p2pnet - rss feed: Apple iTunes in Oz
p2p news view / p2pnet: This week the Apple iTunes service was launched in Australia. The Australian service is the 21st, which is interesting given that Australia is the 9th largest market for recorded music in the world.
While I wouldn’t use the word “afterthought,” I was keen to see the media coverage associated with the launch. Anyway, most of the mainstream coverage was resoundingly positive … even gushing. Reportedly, journos attending the launch received a $20 iTunes Music Store free card and a free iPod Nano.
Of course, I’m certain the positive coverage and presents are unrelated.
In any event, Apple’s iPod is expected to be Australia’s #1 Xmas present for the second consecutive year. The Australian music industry certainly seems to be crowing about the iPod. Yet ironically, the iPod does not come with any music already pre-loaded onto its system. So, where can Oz consumers get music to populate an iPod?
Really, there are only two available choices.
Either consumers must obtain their music from Apple’s new Oz iTunes service, or they must potentially breach the copyright of Apple and the record companies by getting it from elsewhere.
Despite a long running incomplete Federal Government enquiry, under current Australian law consumers can’t still can’t legally rip the CDs they’ve purchased, and convert them into iPod compatible digital music files. “What … how is this possible?” - I hear you ask, given that Australia has a Free Trade Agreement with the US where these fair use principles are entrenched into copyright law? Weren’t Australian and US laws supposed to be harmonised or something? Good questions … and with apologies to Mr Marley, we’re still waiting for the answers.
Australians can’t even buy digital music files from a non-Apple related provider (like Ninemsn, Bigpond and Destra) and play them on their iPod without breaching the copyright attached to Apple’s proprietary system. [Of course, they CAN purchase the digital music from the non-Apple related provider, burn it onto CD, lose a generation of sound quality and then rip it. Phew!]
So, Australian consumers have two choices: spend their money at Apple’s iTunes or risk being branded a copyright infringer … a pirate.
Technology was supposed to make music more freely available to the wider community. It was supposed to inspire musical democracy, freedom of choice, and a fairer go for independent record companies.
Instead, we have Australia’s most popular piece of commercial musical hardware being supported by a single, limited service. Just when did the Australian public agree to this new monopoly?
Described in some recording industry circles as “half a service”, iTunes is missing Sony/BMG’s repertoire. Reportedly, Apple and Sony/BMG are fighting a turf war over platforms and pricing. This battle represents a continuation of a battle that has been waged in Japan, Italy and elsewhere. There also seem to be significant gaps in back catalogue on the iTunes service. Some of the indies are there, but many are not.
Prices for individual tracks on the Oz iTunes service are high - individual tracks cost $1.69 each. Albums are $16.99. After converting to US currency, Oz prices are about 30% higher than in the US. Obviously, the difference is greater when Oz iTunes is compared to Walmart’s US service. There is no discernible reason for this price differential, other than the desire of record companies to maximise their margins.
Aussie iPod owners may find that if they can’t find their desired song on iTunes, they effectively can’t legally have the track on their iPod! In effect, a group of techno geeks at Apple are deciding what music consumers can and can’t have on their iPod, and they’re doing this by deciding what music they will and won’t license for iTunes.
No license … no upload … no iTunes. Sounds like a monopoly to me!
One of the reasons for the popularity of p2p file sharing systems such as Kazaa was consumers wanted to control their music. They were tired of commercial radio stations and record companies telling them what they could and couldn’t listen to and purchase. Technology was supposed to free them from the controls of the majors. Well, the technology is here, and instead of major record companies from a few multinational companies deciding what music consumers CAN purchase, now the decision is being made by a single multinational company – Apple.
What qualifications does Apple have to decide what music consumers can and can’t have on their digital music player? What insurance is in place to ensure that independent Australian record companies get a “fair go” from Apple, and ensure their music is made available for iTunes users under reasonable terms?
For a long time there was no iTunes service in Australia. What guarantees do we have Apple’s lawyers won’t sue consumers who by-passed Apple’s proprietary system with “cracking technology”, and populated their iPods with music obtained from Bigpond music, Ninemsn music, or any of the other pre-iTunes authorised Australian services? How do we know the major record companies won’t join them? As a monopoly what guarantees are in place to ensure that Apple won’t hold Australian recording artists up for ransom, in order to maximise returns to their shareholders?
Before the digital revolution there were six major record companies, about thirty significant independent record companies, and hundreds of opportunities for aspiring young recording artists to have their songs heard. Now, BMG and many “indies” are gone. If you want to be successful, the good news is you only have to convince one staffer to support your music – the bad news is it’s probably going to be a technophile at Apple.
And before you take your single “shot” at success, remember he probably cares more about megabytes than melody.
The major record companies haven’t been answerable to community tastes for a long time, relying on “Idol” type shows rather than any genuine search for talent. Now they’ve ceded control to Apple. If majors like Universal and Warner are being forced to bow to Apple, what hope do small independent record companies and artists have to survive the digital age, let alone thrive? The technology based democracy has turned into a musical dictatorship, and this time consumers don’t get a vote.
Alex Malik
[Malik is a lawyer, music industry commentator and academic researcher at the University of Technology in Sydney.]
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October 30th, 2005 at 1:07 am
You’re an idiot mate!
