Please, Take My Money

As regular readers would be aware, I’m a fan of giving Apple money. I like my iPod Nano I bought on my birthday last year and I’m pretty sure my next laptop will be a MacBook of some description. I also took the opportunity to avail myself of some of the DRM-free tracks that went up recently on the iTunes Store.

Still, try as I might, it’s not always easy to give Apple money. Especially when you’re in a different country to them. As most people are aware Apple segments their online stores by country. If you don’t have a credit card issued from a bank in the respective country it’s almost impossible to purchase from the store. This is the case even if your credit card will otherwise work in that country (as mine does). Why does Apple do this? I’m sure they’d blame the rightsholders who license content for the store and maybe they’d be right. I can’t help but think it’s a nice way for Apple to extract maximum value from different markets.

Now I’m a believer in both the power of globalisation and the power of the Internet and I’d be damned if some artificial trade barrier was going to stop my monetary transaction. Also, and more importantly, music is cheaper at the US iTunes Store. This is the case even when you take into account the Australian dollar-US dollar exchange rate. After my last foray into downloading from iTunes I was also eager to give it another whirl and see for myself if those download problems weren’t first day jetters after all.

First step was to try to create an account at the store. I knew it probably wasn’t going to work but I felt it was worth a try. But nope, no sooner had I entered my credit card details than Apple informed me no can do. Not put off I moved onto Plan B.

I was aware that not so long ago Apple had started taking PayPal payments. Well, I had a PayPal account, I thought. It was connected to the Australian subsidiary but they weren’t to know that. Turns out they were to know that. I didn’t progress any further than I had with my direct credit card attempt.

Now it was time to tap into the vast data store that is the Internet. With Google at my side I tried looking for sites talking about purchasing from the iTunes Store in the US. If there are any doubts in your mind as to how US-centric the web is try that search on for size. I had more luck finding information on purchasing from the Japanese iTunes Store. You could almost see Fate chuckling at me.

It was MetaFilter which came to the rescue with their excellent and answer subsite. A bright spark there explained iTunes Gift Cards could not only be redeemed by those outside the country but could be used to set up an account without an associated credit card. My prayers had been answered! Or almost answered. There was one small snag. It turns out you can’t buy iTunes Gift Cards for the US store outside of the US. Gift cards in other regions are tied to their version of iTunes. I’d known it was too good to be true. And then I remembered eBay.

Blessed, blessed eBay: where you can find almost anything for sale. And there they were! Two US$15 iTunes Cards for about US$34. Sure there was a markup but it wasn’t much and the guy was willing to email me the codes. Instant gratification! I quickly paid my knight in shining armour, set up Outlook to check for new messages every minute and waited. It didn’t take long. Soon the codes were in my inbox and almost as quickly punched into the iTunes Store. Oh, sure there were a few extra steps. I did have to create an identity for myself in the US. I do hope Apple doesn’t actually try to contact the phone number I provided. Unless they want to order a Domino’s pizza, that is.

So I was in. And what a rush! There was something almost illicit about it. My hands trembled as I looked over all that I could purchase. For some reason it hadn’t occurred to me that I would now be able to purchase not only cheap music but movies and television shows. I could download episodes of the Daily Show! The excitement in the room was palpable.

Still, as tempting as it might have been to order a TV show or a movie (Oh my God! I just remembered they have old Law and Order episodes!) I told myself to remember why I was there. I was there to purchase music. This was for science. I couldn’t let myself be distracted by the bright lights and vivid colours of Pixar’s movies. Clicking on the iTunes Plus link I delved further into the shop.

I already knew what album I wanted. It was the Queen Greatest Hits CD I’d seen on the Australian store for $20. $20?! Ha! Who did they think I was? Joe Average Knucklehead? I wasn’t going to pay $20 for something that came to me down an Internet tube! At least not when it was possible, at least in theory, to get the very same content for a lower price.

Unfortunately Fate hadn’t finished laughing yet. See it turns out in Australia Queen’s music is licensed by EMI. But in the United States its handled by Hollywood Records (who distributed through Universal). Since EMI is the only major label to agree to selling its music DRM-free this meant that while I could buy Queen in the iTunes Plus format in Australia (so long as I didn’t mind being milked) I couldn’t from the US store. Aren’t intellectual property laws wonderful!

But not being able to download the album I wanted was only a minor inconvenience. There were still plenty of other fish in the sea. I like AIR and noticed they had released a new album. After briefly checking out some reviews to ensure it wasn’t another 10,000 Hz Legend I clicked to go to the checkout and start downloading.

Now the last time I downloaded something from iTunes it was not a pleasant experience. Komala assured me this wasn’t typical of regular usage and I’m pleased to confirm she is correct. The downloading began straightaway and went off without a hitch. In about five minutes or so I’d sucked down the whole thing and it was only sheer restraint that prevented me from grabbing something else.

All in all, this time around the whole thing was very positive (once I’d set up the account that is). It was more contrived than it ought to have been for 2007 but such is the current state of intellectual property. With any luck the new Amazon store that’s set to launch later this year will make this whole process a lot easier. In which case I’ll give up fighting to give Apple my money. I don’t like Steve Jobs that much.