This morning I decided I will figure out some way to have an iTunes account without being in the US. Fortunately to my elated surprise I noticed my country was added, finally I can enjoy the splendors of downloading music from the giant.
They added 40 countries or so to the list they are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
Now even though none of these are really localized I think in time they will be and I can perhaps finally see iTunes sporting local content like jacSharp, aKing, Plush and so on. This makes me very happy because it will also give me the opportunity to enjoy some music from other countries - that is if they allow the music to move across borders.
The biggest reason why I like iTunes is because of its integration into my iPod etc. However I think places like Apricado and Amie Street will push this market a lot further this is perhaps because iTunes is far to restrictive which saddens me because I love the Apple brand and would love to support them but they just make it so hard most of the time.
I can’t wait for a true global economy, where my location is about as relevant as my hair color. So that I can freely enjoy purchasing movies, music and podcasts that appeal to my taste without the hampering of political borders.
This however has a huge impact on local companies such as Look & Listen and Musica in this industry, and to tell you the truth I am okay with that. When I think up some start-up I really don’t limit my thinking to local only unless of course it really only satisfies a very localized problem, that however is very rare. You will always find someone else somewhere else experiencing the same problems as you do.
The next service I would like to see open a bit more is PayPal, that is such a great service but so restricted. I have a suspision that South Africa not having access to it is due to our banks and the monopoly they run in the finance industry here.
Amendment:
We don’t have access to music and movies only mobile apps. I am rather disappointed now, armed with a new apple id, and credit card loaded I attempted a search for some new tunes and only got the app store screen. Oh well someday soon this will change, I hope.