October 30th, 2005 at 1:43 am
Downloads on iTunes should be free paid for by advertising
October 30th, 2005 at 8:22 am
Based on what you say… “Under current Australian law consumers can’t still can’t legally rip the CDs they’ve purchased”… then it’s not Apple’s fault that the only way you can get music for an iPod is through iTunes Store… The fault is in the local laws in Australia.
And even if the “labels” are preventing it there, it’s still not Apple’s fault.
As for all this “monopoly” drivel, where “instead of major record companies from a few multinational companies deciding what music consumers CAN purchase, now the decision is being made by a single multinational company – Apple.”… That’s nonsense… Just because they sell music, it doesn’t mean they have some commitment to sell “all the music ever recorded in the world”. It’s not Apple’s fault that you’re not allowed to rip a CD into your iPod.
You say consumers don’t have a vote? Bull. You elect your lawmakers there, don’t you? Let them know what you want.
Jeez.
October 30th, 2005 at 11:43 am
which makes you sound fairly intelligent too… you fool.
October 30th, 2005 at 11:51 am
What really makes things sad is the fact that Ipods are technically some of the most inept and overpriced portable MP3 devices on the market.
Just like most Apple products, it’s not what you think.
Do yourselves a favour and read the technical details for your MP3 player before purchasing as there are better alternatives. Don’t get sucked into Apple’s marketing jive. If you want to join the crowd sporting an Ipod as a fashion accessory, well good for you… *cough cough* sucker.
October 30th, 2005 at 8:13 pm
I presume that you have some deep technical understanding to justify your “inept” comment, but the fact is, iPods have won in the marketplace - so get over it.
And the reason they have won is nothing to do with bits or ICs or anything technical at all. They have won because of what Apple has ALWAYS been best at - the user interface, in this case, the click wheel. Being able to control the selection and playback of thousands of songs intuitively with one thumb on one control is what started the people flocking to the iPod, and it’s what keeps them coming back. The other player manufacturers just don’t get it - and you don’t either.
October 30th, 2005 at 9:30 pm
Consumers dont have a vote??? Who buys the music from the iTMS?? Consumers… It is their purchases that makes the iTMS a monopoly. If consumers decide they dont want apple to have that power, they will stop buying from their store. It is only the consumers who have the power, not Apple.
Are you accusing apple of limiting choices by opening the iTMS in australia? Well, even before it was opened, ipods were teh most popular digital player in australia. So obviously users had found some way to enjoy them. Now they have another option, in the iTMS. And yes, options = choices.
October 31st, 2005 at 3:02 am
> “You say consumers don’t have a vote? Bull. You elect your lawmakers there, don’t you?
> Let them know what you want.”
Definitely a great concept in theory, but difficult in practice. All year the Australian Government has been running an enquiry which may or may not lead to consumers being legally able to make copies of CDs they bought. I and many others put in submissions which suggested that the Government should introduce these fair use exemptions under our Copyright law. So far the response has been silence. The Fed Govt didn’t even publish submissions. I mean how many times does the recording industry want us to buy the same sound recording? 1 for the home, 1 for the car, 1 for the digital music player?
> “Well, even before it was opened, ipods were teh (sic) most popular digital player in australia. So obviously users had found some way to enjoy them. Now they have another option, in the iTMS. And yes, options = choices.”
The point is there are always choices. Anyone can rip a CD, or hit a P2P site to download a track if that’s what they want to do. What I am talking about is legal choices for Australian consumers who are willing and able to pay for their music. The last thing anyone would want to see is the copyright police inspecting kids’ iPods to see if the music on the iPods was legitimately obtained. And before you dismiss this idea as absurd, this is the same industry that sued a 12 year old girl not so long ago. in the US!
Apple’s iPod may or may not be a good product. Don’t know. Don’t care. Don’t plan to buy one! The problem arises when there is only 1 way to obtain music legally to service the demand for iPod content in Australia. While laws may be different in the US and Canada, that is the situation in Australia, and that fits the definition of a monopoly position. That places a great deal of power in the hands of Apple’s execs. And where there is great power … well you know the rest.
Alex
October 31st, 2005 at 5:16 am
Very well written and informative, and I cannot argue with the facts. In antitrust law parlance, Apple has garned a “tying agreement” of the sort that was outlawed when IBM required computing departments to buy IBM-brand punch-cards for inputting programs. Tying agreements leverage a market advantage in one field into a separate advantage in another field where competition should be equalized rather than biased toward existing businesses. That’s the hazard of mass marketing, which aggreggates without discrimination especially at the front end of a technological innovation. But why don’t Australians buy non-Apple MP3 players? Something magical about the Apple name? Are Australians very sheeplike about the music technology?
October 31st, 2005 at 9:21 am
Well i’ll be voting with my wallet, and the vote is: No.
The vast majority of music i listen to is nonenglish metal, you really think i could get that on itunes? Or the others? Or even in my local oz music store? LOL yeah right! I’d probly buy it if they gave me the chance to, there was no drm, it wasn’t crappy mp3, but that just ain’t gonna happen.
Not until certain orga…obstacles, are removed at least.
The scariest thing about itunes is i havent heard of anyone actually trying to bring down the servers, or even deface the website? Are the l33t h4×0r crowd actually buying ipods and paying for tracks on itunes???? Omg! Please, say it isn’t so!
October 31st, 2005 at 12:19 pm
Yeah, i’ll substitute a friggin wheel for features and quality anyday.. NOT.