AppleInsider Staff
Apple on Tuesday announced it has opened the digital doors to its iTunes Store in 56 countries, including Russia, India and Indonesia, taking the total number of markets in which the service is offered up to 119.
The near doubling of iTunes Store coverage comes hours after reports trickled in claiming that iTunes was being activated in Russia, Turkey and South Africa, with users in those countries able to purchase music and videos from Apple's online store. Apple sent out invitations on Monday saying the iTunes team would be "holding a musical evening" in Moscow on Tuesday.
While all of the 56 newly added countries will be getting access to the iTunes Music Store, only Russia, Turkey, India and Indonesia will support movie and video purchases. Apple said the service will be made "available in select additional countries," but didn't offer a specific rollout timeline.
As reported by AppleInsider on Monday, the iTunes Store will not only feature music from top U.S. acts, but will also offer tracks from local artists.
From Apple's announcement:
The iTunes Store features local artists including Elka in Russia, Sezen Aksu in Turkey, AR Rahman in India, and Zahara in South Africa, international artists including The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Coldplay, and world-renowned classical musicians including Lang Lang, Yo Yo Ma and Yuja Wang. Customers can choose from over 20 million songs available to purchase and download on the iTunes Store.
The huge rollout is evidence of Apple's continued work to expand the reach of world's largest music store by striking deals with regional music publishers and extend current licenses overseas.
Christine McKee
William Gallagher
Amber Neely
Malcolm Owen
Andrew O'Hara
19 Comments
[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/154761/apple-officially-opens-itunes-music-store-in-56-countries#post_2240939"]Apple on Tuesday announced it has opened the digital doors to its iTunes Store in 56 countries, including Russia, India and Indonesia, taking the total number of markets in which the service is offered up to 119. El snippo... While all of the 56 newly added countries will be getting access to the iTunes Music Store, only Russia, Turkey, India and Indonesia will support movie and video purchases. Apple said the service will be made "available in select additional countries," but didn't offer a specific rollout timeline.[/quote] Depends on when/whether the RIAA/MIAA let them, I suspect...
only 4,000,000 rubles to buy a song
Bollywood market is going to be huge but how's the coverage in term of population who can afford (the hardware in first instance)?
[quote name="Splash-reverse" url="/t/154761/apple-officially-opens-itunes-music-store-in-56-countries#post_2240947"]Bollywood market is going to be huge but how's the coverage in term of population who can afford (the hardware in first instance)?[/quote] Ah, well, you don't need a Mac to access iTunes. And as for the content on iTunes, $1 or $2 gets you a song or a TV show, if available in that country. According to [URL=http://www.businessinsider.com/gene-munster-apple-presentation-at-ignition-2012-11#you-may-not-hear-about-it-but-apple-is-working-hard-at-the-next-big-frontiers-in-tech-like-automated-gadgets-and-3d-printing-17]Piper Jaffray[/URL] Apple will kill iTunes/App Store in about ten years time (but he's been off before hasn't he) [IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/17228/width/500/height/1000[/IMG]
Bollywood market is going to be huge but how's the coverage in term of population who can afford (the hardware in first instance)?
Well, there are 61 Billionaires to start with.