The wait is over. Apple today launched its iTunes Music Store in Canada, giving music fans in Canada the same innovative features and breakthrough price of $.99 CDN per song that have made iTunes the number one online music service in the world. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and groundbreaking personal use rights, the iTunes Music Store is the best way for PC and Mac users to legally discover, purchase and download music online.
“The demand across Canada for the iTunes Music Store has been overwhelming,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Applications in the press release. “We are excited to be able to offer music fans in Canada their own customized iTunes Music Store featuring many top Canadian artist exclusives.”
The iTunes Music Store in Canada features over 700,000 songs and dozens of exclusive tracks from a wide variety of leading worldwide artists, including songs from Alanis Morissette, The Tragically Hip, Sarah McLachlan, Auf Der Maur, Delerium, Black Eyed Peas, Chingy, Toby Keith, Diana Krall and 3 Doors Down. “Push” from Sarah McLachlan and “The Love Song” from K-Os are also featured as exclusive videos.
With the same groundbreaking personal use rights as in the US and Europe, the iTunes Music Store in Canada gives users the ability to play songs on up to five personal computers, burn a single song onto CDs an unlimited number of times, burn the same playlist up to seven times and listen to their music on an unlimited number of iPods. The iTunes Music Store in Canada offers PC and Mac users the same innovative features including:
– “iMix,” an innovative way for users to publish playlists of their favorite songs on the iTunes Music Store for other users to preview, rate and purchase. iMix creates a virtual iTunes community, enabling users to discover new music recommended by fellow music fans, rate iMixes published by other iTunes users and share iMix previews with friends
– “Party Shuffle,” a dynamic playlist that automatically shuffles songs from a user’s music library, displays just-played and upcoming songs, and allows users to easily add, delete and rearrange upcoming songs on the fly. Party Shuffle is the ultimate DJ at any gathering and a great way for users to get reacquainted with their personal music library
– gift certificates from iTunes, allowing users to buy gift certificates to send via post or electronically; and now customers can buy and print color gift certificates right from their computer for the perfect last minute gift
– more than 9,000 audiobooks which can be purchased with one click and listened to on any PC or Mac computer as well as on iPods. iTunes is the only digital music jukebox that allows users to seamlessly purchase audiobooks in the same easy way that they purchase music
– “Artist Alerts,” an email alert notifying users when music from one of their favorite artists has been added to iTunes
– the ability to create and print CD jewel case inserts for albums or compilation discs, combining album art and track lists using professionally designed templates. For compilation CDs, iTunes will automatically generate a mosaic of album covers based on the chosen songs
– automatic WMA to AAC conversion, enabling Windows users to automatically create iTunes versions of their songs encoded in unprotected WMA. Converting an entire music library into iTunes and syncing it onto iPod is now a snap.
iTunes for Mac and Windows includes the Canadian iTunes Music Store and is available as a free download immediately from www.itunes.com. The iTunes Music Store in Canada works with the Canadian dollar, and purchase and download of songs requires a valid credit card with a billing address in Canada. Further information about iTunes or iPod can be found at www.apple.com/itunes/.
ALRIGHT!!!!
FIRST POST!!!
CAN AMERICANS BUY THROUGH THE CANADIAN STORE?
99 CENTS CANADIAN IS ABOUT 88 CENTS US.
…
Good, now I can redeem those songs through iTMS Canada that my sister in toronto dowloaded through my US account
Of course they can, Eric.
All you need is a valid credit card with a billing address in Canada
Okay visiting the Canadian Store brought home that each store has a different set of music videos. I knew the music was different, I had just never given that much thought to videos. But now that I have, I’m going have to make it a point to visit the video sections of other stores off and on. Congrats! Canada.
Welcome to the fray….
And the global march continues. Australia next?
Just downloaded the new Sarah Mclachlan album. Not too bad for 9.99!
I think it’s great that we Canadians finally get a break for once and are allowed to pay .99 cents CDN per song!
G5Man
How about iTMS Mexico to wrap up North America? No?
Not only do we win, we win.
Canadians have iTMS and they have the cheapest digital download music available to Mac users in the world.
Sure it violates NAFTA but who cares.
I checked for one last time before hitting the sack at 11:24pm Eastern expecting to still see iTMS Canada nowhere in sight. I was pleasantly surprised and by 2AM I had spent about $22. Was a little disappointed by some of the missing tracks/artists: Max Webster, Kim Mitchell, Bryan Adams new single “open road”, Trooper and Triumph, to name a few. Although I was happy to find some Journey. Brings back great memories…
I’ll keep using Acquisition for tracks I can’t find in iTMS, but I never thought buying music could be so fun and easy…
Japan will be next, followed by Aus & N.Z.
Then Brazil.
Good deal for the cousins up north. Now let’s see what the ITMS Japan is going to be like come March or so.
Warning to the succeptible: iTMS grows on you. You learn new stuff, even about artists you thought you knew (see biographies). You find new tracks and artists through the various links. You spend money to buy songs, which you enjoy listening to, so you go back for more. You and your friends dance to your great songs. You go back to iTMS for more. You discover hole new genres. You absolutely must have an iPod so that you can take your music with you. You need some additional songs for the road……
Congrats Canadians Enjoy!!!!
Dave H: Yes I hope so. iTMS for Aussies.
Man…I’ve just spent $40 at iTMS Canuck. It’s way cooler than I thought it would be…well, until I see my Visa bill anyway.
Andy C,
Give it a couple of weeks; I think they only have 3/4 of a million tracks uploaded to the Canadian servers so far. By the new year, you’ll be able to buy all the Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot and Bachman Turner Overdrive that Canadian law requires its’ citizens to possess
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Welcome to the club, Canadians. Make sure you check out the free tracks available from the front page – all it costs you is download bandwidth!
But the store doens’t have “Blame Canada” from the Southpark movie: Bigger, Longer, Uncut.
Agree DavidO, someone coined the phrase before: “..iTMS is the 99 cent bankruptcy store”.
Is Remy Shand available?
Remy Shand is indeed available.
Slightly off topic, but if you shop at the Apple Store in London, they give you scratchcards that have a hidden amount of iTMS downloads. Is this common in the US, or just something new for us?
“Japan will be next, followed by Aus & N.Z.
Then Brazil.” – NoPCZone
Is this a guess or you know something we don’t? Instead of Brrazil, I am guessing Korea. Korea has one of the largest broadband users and they have cash and population to make it a priority. Maybe China too. it may be risky, but even if they have a small percentage of the population, it’d still be a large number.
Too all of you applying for Canadian credit cards / billing addresses: The songs are not really 99�. You get to add the 7% GST (Goods and Services Tax, commonly known as the Gouge and Screw Tax), so you will actually be paying CDN$1.06 per song, roughly US90�. Still not a bad price! …And we appreciate you support!
Mike
iTMS in Canada? It’s not offered in all parts of the US yet. 🙁
iTMS in Canada? It’s not offered in all parts of the US yet. 🙁