E-COMMERCE
Irish iTunes delay caused by IMRO hitch
29-10-2004
by Deirdre McArdle
Ireland was passed over in the rollout of the euro-zone iTunes Music Store this month due to last minute issues with artists' representative group, the IMRO.
That's according to a report by Macworld on Friday, which claimed that a disagreement between the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and Apple upset plans for the launch of Apple's online music store in Ireland on Tuesday. No IMRO representatives were available for comment on the report when contacted by ElectricNews.Net on Friday.
The iTunes Music Store (ITMS) was unveiled in a range of European Union countries on Tuesday complete with pricing set in euros. The service is now available in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, with downloadable music going for EUR0.99 per song in each of the new markets. The iTunes music store -- which lets users legally download tracks over the internet -- is already available to users in the US, UK, France and Germany. There was surprise on Tuesday that Ireland did not feature in the euro-zone roll-out.
"We expected iTunes to launch in Ireland on Tuesday," a spokesperson at Phonographic Performance Ireland (PPI), which protects the rights of record companies in Ireland, confirmed to ElectricNews.Net. "We still expect the service to launch here soon."
Apple declined to comment on the lack of developments in Ireland, re-iterating instead the company's plans to launch iTunes in Canada in November. Following that it will announce any other new country launches as they happen, an Apple representative said.
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