iTunes Canada launch
p2pnet.net News:- Relatively speaking, very few people are willing to spend good money – very good money at $1 per – to download an mp3 file from iTunes or any of the other corporate music sites.
99.9999% of online music lovers get their fixes either from indie music sites, or from one or other of the p2p file sharing services. Then they go and buy a CD, if they like what they hear online.
Or not, as the case may be.
So when we read that in Canada, music lovers are apparently dying for iTunes to appear, we wonder where that’s coming from (as if we didn’t know ; )
Because apart from the fact you’d have to be crazy to waste almost $C1.18 on an mp3 file of any kind, in Canada, you can download whatever you want – including everything Apple, or any of the other plastic sites can offer – without worrying about the Canada’s version of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), which is still trying to get Americans to buy ‘product’ by suing them.
Of course, the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America) owners, the Big Four music label cartel, are doing everything in their power to change that. But they’re not doing very well so far.
And while they claim they’re being devastated by file sharing, as Canadian expert Michael Geist noted recently, “careful examination of CRIA’s own numbers, along with industry data from Statistics Canada, suggests that the financial impact of music downloading on Canadian artists is greatly exaggerated”.
In the meanwhile, “Although Apple Computer Inc. had originally promised to launch its [Canadian] iTunes online music store in the first week of November – and said again late last week it would launch by the end of the month – both of those dates have come and gone.”
Like, who cares?
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See:-
greatly exaggerated – Big Music p2p stats don’t tally, p2pnet, November 29, 2004
come and gone – iTunes music store nowhere in sight, Vancouver Sun, December 1, 2004
December 1st, 2004 at 7:46 pm
Bad, p2pnet. Bad! It’s the (Canadian Recording Industry Association) NOT (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America). hehe
I see you got it in your technewsworld column too.
December 1st, 2004 at 9:03 pm
I think the CRIA has a big problem because of so many other hands in the cookie Jar. other “copyright” licenseing groups are all vying for their piece of actiona nd they all seem to contradict and overlap each other all over the place.
AVLA
CRIA
SOCAN
and I amsure there are others. I work as a mobile Disc Jockey and these people are changing thier tune it seems like daily.
One problem. AVLA insisit on selling DJ’s a licennse for digital rights. allowing us to purchase a legitamate CD. Then we need a license to still mp3 the legit CD’s to play them. Now the record companies are copy protecting the cd’s so we cannot MP3 them. So they are now defeating themselves. I buy a license and then they disable half of the releases from being used.
They then wonder why people don’t like them and don’t trust them.
December 1st, 2004 at 10:41 pm
Actually, I care and so do a whole lot of others who have been crowding discussion groups asking when the store will open. Frankly, I like the idea of getting whole songs and not just shards of songs. I also like the idea of not catching communicable commputer diseases from spyware and other crap. Finally, I think that the iTunes download total is around 200 million. That’s not bad at a buck apiece eh?
Pat
December 2nd, 2004 at 12:07 am
“Actually, I care and so do a whole lot of others who have been crowding discussion groups asking when the store will open. Frankly, I like the idea of getting whole songs and not just shards of songs. I also like the idea of not catching communicable commputer diseases from spyware and other crap. Finally, I think that the iTunes download total is around 200 million. That’s not bad at a buck apiece eh?
Pat”
Hi, my name is Pat and I am a pathetic shill for the CRIA.
Apple loses money on iTMS. Artists get their usual pittance. Most of the money goes to RIAA members.
You can download legally in Canada. Most of the time, what you download for free is of higher quality and non-DRM. You would have to be ignorant and/or stupid to pay for mp3s.
December 2nd, 2004 at 1:44 am
I care, and I’m waiting, and I WILL be buying. BTW, I found your website googling iTunes; I don’t know if I’ll be back.
Brian
December 2nd, 2004 at 2:52 am
Pat and Brian are losers. $1.18 for a single song is terrible value when you can download for free. The law makers in canada currently can’t decide weather sharing p2p music is illegal, but the laws of supply and demand clearly tell my empty pocket book to download songs for free. Long live P2P
December 2nd, 2004 at 2:54 am
“I care, and I’m waiting, and I WILL be buying. BTW, I found your website googling iTunes; I don’t know if I’ll be back.
Brian”
Brian is waiting to spend $1 per track for something he can legally download for free. Marketing has claimed another small mind.
December 2nd, 2004 at 3:03 am
I don’t think it is just marketing.
Some of us pay for convenience (or in other words I’m lazy). From within the program I use to listen to music, I can get music. Costs me about a buck. I know the ID3 tags will be right. I know what the quality is. And I can find what I want quickly.
Sure, I could use P2P for free (legally here in Canada). But my time is also worth money.
December 2nd, 2004 at 3:43 am
You know what. If I like a tune, I want to make sure that the performer and writer get paid. I like Gnutella, LimeWire etc, and will continue to use them. At the same time I’m looking forward to iTunes so that:
a) I can get good copies of Jazz and other tunes that aren’t so easy to find P2P
b) I can pay the artists for the tunes that are worth it.
There ain’t nothin’ free, except advice and that’s worth what you pay for it.
December 2nd, 2004 at 5:03 am
iTunes Canada is now online, and $.99 CDA per song….
December 2nd, 2004 at 5:58 am
I would never ever pay even a penny for a lossy (low quality) song with DRM. Besides that, my player can’t even play AAC files, something quite a few people are going to be very disappointed with once they discover their player doesn’t play the song they just happily purchased. Now if the Big Four were to open all the catalogs entirely, and sell lossless/gapless FLAC files with no DRM, I would be broke ALL THE TIME. I would buy more music just in one month than I’ve ever purchased in my entire life. Until that happens, though, I won’t be paying anything to anyone. I’m sure there are a great many who think the same as I do as well. It would be the ultimate conveniance, and that is something I don’t mind paying for at all, to be able to get anything I want, when ever I want it, and believe me there is a hell of a lot that I want. Such an option would be even better than P2P, which unfortunately is wholly dependant on what people feel like sharing. If anyone wants to see two good examples of what buying music SHOULD be like, check it out:
http://magnatune.com/
http://www.mindawn.com/
December 2nd, 2004 at 6:05 am
“iTunes Canada is now online”
No it isn’t. I just went looking for it, and don’t see anything on apple.ca at all.