Apple Canada launched iTunes here today and the price is still 99 cents a tune. Mind you, that's 99 cents Canadian, which works out to 83 cents U.S. U.S. customers of iTunes, of course, are also paying 99 cents a tune but they're paying 99 cents U.S. or $1.17 Canadian per track. Any way you slice it, we'll be getting our tunes relatively cheaper than the U.S. music fans.
But while Apple U.S. was an early driver of the online music market, Apple in Canada is a late (albeit much anticipated) entrant to the market. PureTracks has been up and running and selling 99 cent songs for more than a year. Canadian consumers now have a choice but it's a choice more to do with technology. PureTracks is not built for Mac users; it's Windows-only and music comes with copyright protections built by Microsoft and that means PureTracks tunes can't be transferred to an iPod.
Apple locks its stuff down, too, in its own AAC format. And while Apple's iTunes and the iPod work for both Mac and Windows users, music purchased at the iTunes store can't be dumped onto your Rio or other non-iPod music player.
Actually, you can listen to iTMS music in non-iPod players, it just involves some extra steps. You can burn the music to a CD, then re-import it as MP3s, which can then be put in any music player.
On Puretracks, this is impossible (no choices whatsoever).
Ah, tricky Boris — of course. Smart thinking.