In the U.S., Apple Computer is taking the world of online music by storm. But here in Canada, Apple's music store has not yet been switched on (although my friend and former colleague Robert Thompson of the National Post reported last week that Apple was ready to light it up any day now).
In Canada, the the 99-cents-a-song business has belonged largely to PureTracks, the store set up and operated by Moontaxi Media of Toronto. They're a nice bunch of folks and they've sold over a million songs in their first year, which is nothing to sneeze at when it's just us 30 million Canadians you're selling to. (Canadians are also, I might add, the world's biggest per capita users of those semi-legal P2P file-sharing services so that makes it a little tough for the legit crowd). I've been over to their offices, talked to at least one of the principals, and checked out the service. It's a Windows-only operation but, just like Apple's iTunes, it's a very clean service.
But I digress …
After operating exclusively in the Canadian market for than a year now, PureTracks announced this week that it's ready to take on Apple, Real, and others on their turf in the U.S. Puretracks is tying itself to Windows Media Player 10 and is offering songs for 99 cents U.S. and downloadable albums for $9.99 U.S.
Good luck, Puretracks!