iTunes European store

[francis]

You probably saw this in the press, but iTunes music store launched in the UK (and some other European countries) on Monday. To get to the UK store, you have to go to via the American one - there's a small panel with four flag icons on it (see screenshot below). From there you get a hige screen with the same four flags but much larger, with "welcome" underneath each one. From there you click the country of your choice to get to your content. Annoyingly, the UK one doesn't have as much good content on it (no celebrity playlists for example, but then if there was it'd probably be "darren from blazin' squad's top 10 for playing loud in your 1.1 Fiesta with the window down whilst waiting at red traffic lights in a built up area with your pregnant ("we're gonna call it Beyonce or Tupac") 13 year old girlfriend next to you", so maybe that's good). There definately isn't as much good stuff and the layout isn't as nice , but I can still get that brand spanking new Pixies track, so that's cool. It's strange that you're made to go through two clicks to get to your localised content - prior to Monday, as soon as you tried to access the Music Store a message popped up saying that as you lived outside the US, you probably wouldn't be able to buy anything. They can sniff the computer's location - I wonder why they don't now?

http://www.websitearchitecture.co.uk/storr/forumimgs/itunes-uk.gif

[Phil]

apparantly they couldn't agree a deal with the indie labels yet, which is a blow.
no Franz Ferdinand for you then!

also no Morrissey, Goldfrapp, Oribital, but they do have the Darkness ;)

[Tom]

Monday's Metro reports that British users of iTunes are being charged 46% more than US users [79p/track in the UK, 65p in France and 54p in US]. They do this with electronic products and cameras - so why not?

[francis]

Mmm, it's all exchange rates, I guess. Although it still amuses and angers many Britons when Americans start whinging about their petrol prices going over the $2 mark recently. Apple were probably wise not to go for the straight 99c -> 99p pricing; that would have probably annoyed people. 79p isn't so bad, although I haven't dipped my toe in an bought anything yet.

[Tom]

I don't think it is exchange rates. The £ is heavily influenced by the $ and the differential in retail prices is endemic. Sony know they can sell a $500 camera for nearly £500 - so they refuse to let US web retailers supply the UK market.

Companies say the reason for the differential is that land values are higher in the UK and we have fewer latinos to sweat, so retailing costs are higher. This is true but a more significant factor is that because it is so much harder to get permission for a new retail outlet in the UK there is far less competition. This should not apply to web products - but it does!