Apple has quietly added Sony BMG content for sale via the Australian iTunes Music Store. Sony BMG artists such as Kate DeAraugo, Kelly Clarkson, and Rogue Traders, to name a few, now have albums and songs available for sale on Apple’s iTunes Music Store.
Songs and albums are selling for the usual AUS$1.69 and $16.99. Sony BMG music videos cost $3.39.
We’ll update this story with official word from Apple and/or Sony BMG or more information as soon as it’s available.
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Analyst: Sony BMG’s boycott of Apple’s iTunes Music Store Australia won’t last long – October 24, 2005
Apple launches iTunes Music Store Australia – October 24, 2005
Confirmed?
How about for Japan?
MW: face
Be sure to update us as it deelopes…
Here’s the update: As of 1.18 am Sydney time I went to the iTunes Australia site and low and behold music from Sony acts are listed.
Now if Apple would increase the bit rate for downloads I’d start using the service.
bikersrule,
you said it.
I’ll only buy when we get a bit rate as good, or better, than Apple Lossless.
All the music on my computer, and consequently on my iPod, is in this format.
Hopefully Sony got rid of that @$$hole at BMG who circulated that rootkit.
‘Bout time they came to their senses.
We might be able to start forgiving Sony.
They are still in probation IMO.
Article headline should read…Apple ads more spyware.
Sony, can you say “caved”? I knew you could!
Hey? What’s up MDN? Now you’re reporting THE news?
Rock on MDN!!
Took Sony long enough. You would have thought that they had learned their lesson by now.
And yet STILL no iTunes for New Zealand. Come on Apple, you sell iPods here, how ’bout letting us buy some music to put on them!
@ Andrew
Agreed!
@Andrew
This Kiwi can!!
You just had to get ‘up’ early enough to get an account!
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MW: east, as in East of Australia
If you think Apple’s iTunes Mini Store is spyware, you must be spoiled. That’s NOT what Windows users are talking about when floods of REAL spyware steal their private information.
It’s a good thing OS X’s superior design prevented Sony from using malware on Macs. They TRIED–the OS X files are on the discs as evidence–but only Windows left the door open to such a thorough attack.
I wasn’t going to say anything because I think SONY is a shite whole of a company but my MDN is “justice”…
So not only is SONY in the grind (they sold the rootkit here in OZ, too and have denied it – so what’s new) but thye are having to eat crow and they actually put up Kate DeAraugo as an artist – not a wanna be – but her Album is appropriately titled. “Tucker Lady Arms Well Hidden by Camera Angles” or something like that.
So SONY eating crow is fair “justice”!!!! But not enough yet!
mmmm… Natalie Basingthwaite from Rogue Traders, yummy…
Sony were making fools of themselves by holding out when the result was inevitable.
They were simply playing politics and they achieved nothing from it.
I’m sure that the artists signed up to Sony BMG weren’t at all impressed to be unnecessarily deprived of that income, while Sony had a tantrum.
@Kiwi
I would get an account as I was watching when the Aussie site went online but since ‘broadband’ in this country is still such a rip off thanks to Telecom I am waiting and buying my CDs from Sounds in the mean time.
“Now if Apple would increase the bit rate for downloads I’d start using the service.”
I have been happy with the service since it opened and have not cared too much about the bit rate. Most of my listening of this music has been through earbuds from the iPod, so the higher bit rate hasn’t been missed. But now that more and more products are being developed to pull iTunes into high end audio equipment and speakers, we need an option to buy high bitrate files. Of course they will cost more than 99¢ (bandwidth costs), but many audiophiles will be happy to pay for the higher quality.
Dear Spark,
When I was talking about the bit rate it was in the context of ipod owners etc who link their player or stream their songs to a sound system. My speakers are over twenty years old and the receiver goes back to the late ’80s.
I am by no means an audiophile and besides the portability of my ipod, I like having all the music at my fingertips rather than having to hunt through our bourgeoning cd accumulation or, worse still, having to search through our 1,000+ vinyl collection.
An audiophile would be expecting around 320kps (cd quality). I’m not asking for that rather, 224kps would be quite acceptable. The rate Apple applies at the moment sounds acceptable for Apple’s sub-standard bud earphones (use Panasonic, Koss or shudder, Sony) but once you run it through full size speakers the limitations in sound quality really shows.
If Apple is looking at moving sound etc. into the living room then they have to address this issue. And yes, I would pay more for better quality music but it would still have to be below the price of a commercial music cd.
At the moment I either buy cds or go down the p2p path (and the music I download is superior in sound quality to Apple’s offering).
I hope this clarifies the situation and I hope to hell someone at Apple reads this and takes it on board…but I doubt it.
This comment is interesting
Sony BMG Australia and New Zealand chairman Denis Handlin welcomed the agreement, which makes the company’s catalogue available immediately.
Sony NZ Chairman huh? Still no direct music store for NZ though… 🙁