Try living in Australia :P

We don't get any of the US store content - no movies, no TV shows, and far too many of the album links don't work either.

Posted by: Spyder on April 10, 2007 06:30 AM

It is artifical market segregation by location, and appears to be done purely for commercial purposes - i.e. greed.

They do it in Europe too (charging more in the UK than other European countries for the same tracks), although this is apparently in contravention of EU laws on open markets. People are beginning to realise this and starting to complain, so hopefully the courts will solve the problem eventually - in our little corner of the world, at least.

Posted by: Zild on April 10, 2007 06:57 AM

There's actually a fairly decent selection of jpop available in the US store. Not everything, and a bit light on the jrock, but more than I ever expected to be able to buy from a US retailer.

Posted by: Alice Lee on April 10, 2007 08:33 AM

You all think that's bad - try being in a market that doesn't even HAVE a local version of iTunes. Not only can you not even download local stuff, you can't even get a damned account.

Posted by: Tetsuo on April 10, 2007 10:48 AM

It's not some mad conspiracy. It's mainly an issue of distribution rights. Apple can't sell Japanese music in regions they don't have the distribution rights for. I've seen the same thing just between the US and Canada where a Canadien artist is under one label in Canada and under a different one in the US. It gets even worse for movie and TV content as the parties involved in production are much larger, thus negotiations are much more convoluted and complex.

Posted by: archie4oz on April 10, 2007 11:33 AM

Dangit, even the workaround is a bit much for what I wanted. I just need one song from the J-Tunes, because it's not on the American release of the album. :(

Posted by: bowler on April 11, 2007 08:41 AM

It's sort of like the region encoding for video games. Hopefully, we'll realize someday that we're all actually on one planet.

Check out Super Junky Monkey, if you get a chance. They rock. I'll bring a CD to you next time I see you.

Posted by: randomlife on April 11, 2007 09:31 PM

Hi, in case it helps anyone, I have Japanese iTunes cards (1500 yen)for sale on eBay starting at $14.00; the title of the listing is
'Japan iTunes 1500 Yen Card, Free Digital Delivery' ,
listed in category: Music > Digital Music Downloads > Other ;

Posted by: jjackallenn on May 2, 2007 09:21 PM

Hi Jane,

Not only is this backward, it is actually illegal, since, due to exchange rates, users who want to 'buy from abroad' are restricted from doing so.
The European Court has found this to be contravening consumer rights, and fined Apple Inc, and it's wholly owned subsidiary, Itunes, which is based in Luxembourg.
Apple claim that this was because of a clause in it's contract with one of the big four record companies, EMI. I've seen the contract, and yes, EMI forced Apple's hand in this matter.
So EMI got fined too.

I know this because I actually worked on the appeal case on behalf of one of the companies but this information is also in the publlic domain.

Anyway, the main thing is, expect this cross-border restriction to disappear any day now.

You're welcome.

Posted by: xiaoda on May 16, 2007 03:09 PM

The EU have already found this to be illegal. Expect it to change any day now.

Posted by: xiaoda on May 16, 2007 03:16 PM