Apple Computer and PayPal today announced that US citizens can now use their PayPal account to buy music on the iTunes Music Store. The first 500,00 customers to open a new iTunes Music Store account using PayPal as their method of payment will receive 5 free songs.
However, this offer is only open to US citizens. It is not known if it will be expanded in the future.
After a long wait, Apple have finally made their iTunes Music Store available to customers in Canada. In a statement released to MacWorld, Apple admitted that they had missed their intended release date within the month of November. No reason for the delay was given.
Having said that … happy shopping!
Rumours are circulating that the iTunes Music Store will open for business in Canada tomorrow. “The iTunes Music Store is not available in your country yet” message has appeared for many users trying to access the iTunes Music Store from Canada.
The exact same message appeared for users in newly added European countries the day before iTMS was officially released.
Microsoft launched MSN Music in 8 new European countries, further expanding it’s number of potential customers and going toe-to-toe with the iTunes Music Store.
“If you take all the new countries, we expect to overtake iTunes very soon because we will have a larger user base to tap”, said Arndt Salzburg who represents Microsoft. He also stated that MSN Music is now a profitable business, but declined to comment on just how profitable it is.
Does this spell the end for iTunes? Will Microsoft take control? Don’t think so.
After urging users of iTunes 4.2 trying to access iTunes Music Store to upgrade to a newer version, Apple have now discontinued support of iTunes 4.2 with the iTunes Music Store. While iTunes 4.2 is still perfectly capable of playing songs, those still using this version will have to upgrade in order to access the store.
Not everyone has total freedom to purchase at will on the iTunes Music Store. With so many songs to choose from, it would be handy to make your own wishlist of music you want for future purchase.
Music sales on Apple’s iTunes Music Store have remained strong according to NPD, a global sales and marketing research group.
“Nearly 70 percent of music files downloaded legally between December 2003 and July 2004 were downloaded from iTunes. Napster’s share for the same time period was 11 percent, while MusicMatch, RealNetworks and Wal-Mart each reached a six percent share.”
Along with the new iPod Photo and special edition U2 iPod, Apple have expanded the industry leading iTunes Music Store into Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Songs cost .99 Euros each.
For all those in Canada who cannot wait for iTMS to be introduced, Apple today announced that the iTMS will be available in Canada in November. In his keynote, Steve said that the delay was due to complications with licensing.