“While Apple will not comment, rumours the company will finally bring its popular iTunes Music Store to Australia are stronger than ever,” Jennifer Dudley reports for The Courier-Mail. “Actor and sometime-musician Russell Crowe gave the strongest indication the music store would be launched here before the end of the month, telling John Laws’s radio show listeners the website would host his latest solo music efforts.”
“He said the local iTunes Music Store would become available on April 28, just a day before the launch of Apple’s new operating system Tiger X, and would feature the first of his post-30 Odd Foot of Grunt songs,” Dudley reports. “He said iTunes songs would cost $1.80 (AUS) a track – pricier than the US99¢ a track offered in the US.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This story has had more than its fair share of false reports, so we’ll believe it when we see it.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Report: Apple to launch Australian iTunes Music Store by mid-June – April 10, 2005
RUMOR: Apple to launch Australian iTunes Music Store by ‘end of April’ – March 29, 2005
Report: Apple to debut Australian iTunes Music Store tomorrow – January 10, 2005
Apple Computer to launch Australian iTunes Music Store on January 12? – December 27, 2004
I’m glad Russell Crowe took time off from pumping chicks to become a reporter in the Mac rumor mill. Now get back to doing what you do best Russell…
Finally ITMS will be coming to the land down under. Though it seems a little pricey compared to some other ITMS.
Crowe should pay people to listen to 30-Odd Foot of Grunts, not the other way around.
Yeah AUS$1.29 is US$0.99
Land down under – iTMS
L D U – iTMS
Laughs: Du it MS
I believe him … at least the part about the A$ 1.80 a track, making albums to be at least $A14.9x — not much of a bargain. This could be a tease, of course:
US$ 0.99 / (0.8 US$/A$) =$A 1.24
+ 10% GST = $A 1.35
+ 15% for Apple Australia = $A 1.56
How far off could it be? $A 1.50 a track would be the sweet spot, but I think the crow is right.
M/W: Coming.
Ahhh, just noticed that it said “post” 30-Odd music. Here’s hoping his solo material is an improvement over his old band’s, although I won’t exactly be holding my breath.
What’s the comment about “pumping chicks” about?
You see Canuck, when a man and woman love each other very much…
…when a man and woman LIKE each other enough…
Russ played in our school in New Zealand (he’s a Kiwi but spent more time in OZ) a few times as a teenager. He called himself “Russ Le Roq” and sang his song “I want to be like Marlon Brando”. Dropped out of high school to pursue a rock career actually. Acting came later with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (another kiwi creation). iTunes New Zealand would be more interesting musically to me than iTunes Australia (not that anyone can purchase tracks if you live outside of all of these zones anyway, which is frustrating and unfortunate). Maybe iTunes NZ is not economically as great, but there’s an astonishing amount of talent in that small country, heavily supported by the Prime Minister and her government!
well his stuff has already been added to the US iTMS, so I expect its true that they would be in the Australian version, if and when it goes live.
Hey, I wanna see Jobs and Crowe fight it out now that Russ’s spilled the beans.
I know who’ll come out worse off if it’s a fist fight.
notatotalsucker,
They could always have a pissing contest.
‘Pumping chicks’, what’s he got that I don’t?
Speaking of pumping chicks.. Jennifer Connely, from a beautiful mind.. got her big break in the Labrynth…
lmfao..
so is steve gonna sue his ass now?
$15 to download an album? Forget that! Here in Australia I can buy most new releases on CD for $20. Apple has to do better than $1.8 per track if they want me to buy from them.
So Steve Jobs, you want me to use your download service which I’ve been waiting for for years. Then you want me to pay $AUS1.80 per track and then have the privilege of listening to the downloaded product at 128kbps which sounds like mud. Yeah right mate!!!
I took Apple’s advice and ripped 80 cds at the same rate and had to redo them. That was fun. Then I used the US service (I won’t say how) to test the quality of the download and it also sounded like mud.
Actually it was just better than pre-recorded cassettes (remember those abominations).
I’ve used macs for 12 years because they are a quality product. I love the operating system because it’s fun and easy to use.
You now want to use an inferior product; that sounds like buying a windows machine. No bloody way.
To be fair the word from the industry is that Apple was forced to accept the lower bit rate from the record companies because they didn’t want to lose cd sales. (Both my wife and me are ex music industry.)
ITMS downloaded material is not near cd quality and won’t be until the download is at least 160kbps.
Once bitten twice shy. I’m twice bitten and four times shy!!!!
Hang on a second Bikerrules. The quality of DRM AAC files is not as bad as you say; Apple-encoded 128 kbs files sound the same as user encoded 160 kbs files due to superior encoding tools and Apple using master tapes as the source material. It may not be CD-quality to your ears but it is a lot closer than WMA or Real files at the same bit-rates. Anyway, Apple was not forced to use one quality setting because of CD sales concerns; their decision to use 128 kbs AAC was a compromise between file size and quality.
Having said that, $1.8 would be too expensive, especially for a Russell Crowe track. The only good reason to buy an album from the iTMS would be if the album was published here in that Copy Protected disc format which is incompatible with the iPod.
Sol,
You miss my point. I wasn’t comparing it to third rate competitors. I was comparing it to cds, and the downloaded material isn’t up to scratch.
Simarly, newly released material on cds is sourced from master tapes. Much of the budget cds are not. I’m trying to make a realistic comparison between cds and Apple’s downloaded material; ie apples to apples (pardon the pun).
As for my point of the record companies forcing Apple to go with a lower bit rates I stand by my sources…and they are impeccable.
Perhaps Apple should charge more for a higher bit rate; say 10 cents per track, (and have it as an alternative to the current bit rate. I’d certainly pay for it. (This was a suggestion from one Apple employee).
Also why pay for (1) near cd quality which is (2) “DRMed”? That’s two impediments for a small saving in price to the consumer, which is not exactly the best outcome.
The $AUS1.80 price I think was a rumour. About as accurate as the April 28 release of iTMS is Australia. It’s the 28th and nothing’s happened. And why would you release iTMS one day before Tiger? You’d want some distance between the two. Also, when Apple opens their iTMS’s they always leak the information to certain reputable mainstream souces one to two weeks beforehand. I’ve seen nothing from those journalists.
Personally, I heard that the release will be sometime in June. That makes sense. It’s over a month after Tiger, but close enough to link up to the Tiger’s tail (another pun).
Until recently Apple had been accused of price gouging Australia’s Mac users. That is the not the case nowadays. I’d expect $AUS1.29 per song, otherwise Apple would get bad press again.
Thanks for your views Sol, it’s great to have intelligent input on matters such as these.
bikerrules