Tuesday, January 03, 2006

The Canadian itunes music store sucks

Hey everyone, You're probably wondering why I didn't blog much in December. Well, frankly, not much really pissed me off in December. It's Christmas. However, here's something that really has pissed me off lately. Since I am a Mac user, I use iTunes a lot. When the iTMS was introduced, I was excited to browse through all of the exclusives and there were a lot of good songs in there. One particular song was Less Than Jake - History of A Boring Town Acoustic Version. The Acoustic Version of what has been for several years, and is, my favorite song of all time. If you have not heard of this song, go download it. It's part of the album Hello Rockview. I vowed that once the iTunes music store came to Canada, I would buy that song. When the Canadian Music Store finally came, I was hit with a different problem. No credit card. I couldn't convince my parents to use theirs but they said eventually we'd sign up. So I decide to hold off. When I check the music store in Canada, I see to my dismay that they no longer have Less Than Jake - History of A Boring Town Acoustic Version. I lose interest in the store. I see a few other exclusives I'm interested in - Sum41 and Yellowcard, and keep them in mind. Just recently, we signed up to the iTunes music store. I was browsing through the music in this store when a thought suddenly occurs to me: what if the Less Than Jake song is only available on the American store? So I go check. Yes, it's right there. The song I want. Just out of reach. And There's no possible way to get it. As the end-user licensing agreement states: Purchases from the iTunes Music Store are available only in the United States and are not available in any other location. You agree not to use or attempt to use the service from outside of the available territory. Apple may use technologies to verify such compliance. In other words, screw you. But here's the crazy part. When I remember about the Yellowcard and Sum41 tracks on the Canadian Music Store, I look for the tracks and see that they're gone! They have actually been taken offline of the store. This is stupid. SUM41 IS A CANADIAN BAND!!! And yet, they're still online. On the American store. So how many exclusives DOES the Canadian itunes music store have at this point? I decided to try something: Search for the term "itunes exclusive" in the American store and then the Canadian store. American Store: 79 album results Canadian Store: 34 album results And that doesn't even begin to encompass most of the exclusives. For example. The three exclusives I was looking for above- Sum 41, Yellowcard, and Less Than Jake, did not even fall under the search "itunes exclusive" Is there a reason why itunes is like this? Is Apple encouraging piracy in Canada? That is a long shot, but it is interesting to note that Canada doesn't have a DMCA like the states and downloading (as far as I know) is perfectly legal here. Might the only way I am able to get this song is through piracy? There's another thing about the Canadian iTunes music store which is completely and utterly retarded. I'm sure you've heard of this thing called the iPod Video. Well, recently, the iPod video was released, and in the American iTunes Music Store, you could download TV Shows, Music Videos, and Pixar Shorts. Up here, no TV Shows for us. All of us Canadians should bind together and form a protest group called "iTunes sucks, eh?" I salute you all.

9 comments:

T3h mini said...

oi! Screw you!

Anonymous said...

The reason? Probably the same reason why the Swedish iTunes store suck. The record labels can not realize that there should not be any national borders on the Internet. As long as they do not realize how to adress a global marketplace, some countries will be less prioritized. I have also found that some Swedish bands available in other iTMS than the Swedish one, and still they are not available in Sweden. Why? Because they are one different labels, or sub-labels in different countries.

The most silly thing about it is that I can order a cd from USA, or any other country, and get it delivered to my home in Sweden and pay via Internet, however using iTunes this is not allowed.

Anonymous said...

the australian itms sucks like that also

Anonymous said...

I am also an iTunes user and am really annoyed by the fact that I can't purchase the music I like because I can only purchase from the Canadian store. Does Apple think that Americans and Canadians don't listen to the same music? Things better change cause it's really not fair.

Anonymous said...

your right this is reeeeeeeally retarted...i wanna download machine head, by deep purple...cant do it...ONE OF THE PIONEER ROCK ALBUMS AND I CANT DOWNLOAD IT??!?!!?! wow good move itunes, maybe youll get some more money by NOT puting music to canadians. i mean cmon we dont ALL live in igloos, MOST of us have computers.

Anonymous said...

I would like to buy American television shows, but since I live in Canada this is not available to me. Apple's missing out on a huge market up here, you'd think they'd grow some brain cells already. I am furious that I can't download the same music, tv, and movies Americans can...and yet the companies that regulate distribution want people to stop downloading stuff for free. Well, here's a clue, give us the opportunity to buy your shit and maybe you'll see more profit.

ASSHOLES!

Anonymous said...

agreed with the guy above me, DUMBASSES!

Anonymous said...

K i read about the major itunes suckage after i had planned to purchase tv shows from the US store (and faied miserably). when i went to itunes.com of whatever the web page was called, i filed a complaint. the response i recieved was to wait "Apple is constantly expanding the iTunes Store's catalog for each country"... ya, thanks for nothing itunes!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I-tunes Canada still don't have Machinehead by Deep Purple. They also don't have the remix/ remaster of Genesis' Trespass, just the original and no copy of their Lamb Lies Down on Broadway album at all, inexcuseable, and the '67 - '75 boxset is incomplete. They also don't have Tom Petty's Playback boxed set or at least some way to get all his single b-sides (there's a lot of them.)

I-tunes could also be doing WAY more in the way of exclusive content.