Apple and PayPal today announced that the iTunes Music Store in the US will now accept PayPal for purchases of music downloads, audiobooks and gift certificates. Starting today, iTunes Music Store purchases can be funded through PayPal’s virtual wallet, allowing customers to pay in the way they prefer — using a credit card, bank account or stored account balance. The first 500,000 customers to open a new iTunes account in the US using PayPal as their form of payment before March 31, 2005, will receive five free songs.
“We are thrilled that PayPal users can now buy their music on the world’s number one online music store,” said Todd Pearson, general manager of PayPal’s Merchant Services in the press release. “PayPal’s virtual wallet offers iTunes customers the convenience of paying in the way they prefer.”
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 iTunes Music Store features more than one million songs from the major music companies and 600 independent record labels, over 9,000 audiobooks, gift certificates and exclusive music not found anywhere else online.
PayPal, an eBay Company, enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. PayPal’s service builds on the existing financial infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards and utilizes the world’s most advanced proprietary fraud prevention systems to create a safe, global, real-time payment solution.
Founded in 1998, PayPal has more than 56 million accounts and is available to users in 45 countries around the world. More information about the company can be found at https://www.paypal.com/ .
Does this mean that if you have a paypal account that you can buy itunes from any country that you want as long as it’s one of the 45 countries covered by paypal?
Another reason why 2004 wouldn’t be like 1985 or whenever they predicted apple was going to die!!
“Does this mean that if you have a paypal account that you can buy itunes from any country that you want as long as it’s one of the 45 countries covered by paypal?”
Only the US iTunes store accepts PayPal.
OK, only the US iTunes store accepts PayPal. Does this mean that anyone with a Paypal Account can buy tunes at the US ITMS no matter what country they are in???? That is HUGE if so.
Dont use PayPal, they are very expensive to use. Stick to CC payments.
“Dont use PayPal, they are very expensive to use. Stick to CC payments.”
Isn’t PayPal free for the purchaser? I’ve only had to pay to receive funds.
Yeah its free for payer, the payee gets a charge.
But I am sure that since paypal is getting such a good publicity over this deal they are not charging ITMS the normal fee.
I want to know too:
Does this mean I can download from ITMS from a European country?
why don’t you try it and find out.
The consumer always pays in the end, even when its supposedly free upfront. PayPal is a dodgyy outfit IMO.
People!! Read the news bit for God’s sake! It clearly says that it’s for the US iTunes music store ONLY. It’s all in the first paragraph! Geez….
OK, I checked out the paypal site and it says:
“Promotion open to registered members of http://www.PayPal.com (the “PayPal Site”) who are legal U.S. residents, 18 years of age or older and whose account on the PayPal Site are in good standing (“Eligible Participants”). Maximum of one (1) offer per Eligible Participant per iTunes account. Offer good only while supplies last. Promotion begins at 12:00 AM PT December 8, 2004 and ends at 11:59 PM PT March 31, 2005. Subject to additional restrictions, see full Terms & Conditions.”
Soooo, I would guess if the credit card you have registered at Paypal is not in the United States, you can’t do it. However, if you fund your Paypal account through deposits, it would be much more difficult for them to actually tell if the U.S. address you gave was your own.
So my take is this opens a few more loopholes to possibly be able to get around things and buy ITMS tunes from an international location but does not open the floodgates. You have to enter an address when you sign up and if it is a bogus U.S. one, that might lead to problems I don’t know about but would probably be OK. If you have a friend or relative in the U.S. though you could enter their address and any communication from Paypal could be forwarded to you. The only shady bit would be that you were telling Paypay that you were a legal U.S. resident when in fact you were not. As I said though, as long as you give the address of a friend or relative and so could answer any necessary communication from Paypal I can’t see them being to actually check on this very easily (and I doubt they would go to the trouble).
There have been ways to get around this already anyway. If you are sent a ITMS gift certificate you can use it to buy tunes from an international location. You have to give a U.S. address when you register at ITMS to use the certificate however. But since ITMS does not send out anything through regular mail this is not really an issue.
I just wish they would make the world more of a global community when it comes to things like this. It is silly in this day and age of the world wide web to have these artificial barriers to free trade and commerce be in place. It really bugs me sometime when there is an English product such as a piece of software that I just cannot buy in Japan. You go to the Japanese version suppliers and they say “sorry we don’t sell the English version. You have to buy that from the United States” Then you go to the United States site and they say “Sorry we have a partner in Japan so you will have to buy it from them”. I usually have to get around it by having it sent to my Mom and then having her send it on to me and I hate bugging her with things like this. That is why it is great to be able to download software off the internet.
hey chad, YOU read the news again. It says US iTunes.
So once again, if you are in one of the 45 countries covered by Paypal, does it mean that you can make your purchase on the US Itunes store?
Someone try it out. and let us know.
Hey Jack A, go home with your one-world ideals. Why would I want the USA to be on par with turd-world countries? My great grandaddy came on a boat to the US for a reason. To leave the turd behind.
Cheesemond..
Even George Bush can pick up the irony in THAT one.. leaving Eastern Europe to come to USA where people are free to voice their opinions with impunity…?
LMFAO
Cheesemond thanks for sharing the fact that you are of Turd world ancestry. I probably would have been able to guess from your comments but for you to come right out and admit it was very courageous of you.
Cheesemond: you clearly have no comprehension of the world as it is today… the greater part of the goods in your home are manufactured in, as you say, the turdworld, including all your Apple kit.
Get a grip on reality man.
Amazon One Click, e-Bay PayPal, Gift Cards at CompUSA, Target & Best Buy. HPods, MotoPhones with iTunes and Flash Pods come January. His Steveness us on a roll.
Why no Harry Potter on iTMS Audiobooks?
“Hey Jack A, go home with your one-world ideals. Why would I want the USA to be on par with turd-world countries? My great grandaddy came on a boat to the US for a reason. To leave the turd behind.”
Which begs the question; If he’d known his grandchild would give birth to another one, would he have bothered?
I second Jack A’s wish for world-wide e-commerce; especially since iTunes deliveries travel over world-wide-lines. Cheesemond: go buy some foot-powder.
Anyone know why my li’lsnitch keeps intercepting paypal attempts to phone home?
Jack A
Cheesemond thanks for sharing the fact that you are of Turd world ancestry. I probably would have been able to guess from your comments but for you to come right out and admit it was very courageous of you.
!!!
I almost fell out of my chair when I read this. Thanks for a good laugh! Bravo Jack A for putting him in his place so eloquently, not that he made that very difficult…
Your comments about the internet being held back by artificial laws and barriers was spot-on in my book!
Dave H
Which begs the question; If he’d known his grandchild would give birth to another one, would he have bothered?
Can’t win em all, eh Dave?
Which begs the question, was Cheesemond being serious, or just yanking our chain with his inane post and only now laughing himself silly that we all fell for it?
the paypal restricts non-us residents but still, anyone anywhere can access usa itunes or any other country’s itunes. free instructions here: http://usitunes.blogspot.com/