparently Apple is stalling this one. For reasons unknown... In a recent correspondence I had with the danish record industry organization, they told me that they would love to see a launch of iTunes Match. I wonder what is keeping Apple from it...
You're probably right. It's just frustrating :/
I don't think Scandinavia is a low priority, as generally they have small but strong economies. I am guessing the real issue relates more so to ownership rights and questions of if this apple model would devalue the current model.