iTunes Store does not work when you live Abroad
Today Jasper and I were talking about music and I played him a few videos on the Epitaph.com site, of which he liked "Dead American" by Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards.
I realized that I miss a bunch of my cds that are boxed up in my brother's garage, and due to time constraints last September, I did not have time to save each CD I love to my hard drive. Add on to that having to wipe the drive of my Dell Inspiron 8200 once or twice and back up stuff and then add The Silver Princess (12" Mac Powerbook) into my life, what music I had backed up doesn't necessarily play or even be recognized between computers let alone on my Nokia.
Right now my music is limited to Cheap Trick, White Stripes, Throw Rag, The Clash, and Loretta Lynn. Not a bad five-some, but limited. Now I want Lars, the Dropkicks, the Stumbleweeds, and many others. Thus my trip to iTunes this evening.
Ok, we won't talk about the fact that quite a bit of the music I look for is not on iTunes, but let's talk about I did find Lars Frederiksen's first CD, wanted to buy it, and Irish iTunes would not let me.
Yes folks, a large capitalist company would NOT let spend my money on them. Since my IP address is Irish, my credit card and address must also be Irish or I can't buy.
What the F*ck?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!
Right now Ireland has over 400,000 non-natives living in the Republic of Ireland and I imagine that many of them are like me, folks with bank accounts, permanent addresses and credit cards in non-Irish banks.
Hello, Apple, WAKEY UP-EY!!!!
Do you want my money or not? Sorry my bank is in California. Sorry my permanent banking address is in California. Sorry I am in Dublin. Hello do you want my money or not?
What the F*ck?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!
Sorry, Lars, I really do want to support you and the nice folk at Hellcat Records rather than trade illegal files, but Apple won't let me.
fstorr
Ugh, tell me about this. There's been so many things that I have wanted to buy from iTunes USA but can't because I live in the UK. Trouble is that I like plenty of artists that don't have deals in the UK but release iTunes exclusives to the American store only. It's so frustrating and I wish Apple would sort something out.
Ms. Jen
I think Apple's iTunes have different business and legal deals in each country. Ugh is right. It is very frustrating.
The question becomes is why should we buy from Apple when we can buy from any Amazon and get the product shipped to us?
From a pure purchase point of view, it is better to use Amazon. I can get it shipped anywhere in the world and I get a physical product.
With Apple it limits me in that I can't buy from an Irish IP and who knows if I could buy if the resultant iTunes could be played on my Nokia or Dell?
And to think that a classmate today told me how to mask a Peer-2-Peer illegal song transfer as http and I turned them down. I would like to buy...
fstorr
I've bought plenty of stuff from Amazom.com, .ca and even .fr when they've got what I want. I prefer the physical disc in my hand rather than an digital file with DRM and something that could conceivably vanish should my computer die. It's the iTunes download exclusives that I want from iTMS USA that I can't get. I guess it must be legal issues otherwise they'd surely have got around this by now. Quite what they are is a different matter - I can download other digital files (eg apps) from anywhere in the world without issue.
Elemmaciltur
One of my friend had this same problem with iTunes. She just gets her folks to send her these iTunes music store cards from the USA (whatever that is, but I'm sure you know it).
Josie said:
I live outside the US and I have had a US iTunes account for a while now. You just have to sign up with a US gift certificate and then you don't need a US credit card.
You can buy them from globalitunes.com. They have a setup guide here as well explaining how to do it.
Have fun!
Diemf said:
ok what if I choose as country the US and use American express but send the bills to Belgium? They can't deny American Express can they?
But what if I am able to purchase a movie from the US itunes store by changing my country to the US, will the file I download work on my Belgian computer?
Black Phoebe :: Ms. Jen
Hi Diemf,
I wrote this post 2 plus years ago when I was living in Ireland for graduate school.
As you can see from the comments here and from information that is available on the web, Apple has made the process easier and there are work arounds. I would google your questions and maybe someone has an answer for you.
The issues are really about the different laws that different companies have about music and copyright. There are some record companies that will allow their artists' music to be sold in one country but not another due to the copyright protection laws.
It is also about Apple wanting to protect their customer's credit. So in my case 2 years ago, the IP address of my computer let Apple know that the computer trying to order the music was in Ireland, but my credit card's address was the US.
One of the work arounds that I could have used, was an IP address spoofer that would have made it appear to iTunes that I was in the US. Which seemed silly to me at the time and I didn't do it.
smiles, jen ;o)
Yeti said:
Actually what Apple/iTunes are doing is illegal - under European law, any citizen in the EU, based in the EU, can buy any product from any EU country. In blocking this, Apple are breaking EU law. Anyone want to complain to their trading standards office ? (This doesn't apply if you are in the UK but want to buy from, for instance, the USA though.)